You know here it Bent. We love the children. I just really hope none we're listening to that because I brought it. You you could have a goddamn monthly stick on the shower. You make point first, Apple went in, bought all the flies, bought a fly box to put him in, went out to the river. Immediately lost the fly box and it was one of the cool ones with like it was like the aluminum and glass with like the windows and ship. Just find someone to get out on the mistletoe. Oh my, lady, make it happen.
Good morning to januarate anglers, and welcome to Bent the Fishing Podcast that Jess wants to say. She falls in a well as go cross, she gets kicked by the mule and go back to normal. I don't know. I'm Joe Surmelli and I'm hating Samac and I have no idea what that was. Okay, you have to at least know what it's from. I saw the title of it, Like I know it's from that, But like I've adding to the pantheon of movies that Hayden has not seen.
That is, uh, you've never seen The Christmas Vacation. To have seen the Oh my God, I've never seen any of like, I've never I know, there's like family vacation and I've never I've never seen him. All right, all right, you might hear something about that anyway, What that was I opted out of Clark gris On saying folks, folks, marry Christmas at the last second while putting this together. And I opted into that because I felt like it, because it's a better line, that's all. Is it the
anals or the animals? I think it's either way. It's like tomato tomato. I'm sure. I'm sure listeners are gonna let me know. Um, I mean, like you know, and that's even if they're listening today anyway, because it's Christmas Eve. So I guess it kind of gives us a license to sort of say whatever we want without a bunch of constants. Yeah, I think we can be a little
weirder than normal. Um. And you know what, since Ben started, I swear to God, every major holiday has fallen on a Friday, like without fail, Like join us next week for the Yeah, join us next week for the New Year's Eve show, like give me a break, you know. Uh, But you know, despite that, we always have a good time with holidays. I mean, if nothing else, it makes coming up with a theme incredibly easy. So that's always
kind of nice. It is kind of nice. Like the obvious thing for me to do right now is to ask you, uh, these hotday scripts do right themselves? What what would be leaving on your tree this year? Joe I asked for a new set of drift boat oars, which Santa set. He said, that's no problem, but the LVC has working at cataract Ores, like I guess we'll say embedded at cataract Ores. They're a little backed up, So strong chance my oars won't end up under the
tree tomorrow morning. Like more like Santa might have to swing by with other just before springs shadd season kicks in. But how about you, what are you getting this year? Um? I asked Santa Claus for a used truck topper. Um, well, you know, I'm not gonna make like Santa source materials and like the Times of COVID because like that's not cool. It's like it's it's a little greedy. Um. And I'll tell you what, Santa, I'm formerly offering to go have these with you if you could find a used one
in like the two grand range. Um, I'll tell you what one better. I'll go look on craigslist and save the always the trouble and uh yeah, very low, very low lift gift this year. That is so nice, man, what a guy helping sand out like that? You know, thinking about it, I I bet out there somewhere is a Jerry the canoe salesman for truck toppers. I'll bet you he exists. Yeah, probably, but instead of like a cup of tea, you know, like pound natty ice and a shot of yeager and uh and hang out with
them around like the burn barrel. You know, that could be more interesting than the real Jerry. But dude, at least doing that it would add an element of excitement to receiving you know that gift. Um, I always felt kind of sad, you know, like as you get older, it's it's a little bit said. Yes, it's a little said, because you know what you're getting, right, Like, you get what you need, you get less junk, and you get
what you need. But the magic of sort of losing sleep over whether or not something you ask for will or will not be under the tree is gone. Um, Like, oh man, so many specific presents come to mind for me. But a big one was the micro machines race in a case. The micro machine man here with the perfect crue. Micro man want to come in first place? Got the electric micro machines racing a case. Open the case to start the race, clucking into play. It set up that way.
He great, your micro machines road great and stick the track of both the world race past the barking like Superstar Jerry at the point you're talking to carry away the fun. Check out the carazing example, screw cars on the micro machines around micro Machines racing the case and bower Row competition race sts. He sold separately with two road race and vehicles, power packs and controllers from Galube. And I got it, but it kind of sucked, like
the cars didn't really stay on the track. It was not that easy to pack back up into the case. But I was still thrilled to have it, you know, it was like it was a big one. Yeah. See, Like I don't remember specific toys like that. It was more whatever like I was obsessed with at the time, like fishing or you know, hunting or where have you. Um, But I was like when I was a kid, kid I was really into Pokemon cards. Like um you were.
You may have been as enthralled by the micro machine commercials, is I was about these kinds of commercials to be the old man Pokemon master draggy. I think I am the Bookemon game. You'll do awesome activities, wipes and meet new friends. A speak in your journey could become a Pokemon methods right there. See wow, Mancie, I had no idea, like, have you and Phil bonded over this? Because I don't think he could ever fire you. Isn't that some kind of Pokemon warrior code? I I this is all news
to me. I think, other than working in Meteor, this might be the only thing that Phil and I have ever had in common. Um, although you know, and my my Pokemon days are a little bit behind me. But I remember being a kid and they were like ten packs of Pokemon cards in my stocking one year, and I went just like ape shit because it was never like that. I wasn't from Like, it wasn't like when I wanted something as a kid, I just got it in spades, you know, if I if I begged enough
for it, like he got one pack of Pokemon cards. Yeah, yeah, but you know, and every now and again it was a special thing. Um, but he on Pokemon cards. Here's something that's gonna dry Phil just in nuts when I when Phil, this is for you man. When I was in first grade, so I traded a holographic first edition Chancey for two just regular as Pika Choose because the show had led me to believe that Pikachu was the best thing that there could possibly be. So you know
what that means. And I'm sure you're greating your teeth right now. Um, he's gonna call you into his office like with a little like buzz, like, Hayden can kind of my office? Please? Thanks? He was like, what the um? But thinking back on like a president, that really blew my mind was I got a Crossman pellet gun. There was a full on campaign involved. Did I snuck bb
gun onto my list every year? And I never actually got one from Santa But my my grandfather used to snap up everyone he saw at flea market, so I had a whole arsenal at his place. Anyway, we certainly hope you find what you want under the tree tomorrow. Perhaps there will even be a few goodies from our sponsors. Thirteen fishing. Um, if you were really good, like really really good, maybe you'll even find the Black Betty Freefall Carbon tenth Anniversary Trick Shop Edition ice reel. Have you
seen that one? I know you have, Dude, I ache for one of those, Man, I ache for one of those. It's like this, like brilliant gold. It shines like a thousand sons. It's like the Excalibur of the ice fishing world. That exactly. It kicks so much, ass man. Yeah, it's yeah, it's very bold. It's either excalibur like the real O d B would use. Um, but despite it being a bold statement piece, it's also highly functional. I probably should have asked Santa for one. You know, it's never too late,
man Um. You might get a chance in a very special edition of our Upid Fire Q and a segment covering water. I'm going in. I can hold it all right. So now, Joe, a couple of weeks ago, I set up kind of a cool interview about the issues on the Madison River and we both thought it went like we both thought it went really well. Death I mean kind of cool. I'm just kidding. It was great. It was great. Okay, Well for this installment of covering water. I've kind of set up something a little extra special,
and I'm oh, I'm really excited. Today we're joined by a very remote guest all the way from the North Pole. That's right, boys and girls, we're here with the one and only Santa Claus. What's you're okay? Man? I'm fine. Merry Christmas? Oh right? Um? Like I said, we're here with Santa and Joe. You said a certain someone might want to say hi. Yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna ask can my three year old say hi? Real quick? Is that? Okay? That perfect? His name is? I know
what his name is? Right? Okay? Great? Hey, but come me here for one second. If somebody I want you to meet. Look who it is, Jamie? Who's that? Santa rights so sleepy, he's real tired for making all the toys. But kids know Santa's got a buzz on erge, what a buzz? Actually? But what can you go downstairs? Why don't you go downstairs for a little while? Okay, thanks buddy? Come on, man, really, you guys just want to take it from the top real quick. Yeah. I don't know
if you guys noticed, but it's Christmas Eve. Let's just do the interview. Okay, so Hayden brought you in because it turns out you're you're quite the avid angler. Now. I know you're normally the one who asks this, but Santa, what do you want for Christmas? Man? Well, Nick wants is a trip to St. Bart's and some time off. As a matter of fact, as soon as I get done dropping off all this ship tonight, old Sandy Claus is going to take a well deserved trip for some
billfits just me and Brandy. I mean, this is Claus. You're gonna chase some bone fish while you're down there, you know, I I hear it right there. I tried the whole fly fishing for bone fish thing. That one of those snot nosed twenty year old Instagram influencers womby guys completely turned me off to that ship. Yeah well yeah, that can that could be tough, um, but I guess it's a good reminder for our listeners. Always make sure you're booking it a really reputable guy, you know what
I mean? You know, their kids had the audacity to tell me that if I had a Helios three like him, maybe I'd be able to get out ten more feet of line and actually make a shot. Mother. The only reason you have a human three is because I brought it to you. You couldn't afford a gut damn monthly stick on the shower you make pulling tourists around the apicle. Yeah, I can see how that that might be. Um. And you know what else, all of you stop asking for
fancy ass setups for Christmas? Do you know how many cease of assist orders I get from Saint Croix? Do you know how many elves I've lost a graphite dustin resent fumes? Do you know how many times I had to take comfinitely time slay ride to avoid osha a lot? Okay, stop it, Um, Maybe maybe we should just move on here. Okay, let's just let's just all take a breath while I explain exactly how covering water works. So this is our
rapid fire Q and a segment of ben. Okay, And what Hayden and I are gonna do is gonna put two minutes on the clock and we are just gonna pepper you with questions. And the whole idea here is that you don't really have any time to answer. You can't think too hard. You just have to kind of answer as quickly as you can. And what we'll do at the end of this we promise um is to give you one minute to expand or explain more about
whatever you think was the most damning answer. And and based on how this has gone so far, I I would I would expect that there's going to be some damning answers. So does that all sound good? Sannah? I'm okay, perfectly. We put two minutes on the clock here, Heyden, you're gonna ask first, right, all right, let's see how this goes and begin milk or cookies? What species of fish is on your bucket list? How is that? How's that possible? Look? I live in a magic group where all things are possible,
you idiot. But the permit is in all your years of doing this, which lure has ended up in stockings more than any other? I mean, it was a dirty devil spoon for almost eighty years until some beside make a crank bait that looks like a Budweiser kid. All right, uh, favorite reindeer. I don't know yet. What what do you mean you don't know yet? CWD man. We got a new crew this year. They all got in c W. D and died. No, it turns out was just blitz
and I had to test them all though. Whatever freezer spul Holy shit, everyone is so consumed with clean energy, yet you still rely heavily on cole Can you tell us why you're kidding? Right? Really, that's your ethics question, not the hundreds of years of forced the elephant labor. Look, I got an endless supply of call up there. Okay, you switch and putting hyper allergenic crystals or some ship in the stockings of the kids that were asking Paul, you're the cost of goods grows up? All right? Uh,
where's the one place you've always wanted to visit? Are you fighting with me? I am literally going everywhere tonight. What what your favorite fish eat? That's easy. I'm also a big fan of Mah Dolphin like Flipper Dolphin. Yes, Santa hates dolphins. Everybody, My man, who's the naughtiest angler on your list this year? Ginger kids? You pay all around with Ross robertson. What's your favorite lure of all time? Cricket? Oh my god, we're running out of time here, best
gift you've ever got? Well, there's one of your Jack Frost and the heat and miser got together and got me this huge cake. Right they lift in the middle of the workshop. Now I'm about to cut into it and boom, Candy pops out. And I'm not talking about Jolly Ranchers. I'm talking about Candy, one of the North Pole dancers. Off alright, everyone, Uh, Santa Claus, Joe, you want to wrap this up? And yeah, Santa, I, I I know you're busy and I think you have to get going.
But fair is fair. You are supposed to have one minute to expand on on any one of your answers. Maybe you want to tell us a little bit more. Well, let me just tell you a little bit more about Candy. You know here it bent. We love the children. I just really hope none we're listening to that, because you'll, dude, you'll have three hundred kids at the mall next Christmas asking Santa for Budweiser, crank baits and Michigan crickets. You know what I mean. We might have We might have
done a disservice to the youth there. Yeah, in case. Uh. You know, some listeners are extraordinarily ethical folks and have never surrounded themselves with this type of company. A Michigan cricket is a gigantic like weighted treble hook. It's like an egg sink refused onto a treble hook, and it's used to uh to snag fish. Now you can do that like legally for like paddlefish, but most us of the time you hear it talked about. It's in the
Great Lake salmon scene. Yeah, that's right, no offense Michigan. But I did once I did want to see a Pennsylvania conservation officer pull about fifteen of those out of his glove box and he'd collected them along Elk and Walnut Creek in just a couple of days, you know what I mean. Like, I was like, I can't believe it's that many. Pretty crazy, um, But you know what, Speaking of snagging, let's see who snagged the better fishing related story in this week's fish News. Fish News that
escalated quickly. Alright, so real quick question for you, have you ever gotten allure or some flies for Christmas? Right? And then you stare at them all winter because you know it's winter so you can't run out to use the new hula popper. And then the first time you ever get them out of the water, you lose them, Well, let me tell you a story. Man. I know you love my long winded stories. Uh. I do something more uh.
Kind of analogous to that is the Edison Show. You know you can go there and you get a whole bunch of flies for like show. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Man. Well I just got sick of being burned on not having super small flies. So I went there one time with like two bucks in my pocket. I was like, look, I'm gonna get all the midges. I'm gonna get all like the little tiny baits. I'm gonna get all that ship just taking care of right now. Went in, but
all the flies. Bought a fly box to put him in, went out to the river, immediately lost the fly box. Oh my god, you lost the entire bod, entire thing. It was one of the cool ones with like it was like the aluminum and glass with like the windows and ship the little flip the switch English switch stream
style stuff jacket ye switchblade and stream same thing. I don't have a specific lore or fly story, but it happened to me um in another in another capacity with a remote control boat, like I got one of those for Christmas. Neither of these are actually related to the question. No, I started with the question They're not really it at all. But I was told by my dad not to touch it until spring, and he would take me out and show me how to use it. Did I listen? No?
And I sunk it. No. It was a really sweet like chriscraft sport fisher and it went around you hit an iceberg. No, it literally, I ship you not. It just went around in one circle. The bow dipped and it literally just drove itself underwater. And then I watched it underwater, still driving, spiraled down. It was a bad
deal anyway. Here's why I started. What is why I brought up lost lures because if you happen to need a break from your family over the holidays, just quick note that the final episode of the Canadian Angle with j Siemens drops today on meat Eater's YouTube channel. And
here's what he does. He don's full Scooba gear, He goes diving on Lake of the Woods for lost lures, refurbishes them, and then uses your misfortune to score himself an epic muskie to close it, like you you gotta see it right, And I thought the whole premise was extremely clever the way he did that. Yeah, man, that that's a that's badass, man. I grew up fishing lake wall in paw Pack a bunch. And let's say it's
a hydroelectric dam. Is like, you know the reason for this lake being here, so the water level changes like constantly. And where I lived, there was this shoal that went straight out along this weed bed, and every summer around, like you know, August is when they would drop the lake the lowest you could go out on that shoal. In addition to picking up like pretty fresh props, I mean some of them were dinged up. Occasionally you can
find like a nice clean prop. You would find all sorts of lures and cool crank baits and ship just going all the way. People that's their hobby, man, Like that's just what they barely fish to just pick up lures. But anyway, I thought that was really neat. You should watch that. Let's get on with the news here. We're gonna try and keep it light and perhaps Festivus. I don't know I've gone Festivus, but I don't know where
you've gone. Because this is a competition and we don't know which story the other dude grabbed and at the end, jolly old sat Philip of the audious Engineericus Mountains will declare a winner and it is your lead this week, my man, So have at it. Oh right, man. So you know it's not super festive. It's not festive. It's not festivus, is it? No? No, unless you can consider, like you know, the destruction of one of the most important fisheries in the world a festive occasion. That what
fishery are we talking about? All right? So, so recently it was recommended that there be a four fifth reduction on the cod catch in one of the two primary New England cod fisheries. Can you can blame the Italians seven fishes back a lot, man, it's pretty much all the Italian's fault. Yeah, man, so uh, darn Italians. I'm very Italian. Please don't at me. On on December tenth, the New England Fishery Management Council decided on a quota
of five hundred and forty thousand pounds um. And this is of you know, Atlantic cod, down from a previous quota of two point four million pounds. So again, yeah, yeah, four fifth reduction. The reduction would be for the George's Bank, Um the other primary Atlantic cod fishery that way, the Gulf of Maine will see the quota, Uh, stay you know stable from last year. I believe it's five hundred and ninety thousand pounds. Now. Look, reductions like this in
the economic short term suck. But this kind of management really is essential for long term conservation goals. Uh. And to contextualize that, we can look back on a little history of New England's cod fishery to understand why. And Joe, I'm gonna pass this to you in a second. It's quite a history. Like yeah, it's yeah, so everybody likes cod. You know, it's a white, firm, flaky fish. It's good
to eat, it's not fishing. Everybody likes it, man, the same reason everybody likes Yeah, the same reason everybody likes you know. But which is like always been kind of like a funny thing to me. It's like upper echelon of edible fishes. They're defining like characteristic people be like, it's not fishy at all. Man, you're right. But see, I can't I can't rip on that too much because we've said, I've said a bunch of times on the show. I think you have to like you and I are
not fans of overly fishy fish. No man, no man. There's a reason that when I get like sushi and it's like a sushi like chef's assortment or like you know, dinner where it's like, you know, ten pieces or whatever, I'm always like, hey, can you substitute the mackerel for like, yeah, I need to say anything else, please assort the mackerel off of the sushi platter than yah. Yeah. Um so. But this was a resource that was hugely important. I mean,
it's been important in the context of history. In fact, the dude who wrote the book Salt has that book cod. I mean, like, there's a lot of meat on that bone. Um. But it was. It was a hugely valuable resource for not only in the indigenous folks of America, but for early settlers as well. Now fast forward to the twenty century and super efficient commercial processing, you know, on boats, coupled with more efficient fishing techniques, the fishery became over fished.
And I mean, you know a lot more about that particular history than I do. Yeah, I mean I've I've done some cod fishing out of Montauk back in the day. Um, and Barber just caught a surprise cod. Well, I was gonna say, so, yeah, Eric, what would you say? His last name was Garber, Curber, leave it in, leave it in Curber. I'm gonna go, is this erring after we go fishing with him? I don't know, Maybe so bad? It's okay? Uh yeah, man, Eric Cerber, my boy Eric, he recently it was it was a very big cod
for Jersey and it was very close in shore. Because he was talking, he wasn't like way off shore. But I've done some of this out of mom talk. Um. There was a time when the Jersey boats were advertising cod trips again, but it was kind of bullshit. Like basically what that meant was, we'll take you out to the lying grounds and probably two or three codd will end up on somebody's line, you know, but to say we're going out to target them and we could spend
hours on this. But the bottom line is, like cod was such an important fish throughout the Northeast recreationally for so many years. I mean, the party boats made their money, the recreational captains. I remember reading articles in the archives the field and stream like in the dead of winter when the stripers were all gone. Dudes on cape cod to go out there and surf fish for pound cod like in the waves on cape cod. Um. And I've
had some good cod fishing. But the consensus that you talked to any old heads, it's like this is nothing crap like this. You know. It's like if you want to if your dream was to catch a forty pound cod, that is extremely hard to do anymore, you know, right right. So so back in the day, like in ninth We're gonna go to nineteen seventy six real quick. In nineteen seventies six, the Magnuson Act, And this is what contributed to a lot of like the pressure and a lot
of like the commercial over fishing. In nineteen seventy six, the Magnuson Act. UH. It prohibited foreign operations from fishing within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States. UH the easy right, and the easy includes all fisheries within two hundred miles of the U. S. Coast. Now you would think that that would do you know, that would alleviate the pressure. Well, yes, and no, I mean sure
from like foreign commercial fleets eliminated all that pressure unilaterally. UM. But because folks got so excited about like the lack of you know, international competition, the U S Fleet expanded in the pressure on the resource within that two hundred mile like buffer zone intensified. Yeah, it's it's a it's a very like you're it's so back in the day. I mean, there's a thing called the cod or has
been raging forever. But yeah, back in the day, like you'd have Russian boats on Georgia's bank, like from you know, it was insane, but you're right, that's exactly what happened. They got all them out, and everybody's like, well now, my mid my, my mind, my mind. And it was such an economic driver that that's exactly what happened. We we overfished them, We got them out and overfished in ourselves,
you know. Right. So since then, or maybe not since then, but you know, within the wake of that act um in the last forty years or so, the decline UH intake has been sort of like precipitous. To contextualize that, in the nineteen eighties, right, annual catches typically topped a hundred million pounds of common and then after a crashing, you know, the nineties, not not so much. Um. Now,
there is a lot of these conservation stories. Man, they're like so doom and gloom that I feel like it gets people unenthusiastic about good changes that are being made, even if they're difficult changes. Right. Some people like the react and is oh, well, like I'll never go do that because it's just so messed up. Some people throw their hands up and say, well, if it's this messed up already, why not make hay and while the sun shines yaum. But there is good news uh per noah um.
In the Gulf of Maine fishery, a tenuere rebuilding plan has been implemented for this stock and the stock is targeted to rebuild by twenty four golf main, as I understand it, they have the best thing going, Like, that's the best cod fishery in the Northeast right now is in the Gulf Main. Yeah, and this has been the second you know, this is the second rebuilding plan for
this stock. So, I mean it's something that you know, folks have had their eye on and they've been trying to you know, perpetuate the resource now with continued careful management. Back to what we're talking about, which is this you know four five quota slash on George's bank. The George's bank stock is scheduled to rebuild by So a lot of these like management programs people have like the idea of like, okay, we'll implement these cuts that like is no there are no fun for anybody, and then we'll
see what happens. You know, it's important to remember that, you know, similar to like, uh, you know, the other week we covered you know, the macinaw in the Flathead Lake. YEP. There are defined conservation goals attached to these plans, and when these plans are successful and that goal is met, you got something a lot better than that resource that wasn't doing so well before these plans were implemented. So, you know, take your medicine and weal come out with
a better thing. Um. You know. Another interesting like kind of thing to note is kind of how we consume fish in the effect that it has on fisheries. UM. For instance, speaking of like you know, to keep it on cod, a shift to the more stable and economical polock has taken a lot of pressure off the cod fisheries. Uh. To contextualize that McDonald's fish filet was cod now pollock. That's interesting. Well, maybe I was not aware that McDonald's filet of fish was ever truly caught. I thought it
was cod from Alaska, but that's neither here nor there. Um. You know. The funny thing is I haven't had a piece of cod in probably ten years, and the last time I ate it, I caught it. Because if I see it in a fish market, it's usually too expensive, and if I see it on a menu, I just don't ever believe that it's cod because I know so much about the cod fishery. I'm like, really, this is twenty bucks a pound in the fish market, but I can have the all I can eat cod fish and chips.
I doubt it. But the truth is there's nothing wrong with pollock. It always gets downplayed like that's not as good. Pollock is delicious, and there's a lot more of them, you know. Do you know what the fish filet was even before cod? This is the second switch? Do you know what the fish filet was made with? Originally? I don't, but I'm gonna take a wild stab dog fish. No. No, The first thing that the McDonald's fish filet was made
of was actually hell of it. Oh oh, and then they got Yeah, that makes a lot of Well, here's one final note on on cod. You know, everybody's like, oh my god, fresh cod. There's nothing like fresh cod. You ask anybody who's ever caught a cod. Ever, it is extremely rare to catch one that is not riddled with worms. Almost every cod is full of worms. Now they're big worms, and you can there's a method to
get them out. They'll crawl right out. But still, I'll never forget the first time I ever went cod fish and put them in a brine. I actually wrap them in a paper towel, and a lot of times they'll just come out on their own in the fridge. Yeah, there's there's a there's a few different ways. But I remember I caught a pile of it off Mont Talk.
My my wife, who was just my girlfriend at the time, was living in New York City, and I brought all this cod to her apartment and the girl should live with I was like, I am making you ladies fresh CODs. Tonight busted out the flats and it was just like freaking orange worms everywhere, and it was a total turn off. It doesn't bother me, but a lot of people, if they knew like even if you buy fancy cod, that ship had worms in it before it got to you, guarantee.
Speaking of unexpected and surprisingly brightly colored, man, I know you've seen this a bunch of I'm sort of familiar with it, but I don't understand the nuances of it. Every now and again you will see an electric blue cod down to the color of the filet. Do you know what? But you know I've seen that. I don't know what causes it though, I don't know if it's
if it's diet or what. But I mean, I imagine that pigmentation has to be somewhat similar to like how don't ling mouths on the West Coast like during certain phases. I don't, I don't. I'm I'm making ship up. I don't know why that happens. But I have seen that before. There's also bright blue lobsters. That's a real prize thing up there, See, listeners, we don't know everything. We don't. I thought you were gonna I thought I was gonna tee you up and you're gonna hit it out of
the park, man, I was, I thought, I don't. I don't know anything about a blue cod. Man, I don't know that's what that ship is whacked. How about let's you know, let's let's say I'm gonna get a little more festive and I'm I'm gonna, I'm gonna this is a little more uplifting, I guess, um, and just just a little more festive in general. And um, I'm gonna have to uh kick it back to Santa Claus here. So I know, we just talked to Santa and he had told us he wanted to go bill fishing somewhere.
But but he must not have gotten the memo yet because it's apparently already been determined where he'll be fishing on December. And here's how it was determined. Berkeley Fishing teamed up with Santa for quite the contest, and here's the gist in Santa's own voice, via Berkeley's website. I love to fish. I've been fishing all around the world, and this year I thought I'd try to find someplace
new and exciting. So I asked my friends at Berkeley Fishing if they could help me find the location that is the best fishing spot, and they said that they would love to do that. Santa sounds different in that it doesn't sound like he's like kindler, gentler, more cohering,
you know. Anyway, Yeah, let you let you exactly um anyway. Naturally, I'm always intrigued when like the best fishing towns or trout towns or striper towns or whatever are ranked, right, and this style of clickbait journalism is it's like rampant. Now you can find a list of the of the five best cities for anything these days, like five best cities for people who love socks, best places to later if you hate pet stores, you know whatever. Anyways, what Berkeley did was that they put out a call for
town submissions. That was step one, and they told me they received more than forty town nominations from they whittled yeah, yeah, yes, but still forty okay um. From those, they whittled down the list to the following five locations where Santa could end up. So these were the choices. Heartwell, Georgia, which is home of Heartwell Lake and that's a pretty epic bass fishery Huntsville, Alabama. That's also some killer bass fishing
and crappy fishing down there. Springfield, Illinois and which honestly, nothing is jumping out at me regarding famed fisheries in Springfield. But that's okay because, as we'll learn, um, these towns weren't just chosen based on having a big time local fishery. There were other reasons for the decision. Other choices last to Long Beach, California, which is on the coast just south of l A. And finally Panama City Beach, Florida.
So the next phase of the contest was that they asked people to vote on one of those five location on Santa Arsanta definitely would have gone to Panama City. Yeah, I mean that's a that's a party town, right, it's party town. Um. And and so you vote and Santa will will roll into whichever town wins on December. Um. And it turns out here is where Santa is actually going.
Long Beach, California scored the most votes, which doesn't totally rule out bill Fish for old st Nick Like it's it's a long run, but Swordfish qualifies, right, he can fly can fly his slay over to Catalina with the eight wide and dance with a broad bill. Um. Anyway, there, there's there's more to the picture than just Santa showing up to Fish. As I mentioned, there's um more than
than just the fishery involved in these locations. So Berkeley is donating up to twenty five thousand dollars to the winning community and that can be used for anything fishing related that they want. So um. The locations were also very much tied to community needs. That money can be used for conservation right or to promote fishing in the area. So um, it's all for killer calls a matter of fact.
On the website, they explained that these specific organizations that would benefit in each location, and here's what it said. For Long Beach, a vote for Long Beach, California will help El Dorado Regional Park purchase specific items related to fishing and conservation education about the lake and wilderness. Additionally, prize money will be used to help purchase items to help preserve wildlife throughout the park. So that's pretty damn cool.
Man Like, that's just all around cool um cool contest. Sana is also showing up with mountains and mountains of tackle in gear Um and Berkeley. If he's late or something, obviously we have a direct line to him as well, So we'll we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll give him a kick in the rs if need be. But I thought that
was great. That's a really cool contest. Yeah, man, I mean so many of these events are not only do they they kind of like highlight you know, certain fisheries and like are they're sure they're good for content, right, like you know you're gonna go out there and you're you know you're gonna have a good time fishing or whatever.
But I really love it when they tie in like all that conservation and bring attention to like a region that you might not think of as as somewhere that there is like some significant like fishing to be you know, either improved from a public image standpoint or from a constitution standpoint exactly exactly. And I think that's what's so so cool about what they've done here. Initially you look at that list and you're like, oh, I understand this spot,
understand this spot. Wait why here? But then if you really read further into the specific reason that those five were chosen, they're all very good reasons that would have benefited um a lot of local anglers. So props for that. And now I guess we'll we'll kick it over to Phil for his Christmas Eve judgment. Hey Phil, what's what's
Santa bringing you? We'd love to know. And then as soon as Phil finishes explaining it to all of us non gamers, we've got a lovely, heartwarming Hallmark Channel ready Christmas message from our dear friend river Horse. So for Christmas this year, I asked Santa for an uplifting and topical fish news story, and only one of you brought that to me this week. Joseph Mellie, you're the winner. And Hayden, I'm not too upset with you for trading
your holographic chancy for those two common Pikachu cards. You know why because I was the guy that made that trade with you all those years ago. Great a sucker, Thanks for patting my kids college savings account. Merry Christmas. Hey, Now, this is river Horse with some sagely wisdom coming to you from the far North Arctic Circle in Swedish lap Plan, where all of the reindeer on this earth originated from. I'm on a little winter adventure with this mid try.
Is it cold, you ask, my lord, Let's just say this place is set to chill. Speaking of all things chill, perhaps this holiday season finds you cut up in this sometimes bizarre Gonzo and beautiful hurricane of extended family hooplah with all the loosens of making a living to navigate, which for something can be a wee bit overwhelming. Oh you just be it, no mine, Just calm your soul.
Late at night, after everyone else falls asleep, you just quietly slip on out the back door, take a deep breath, look up at the shimmering stars, and remember how lucky we are to be here. There are millions of miles of rivers, lakes and oceans with fish out there waiting for you. As for me, I'm about to put a kettle of snow water over this birch wood fire and brew up some hot chocolate. Always say yes to whip
cream on top. Baby. Then I'll curl up on this forest floor of pine needles in a sub zero down sleeping bag and dream away of ten pound bass, all lips and hips. Here's to you, my brothers and sisters. I will see you along the path in I believe in you. You got this, And remember you don't always have to find the catch up a lifetime. Just find someone and get on under the mistletoe, and oh, my lordy,
make it happen. River Hoards is genuinely the only dude I know who can go from like an uplifting holiday message to like straight up sensual in the span of three words. No, dude, I know, and that's that's why we love the guy. Like you come away from that like did I even hang mistiletoe? Because I need to get on that ship right now. Anyway, before we sign off, We've got an end of the line that I'm particularly
excited about. Okay, So last Christmas, I did one on the Panther Martin spinner and talked about how I used to get them every Christmas from my uncle. And I ended that by saying the story I was telling about the panther and how near and dear it was to my heart could easily be told similarly by someone else that grew up throwing an entirely different brand of spinner, And wouldn't you know it, our own Hayden Samak is
that different someone? Well, that's not loud enough. My earliest memories are mostly fishing small streams with my dad and my brother and my grandpa. We might have been fishing for you know, Sonny's stockers or small news, but one thing remained constant at the end of our lines always a Swiss swing. Now, a Swiss swing is an inline spinner with a brass bead body in silver, gold or copper color, blade and bossed with scales and the words Swiss swing. My brother and I grew up fishing them
almost exclusively. I assumed everyone knew what a Swiss swing was, and I carry that assumption with me right up to the point that I sat down to write this long story short. I couldn't find any information on the spinner. I couldn't find out who manufactured him, let alone how they were developed. It became clear that if I wanted to know more about this spinner, I was going to
have to look somewhere else. So I started researching a similar but apparently more well known spinner called the Cpie Swing in the Pantheon of great spinners, the Cpece Swing is a cult classic, but oddly not much information exists on the history of this spinner either. So I went down yet another rabbit hole, which took me all the way to the advent of inline spinner itself. It was French engineer Andre Milnar who developed and patented the first
in line spinners. Eventually, a guy named Todd Sheldon started selling them in the US, and in ye bought Millner's company outright. That company was and is still known as Maps. Now this is not a story about maps, but Maps specifically. The Maps Shimmy might have played an important role in the development of the CP Swing. If we look at Milnar's original patent for the Maps Shimmy next to an image of the Cpiece Swing, you will notice that the
Cpece Swing bears a striking resemblance to Milnar's drawings. As I've said before, a history of the Cpece Swing is hard to come by, and this might be the reason for that. Comparing the two, I think it would be fair to assume that the Cpece Swing was in fact a knockoff of Milnar's original design for the METS Shimmy. The fact that genuine CP swings are advertised as made in France also points to this as a possibility. Perhaps this is why a detailed history of the popular lure
is so hard to come by. The CP Swing is probably a knockoff of an early map, and to that end, we're nearly done unpacking a very unofficial and speculative history of the Swiss Swing. Now I want to add one thing in here. I noticed that in the forums and online classifieds I was researching, many folks discussing and advertising Swiss swings are based in the Northeast, and the majority are located in my home state of Pennsylvania. This could
be the final piece of the puzzle. Listeners, together we may have solved the mystery of why I know these inline spinners as Swiss Swings. It seems one of the talismans of my childhood is in fact a regional knockoff of a knockoff made in some factory somewhere by someone, though no one can tell you exactly who. Again, I amt all of this is wildly speculative. If you know
something I don't write me. I'd be glad to hear from someone who knows better than I. But to be honest with you, the lack of definitive origin has quickly become one of my favorite things about this familiar little spinner, because in trying to uncover that origin, I've found the story of the Swiss swing is written entirely by those who use it. I want to end with something else I discovered in my research a surprising and shared sentimentality
of the Swiss Swing. Folks wrote, oh Man that spinner caught an absolute ton of Smalley's for Dad and I in Cayuga, that back in the day, it's the only spinner we used on trout, and they killed him. There were dozens of anecdotes just like this, penned by all sorts of fishermen, and most of them framed a little
spinner as a treasured part of their past. It seems that I'm not alone in my fondness and nostalgia for the Swiss Swing, and that speaks to a paradox I've noticed within these more sentimental aspects of fishing, there are certain things that fishermen will experience that are at once deeply personal and somehow ubiquitous. Perhaps that's why, as fisherman, we're able to meet a stranger on a river bank and within minutes know them. Did you grow up fishing
a lure no one else seems to know about? Shoot us a note at Bent at the Meat eater dot com and tell us what personal favorite was at the end of your line. So that's it for the Christmas Eve version of Bent. We hope all of you have a wonderful time with your friends and family, full of holiday cheer, copious amounts of eggnog, and plenty of glazed ham My friends. You know I got hammered once on eggnog,
and I really really don't recommend it. If you thought a white Russian hangover is grossy, the whole a mother thing. Yeahs are slightly thicker than the Russian. Slightly, it's heavy. It's more of a simping drink, I've come to learn. But what I do recommend is sending a bar nomination, awkward photo, sale, bin item, newspiece, or question to Bent at the meat eat dot com. You know I can speak for Joe I say this we love hearing from you guys. Yeah, I can also speak for myself to
and say we sure we surely do. Also keep using those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on the gram perhaps tag a fishy something Santa left you, and from the bottom of our degenerate hearts, wells books, books, Merry Christmas.