Ep. 73: Ball Drops and Salmon Alibis

start wearing those more in like posts. Good morning, degenerate anglers, and welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast that recently replaced all the tubes on its beer helmet, because tonight all it wants to do is I'm Joe Surmellie, and I'm Hayden Samac and uh Joe, Do I sense a rager tonight? No? No, no, not at all. Actually, I'll be enjoying a quiet evening in slippers. But I mean it is New Year's Eve, which is really ever you've ever said, Yeah, that's that's fine.

I just figured, look, this is the only time I can ever get away with with theming a show entirely around Andrew w K. No, did you know Joe that uh. Comedian Burt Kreisher is adamant that Andrew w K doesn't actually like to party them like he he was like adamant about He didn't have like a sketch about it, but like he had mentioned in one of his podcasts that he tried to have a beer with him and he was like, oh no, man, I'm good and he drank like a quarter of the beer and I wouldn't

I wouldn't be shocked. Did you know? There's also a conspiracy you can watch those videos that claims Andrew w K doesn't actually exist, like he's not a real person. Yeah, I swear it. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's kind of like the Mattress Firm thing, only cooler. Um. But yeah, so I also follow the Hard Times on Instagram right and one of my favorite ye oh my god, so good and one of my favorite headlines of their's was aging Andrew w K declines Facebook party invite, and I

thought that was genius. Um. Oh yeah. I also saw him open for Aerosmith once and I was the only guy in Madison Square Garden that both knew who he was and was excited to see him anyway, anyway. Yeah, right, So anyway, look, you're you're pretty, You're you're young and pretty untethered. What are you doing for New Year's I'll just assume there's a vote collusion involved, would I be right? Oral? As? Uh?

You know, some listeners know I've I've lived kind of a another life, and at one point that might have been true, man, um, but you know I don't wanna afford a VOD collusion anymore. Right, Yeah, well, you know, um, I think that uh, I think it might be taking it easy to My girlfriend and I were going to the East Coast for the holidays, and I'll tell you what, if we're with her parents, it's certainly not going to uh not going to be a vo not gonna be

a party. I'd say, well, if we're with my parents, we're gonna get wine drunk. But I don't know how it was. I was going to play out and your parents got a case of Josh Sellers or something, boxing wine whatever. Anyway, listen, no matter no matter how you're partying, that's supposed to mean. Man, I don't know, I'm broke.

My parents aren't fair enough, fair enough no matter how you're partying though, right, I feel we we at least have to say do it responsibly, please, And if you're not partying like me and apparently Hayden, do at least a little something irresponsible like laid off an M A D at midnight and rattle the neighbors windows. You know

what I'm saying. Yeah, Um, you know, speaking of responsibility, I believe that the end of the year is kind of the time to take stock of your many interesting and circuitous life decisions and perhaps make a resolution on the way you might carry yourself forward to that end. Are you a resolutions person? Joe? You know this came

up last year and and nothing's changed. I am, but I don't share them publicly, right Like, I make a little deal with myself and then when I fail myself, there's no one to yell at me other than myself perfect. So it works out. Joe's strategy to success kiddos, a lack of accountability exactly, That's what That's how you gotta be. Um I do. However, I have one fishing related resolution that I am happy to share. Um No, not not kidding.

I want to take my kids fishing more in two and it's not that I don't now right, because I love taking my kids fishing. But to be honest, like free time for me is precious right now. Like you, you have a lot more of it than I do. So when you have that day to get out, it's very easy to talk myself out of blue gills and catfish, you know what I mean, and like packing up loads of fruit snacks and show and talking myself into doing

the grown up stuff that I want to do. So I'm promising myself that I'm gonna do that less this year, even if it means I have to miss a few more opportunities, um, you know, to do the kind of fishing I really want to do. How about you, man, Any any resolutions that you're willing to share at least? Yeah? Man, Um, you know, I think that I want to get myself into like alpine lake shape. We have this one scale at the Mediator office that we use to, uh when

we're planning trips or whatever. We got to weigh the gear because we take it on a bunch of flights and stuff. I stepped on that thing, man, and I'll tell you what. I'm still hoping that scales broke. Oh God, please, dude, I would kill to be built like you are you nuts? Um, that's a that's a that's a fine resolution though, man

like I'll probably never see an alpine lake. Um you after listening, also, you should probably resolve to get yourself some gear in two from our sponsors, thirteen Fishing, and there I just went in for the quick, hard sell, right. I didn't even dance around that. But I really do want to thank thirteen for being part of BENT and supporting this this year. We're so proud to have them, and we genuinely love their gear, and they're a great group of people. Glad to have him here. A great

group of party people, I hear. I've heard that thirteen Fishing knows how to party, and of course there are lots of ways to party. Right back in the day, I was a house party guy on New Year's I hosted. My dad would would clear out and give us the house as long as nobody drove. He's like, do whatever you want, just nobody leaves. Um. But also I know people that that like, just go to the local bar for New Year's. I know people that buy tickets to

those all inclusive club parties. You know what I'm saying, Like at a hotel or something. It's weird. I went to school at Tampa briefly, and and down there there were a bunch of kids running around with way too much money. And one year one of them rented out a strip club, private thing. I lived at an international dorm, and uh, there was some oil money there, oil money many.

I've never known anybody who could rent an entire place out, but I did almost get suckered once into paying whatever it was a hundred bucks to go to one for a private Super Bowl party. Um, and I passed. It's not really my scene, tell you the truth. But we know a guy that knows some guys that wouldn't have

passed on that kind of party. Right, So let's shift into Smooth Moves, our segment where we let guides and captain's vent about ridiculous things their clients have done and talk to my old friend, Captain Frank Campbell about an unforgettable photo shoot. Why joining us today for Smooth Moves, My very good friend, Captain Frank Campbell from Louis to New York. What's going on, Frank? How are you? Uh? Not too much? Joe, just enjoying the weather, great day.

A lot of snow. You know, nothing crazy going on around here. So what is the weather up there? Because I was just there, which is why we're doing this, because you actually told me a story while I was fishing for steelhead with you on the Niagra Um and we got lucky. It was pretty mild. Has it gotten cold? Is it? Is it more true to form up there right now? Well? Actually it got windy ergs you know,

if it could, it's crazy. I mean I think I think I'm going to give up the fishing business and starting a fight flying service or something, because, yeah, it got windier than the fifty miles an hour we dealt with.

We dealt with sixty winds on Monday. It's that. The problem is it keeps going from cold to warm while cold can't can't you know, figure out what it wants to do here like a lot of people, and you know, we're dealing with dirty water, clean water, winds, snow, rain, you know, we we caet all four seasons in the

same day. Sometimes yeah, yeah, no for sure. So just just remind me how many years you lived up there your whole life, right, how many years you've been guiding on the Niagara I've lived up here in my whole life. I've been guiding going on thirty one thirty two years, so it's been but a long stretch, no doubt about it. Okay, So before we get into this story, we we have to we have to set we have to set something up very quickly, sort of established something and um man, alright,

we're going to hear from our Canadian listeners. But that's okay, it's fine. Part of the conversation that we were having that led to this story when you and I are fishing, Frank, was that the strip club scene across the border in Canada is a little different, generally speaking than here in the States. Right. Uh, that's not that I know personally, but uh yeah, well in my younger years, I'm not gonna lie. It was it was on the way to

debate shop. You had to stop, she did, right, Yeah, I picked up, but yeah, it would have been rude not to. Yeah. But but but I think and we're certainly not going to get explicit, but like, um uh, they can wear a lot less over there. It's just it's just like a little bit looser kind of vibe. Right, you know what I'm saying. You're gonna say a lot of them forget are folding right? Yeah, yes, got it? Because I I also have never been to a strip

club across the border. I'm not really a strip club guy. But like, this is something in fishing maybe in hunting too, that you hear a lot about. Like, oh man, the strip clubs up in Canada are crazy. So obviously where you fish is right on the border. All the bridges are right there. You can throw a rock and hit Canada. So's it's important to understand that, so that we get the full scope of this story. Now, how long ago did this happen? It was probably fifteen years ago, I

want to say, some somewhere in that range. Okay, So take us from the beginning what happened, you know, and uh, well, we'll just we'll just let it, We'll let it roll, okay. So as it always, you know, we're booking a lot of trips for salmon and the fall, and I happened to book these, uh three three guys to come in and they booked three days for salmon Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

It's kind of during the peak time of the year, but that time of the year were balls to the all, you know, fishing every day fishing twice a day, so it's really where we make our money. So anyways, these guys booked these three days and they show up in the morning for the Friday morning trip and they're like, uh, coming on. I'm like, guys, you really don't need a cooler. We have something to keep the fishing. We have a live well if you want to keep no, no, no,

So it's not for that. We got our clothes in there. I'm like, wow, that's a big cooler, right, and it's like a hundred fifty court YETI type thing yeah, but I'm like yeah, like okay, you know, we'll make room for it. Not a problem, you need to close. So they get the cooler, put it on, we go up fishing, and within half an hour, man, we're bam, we got our first fish on. Catch it. It's a nice, you know,

twenty pound king, and the guys are all excited. Guy holds it up, you know, takes a picture with it. Next thing, you know, budd he's taking a turn taking a picture with it. Then as other buddies taking a picture with it, I'm like, what are these do is doing? And now they're saying hold on a minute. I said well, we'll get hold on a minute, we want to get

some more pictures. Next thing you know, they're pulling clothing out of their cooler and changing and saying, can you turn the boat so we can get the bridge in the background. All three of them change their clothing. They rain jackets on, and I'm like, whatever, I'm not thinking about anything. They do this, and they take like two sets of clothing each. I think, I know what's going on. These guys are like, hey, you know, let's go back fishing.

We go back, we touch another one, same exact thing happens. I'm like, what are you guys doing. They want to keep the fish, but they say, you know, we'll keep Okay, they're keeping them. It goes on. We touched like three or four fish the guys, which which is an average day that time of the year, and they're happy. I'm happy. Were going about one o'clock and I go to clean the fish, and after I clean them, they're like, uh, Frank, just let you know we're not gonna fish the next

So I'm like, what, guys, this is like prime time. No, no, no, no, We're gonna pay you, but we're not gonna fish. I'm like Okay, I'll take that. You know, they're gonna pay me full rate, not gonna fish. Frank gets to sleep in there in a time of the year. All good. I said, well, we caught enough today that we were able to take enough pictures. We're going to the strip clubs.

We're gonna stay right there for three days. Well, then I'm putting two and two and two together and saying, these guys took like twenty pictures of free fish, and they're like, we got we got plenty of plenty of photography to show to our wives, plenty of pictures. We're gonna prove that we were here. Wasn't a gripping green, it was an alibi. Yeah, that's all you. And also I was thinking these guys were premeditated and everything they did. It was crazy because I'm the guys. The other guys

are like, Frank, what are you doing. You're over there with like for five minutes with one fish. I'm like, well, we had to get some alibis. Basically, you know, for the pretties guys, I mean, Joe thirty thirty some years, I've seen a lot, but these guys went to extremes. I mean, the one guy had a range jacket, the other they're switching hats there. They had it figured out that nobody was gonna know that they weren't fishing for three days. I mean, you look at pictures, you'll be like, okay,

and you look at it. Can we go over the other side of the river. It was definitely well planned out, and kudos to them. I mean they had been there before the year before, and it must have taken three d sixty five days to conceive this, uh plan, because they were like, we're going here. We know a time Miss Nude World goes on and you know, four thirtists, Like what these guys are unbelievable. I'm not necessarily saying

I condone it, right, but it's pretty slick, right. I mean, that is a lot of four thoughts again, until until their wives start counting the spots on the back of the salmon man. They're gonna be like, here's the other part. And after you told me this story, I was like

blown away. And then I started thinking about it and I'm like, they actually took it to another level because why would they pay you full rate for two days that they're not fishing unless the funds on the credit card or whatever also have to match the amount of days they stayed. That's because I was like, yeah, I think they gave me a check, Joe. I think they ended up giving me a check for the days, and

the guys like, what are you talking about. We got the guy to receipt here, we got the check canceled cash. They had everything figured out. I mean, they weren't going to leave something, you know, to uh, hey, why did this end? No, they were they had everything. It was, it was it was ingenious. I would have hired these guys to murder someone if I was. They had it

all cover. You know. There's definitely a resolution message wrapped up in that, like some totally yeah, I mean, definitely some good party buys, but also like maybe resolving not to be shady with with the mrs would be a good one. Yeah, yeah, I agree. The premeditation in that is insane and uh it's it's like one of those stories where if you say, um, if you only harness that brain power for something good, you know what I mean, Like the world might be a better place if you

put that much forethought into something good. Anyway, we're about to harness our brain power, though barely one last time in the year one to bring you the fish related stories dropping harder than the ball in time square. This is fish news. Fish news. That escalated quickly. All right, let's kick out this news jam. Um. We don't really

have much housekeeping other than wanting to mention that. Um. Several listeners reached out in regard to last week's show, which of course featured a riveting interview with Santa Claus and wanted to know. I wanted to know why he sounded so much like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. I wasn't I wasn't sure what to say. Well, you know, I feel like both of them spend a lot of time in isolated locations. It's dark and cold. Yeah, Um, anybody who spent enough time out in like real cold

weather like that knows what. You know, you can dry out your skin, so I think put the motion on their skin. It's starting to get dark, sorr. But you know, I think I think that pretty much sums it up. So you can stop asking that. Hayden just figured it out. You know, you get a little ashy, you need a little lotion, you know what I mean. Anyway, UM, we should probably try and get ted Levin on the show.

Sometimes maybe he fishes. He's one of the most underrated actors ever, you know what I mean, So I would just ask him to say Buffalo bill lines. Um. Anyway, friendly reminder news, here is a competition, Heyden and I do not know which story the other guy has grabbed. Um and at the at the end, our resident noisemaker audio engineer Phil will declare one of us a winner. And it's it's my lead this week. So unless you you have anything else to add, I'll get started here.

Get on with the Joe. Yeah, I know people want to go party, so let's just move it along. Anyway, as we close out begin a new year, I'm actually gonna help you twice with my story today. I'm gonna make you more fashion conscious and richer in one fell swoop. Does that sound I'm gonna do it. I'm about to So this story comes from the story comes from the Wall Street Journal, and um the headline, Lord, give me strength to read. This is how a six dollar bass

pro Shops hat became a fashion trend. Nice? Nice you know? Uh? This is honestly this I've been noticing for about how long, like a like a year or so well. See that just tells you we we look at I think maybe some different things online, like because I have not really been noticing this and then this story hit and I was like, wtf is happening here. Here's how the story begins.

Direct quote from the story. Jesse Alvarado doesn't fish or hunt, and he wouldn't describe himself as an outdoorsy person, but on many mornings, Mr Alvarado, a restaurant worker in Los Angeles, plops a Bass Pro Shops Trucker hat on his head. To Mr Alvarado, it's just a good looking hat. It's a simple design, like you can throw it on with anything. He said, Yes, my hatred will grow as the piece

goes on. Anyway, According to John Paul Morris that's the son of Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, uh BPS has definitely noticed the run on the trucker hat with

the classic BPS logo, the vintage one with the jumping bass. Now, he wouldn't specify how much of a sales increase they've seen with these hats, but I'm betting it's pretty staggering, right because part of the charm of these hats is that they only cost six bucks, and these days it's not uncommon for the hats to be completely sold out,

both in store and online. In fact, there's so popular that Fashion East is shall we say, routinely check the BPS website and there are even rings where where the members tip each other off to when they'll be restocked so that they can get the hats. Right. So, uh, why the rush to hoard them? What's the big deal? Well, here's the part where I help your financials in two because I'd be willing to bet some of you probably have this hat listening right now right It's it's a

classic hat. According to the story, people are flipping the six dollar Bass Pro Shop trucker hat for up to twenty bucks a pop on eBay right now because they have become hard to get commodity. And as I understand it, you could flip a new one. You could flip one that you've sweated in on on Lake of the O's Arks for the last twenty years. Both will sell. You might get more for this for the sweaty one. Oh man, Yeah, dude,

nothing more that hipsters like than like provenance. There's not even hipsters really, man, It's like, Joe, are you familiar with the term boy. Yeah, yeah, I am. I mean, I don't know like the full definition, but I've heard it thrown around. It's just like kind of like a kind of like gen Z millennial, Like toolbag is what that basically comes from. I like it. I'll start using that more now that you've explained it. It is the same negative connotation of a hipster, but it's more widely

applied to like jockey sort of folks. Got it. I'm not sure if it's going to make it to the podcast listeners now, you know, no, no, no, it is. I'm trying to think, I I you know where I heard the term I don't want to get off. There was the thing on Instagram. It was like a comedy thing out of California called Cherdley's. Does that ring a bell? M m? Maybe I haven't seen it in a while, but they used to use that term. Anyway, we'll move on. We'll move on here. Um, but this this gives me

an idea. I'm gonna bring it up a little bit later in this podcast. But I have an idea that I think you might like. Okay, okay, So the article tries to break down exactly why these hats have become so trendy and the reasons very This is going back to the story. Patrick Simms, a thirty four year old account manager at a marketing agency in Austin, said the

caps bring him back to high school. Okay, that's cool, no issue that He says he went to BPS with his father back in the day and has fond memories of this. Also cool, nothing, that's that's great. But then he says the hats also make him think of resurgent fashion trends in the aughts, and I hate that term. In the aughts when celebs like Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake helped popularize trucker hats. Oh yeah, like the von Dutch Von Dutch exactly. Mr Sims to BPS hats satisfy

his NEStalgia on two fronts, personal and pop cultural. And I just need to clarify um that it was not Paris Hilton or Justin timber Lake that popularize the mess trucker hat. I think the o G people listening will agree with me that it became popular well before them, well before the odds, way back ninety four, when one was worn by Sea Bass in Dumb and Dumber. That is what popularized the trucker had and I would love to remind everybody what Sea Basses Hat said, but I

won't on the show. Uh So then we have right then we have twenty eight year old John Wright, who is an entrepreneur and an actual hunter based in Nashville. I'm not familiar with him, but I assume he has a TikTok following because he says, um, on TikTok, it's all you see. It's every different color hat. You see the trucker hat everywhere. I'm not on TikTok, so I don't do that. So that was new information to me,

that idea that I told you about in the beginning. Uh, my girlfriend is on TikTok, and we have talked before about the bass pro trucker hat trend. Really this has come up in conversation at home. Well yep, and I asked her about it in this exact context. Why are all these boys wearing these trucker hats? Um? I think? Yeah. My idea was, why don't we give her a call real quick? Oh my god, do it right now. I'm gonna tell her that I that I want to get a bunch of these trucker hats and we'll see what

she says. It's the news first. Hey, um, Joe and I have been talking about how like we're going to connect um more with like that we're trying to get like the fishing audience, and we're trying to get a younger demographic, and like part of the way we're doing that is like social media ship and you know those Bass Pro Shop hats. Yes, I think I'm gonna like start wearing those more in like posts. Okay, why are you telling me this? I just wanted to know what

you thought about like those hats. I think they're stupid looking. Why because they look do? She? We like? What? What do you? What do you mean? I don't know. It just reminds me of like a frat bro and I'm not about it. Okay, Um, Joe, do you have any uh what I said? Thanks for that, but we need to continue on with news now. For cutting into the party time, Joe said, thank you for that, but we're getting on with news now. Okay, great, Joe, Okay, bye.

Do She was not It's not It wasn't one of the words I was gonna use, but she said it not me, So you know, and let me tell you what. Frat boy is only four letters away from boys, So you know anyway, all right, so let's let's let's get out of this right. Uh, the story continues. The trendiness of this has confounded some long time loyalists of the brand. Adrian Williams, twenty six, And this is gonna be my favorite one. This is the last guy from the story

I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about. But you have to hear this one. Adrian Williams, twenty six, of Raleigh, North Carolina, has older family members and peers who grew up hunting and shopping at Bass Pro. Ask him, why are you using the hats as a fashion statement. Mr Williams, an account executive, explained that he likes the shape of the hats and the array of colors. He grew up hunting and now legs to pair the hats with Chelsea boots and skinny jeans. All right, I like Chelsea boots. How

did I know you were going to say that? I didn't even know what Chelsea boots were, or at least I didn't know that's what those slip on boots were called. I didn't know they were called Chelsea boots. But for anybody else who didn't know, here's a quick explanation of them from YouTube channel Real Men, Real Style. In fact, if we were to use a car analogy, those work boots are a truck. This an suv built on a car chassis in a nutshell. It makes them versatile, but

they're really at home in the city. So dude, I cannot like whatever quick story. When I was in college, trucker hats were the thing. I never wore them, and not because I didn't read them. I know I didn't, and it's not because I didn't like them. I just kind of didn't wear hats for like fashion. I wore ball caps when I went fishing. I wore hats when I fished, but I never wore one a class or

like out to the bar. Really, I'm nowadays, I just want to hide my mostly salt with a splash of pepper hair, so I wear a hat all the time. But back then, all the hats I owned said like fish Pond, Betty and Nick's baiton Tackle, the feathered hook fly Shop, dorky ship, like you can't wear that to a party. Um, But I remember seeing this particular bass pro shops hat back then, and I was like, that's my hat. It's a cool trucker hat and supports my

fishing jones. And shortly after deciding to get one, I saw two in the same night at a house party where like Chevelle was playing very loudly, and I was like, you know what, never mind, right, But I don't know. Then it seemed like the whole trucker hat thing died, so I'd say the dudes that kept wearing them were more likely to be anglers and you know that just

thought they were a cool hat. But now after this, I feel like it's it's it's like, if you're one of those people that loved him, like we regret to inform you that it's not cool for your girlfriend. It's douche at least not you know, it's not cool for hardcore fisherman. So I don't know. I feel like it's almost more knu a Salt Life sticker now, So spell that ship on eBay if you got it, get your money and buy a few packs of Sanko's instead Bass Pro Shops hats. There you go. Oh and one more thing.

Listener Glenn Cranefeld sent me a link to an op ed piece about this hat and it was written by Matt Labash that I highly recommend you guys read. It's called bass holes. So just google bass holes plus Labash. That's l A B A s H and enjoy that. Moving on from bass pros to robo bass. Uh. This week in fish news, we have a very strange development in the fight to combat invasive species. Uh. Scientists saw this. I saw this, and I was gonna grab it next week if you didn't grab it this week. This is

a good one. Yeah. Yeah, So scientists have been developing a robotic large mouth bass to learn more about the impact of fear on the invasive mosquito fish. Before we got ahead of ourselves here and into what everyone wants to hear about that being the robo bass, we need to have a little like ecology lesson and get to

know the mosquito fish. The mosquito fish is like a It's a small fresh water speci It only gets about like an inch and a half two inches long that was introduced to water bodies across the world as like a means to combat mosquito born illnesses by controlling mosquito populations. Hence their name they pray a lot on mosquitoes um.

There are some instances of this working, that being the introduction of mosquito fish um, most notably in Sochi, where there's actually a statue of a mosquito fish commemorating its role in eradicating malaria on the nearby Black Sea coast. No way that really worked out there. I didn't know that.

Fun fact, Wait, it seems to It seems too. I mean like there are various, like you know, factions of like the scientific community who were like that worked really well, and then there are others like that did not work as well as you might think, and it was probably some other ship. These drugs we developed worked even ben Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're pretty good. Unfortunately, the success of the introduction program was limited, and instead many areas saw like negative impacts

caused by the introduced species, that being the mosquito fish. Ironically, the mosquito fish's presence often made the mosquito population increase. And the reason that is is because they compete. Yeah, they'd out compete native fish for like other food sources. So the mosquito fishes don't just eat mosquitoes, they eat other shot it, got it. They had options, so they opted out of mosquitoes kind of right exactly, and that led to crashes in native fish populations, and those native

fish would also eat mosquitoes. So if there are like five fish, one of them being the mosquito fish, four of them being other native species, those five species together we're eating mosquitoes. Got it? I think? Yes, it's it's a hard thing to unpack it and sort it out later. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Okay, Anyhow, now the moment you've been waiting for, enter robo bass. The robo bass

is a horrifying like albino robot large mouth. I mean this is just based on some of the pictures that I've seen of it, and scientists have been using it to scare the ship out of the mosquito fish in aquariums. It's as an experiment, it kind of cracks me up. As I kind of touched on for half a second in the opening, scientists are using the robots learning exactly what happens when the mosquito fish are exposed to fear.

By building a robot replica of one of their like most voracious predators, that being the large mouth, scientists are able to scare the mosquito fish in the control setting, and then observe the physiological and behavioral changes the mosquito fish exhibit in just six weeks of exposure. They've noted that the mosquito fish has basically become a nervous wreck, losing weight in acting like just not relaxed. Importantly, they've noticed two physiological changes that could spell success for the

future of mitigation efforts. One the females get skinnier, and two the male sperm production is cut in half. Mm hmm. Right, so it's having major impacts on the reproduction viability of the mosquito fish theoretically in a tank environment right now, to be fair, right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So I mean this is all proof of concept, right, and that's what we're gonna get to in a second year. So what is the future of the robo bass. Well, you're not going to find a pawn by you getting like

a full on stocking of terminator fish anytime soon. Its main purpose was proof of concept that being the fear could result in the mosquito fish undergoing rapid negative physical changes in response to a stressor. To that end, scientists are looking at other more logistically feasible methods of stressing out these fish, such as predator sense. Now that the

concept has been proven to work, so this is super fascinating. Um. And just to be clear, what they're basically saying is they're developing these robo bass, right theoretically, you could put them in an environment with mosquito fish, okay, and they're gonna stress those fish out to sort of keep them in check. But the robo bass obviously isn't going to eat the mosquito fish so that they can keep eating mosquitoes.

Is that the point? Because otherwise, why wouldn't you just throw a bunch of large mouth in the pond if they don't have them, Other than the fact that they'll then eat the mosquito fish, the robo bats, in my understanding of it, is used specifically in these controlled environments to prove that like stress will result in like a decrease in reproduction viability of the mosquito fish. Right. So the end the end goal then is not like we're gonna make these things and if you have a mosquito

fish problem by a robo bass, throw it in. That's got it. That's not it. Although I bet you this is going to result in some sort of like crazy like articulated crank bait. What this is really meant to do is just to prove the concept that the react to fear in this way. And obviously like it's not viable to go put a robot in, like all these bodies of water were several robots and all these bodies

of water. No, no, of course you wouldn't. And plus I mean I don't I don't know how long they've been doing this, but I mean fish aren't as dumb as we think. Eventually that my guess is in the controlled environment, they'll stop being nervous because they'll realize it's not going to come over and eat them, you know what I mean. Yeah, I mean they do have the thing program to like lunge at the mosquito fish like it threatens them in like a very like immediate sort

of way. Um. But yeah, like I said, the whole thing is just proof of concept in the controlled setting. And I think what they're really leaning on is, um, you know, things like predator sense, got it, you know, And that would kind of do two things. One, it would still allow them to like you know, put this stressor into the mosquito fish's habitat. But also, you know when you said why not put a bunch of you know, why not stock these spots with a bunch of large mouth?

A lot of these spots like should not be stocked with large mouth for instance. Um, they have a big problem with mesquite to fish in Australia. And I think per our conversation with Karl Jocobson, there are not currently a bunch of large mouth around Australia. No, they don't need them down there. They got way cooler fish than that. Why you want to go, you know, throw a lay mass bass down there with all them Murray CODs and stuff. Yeah, anyhow, I guess we'll be at the mercy of fill the engineer,

Yeah we will. I just have to say, though, my biggest takeaway from your story, I just I want one of the robot bass from my kid. Like there's already a crank bait that kind of does that, but like, oh my god, he'd have a ball with that, throw that that ship in the bathtub, he'd have a field day. Um. Anyway, I cut you off, Well, yes we're going to fill for final judgment. Um, and I'm sure he's he's probably

squeaking this in just minutes before the ball drops. So um, Phil, Happy New Year, my friend and I I really hope you're not wearing a bass Pro Shops trucker hat right now or else I'm screwed. I'm screwed in terms of judgment. Um. And after we what are we doing after we hear from Phil? Oh, yeah, we're gonna go into a very special edition of that's my bar, because that's right. It's a roundtable with our dear friend and guide Marty a

k a. The Party. Ye. And by the way, if you notice that that Hayden's audio sounds a little off and this that's my bars because he was legit drunk when we were recording and forgot to plug his mic into the karaoke machine. Zero one zero zero one one zero one zero. That's binary for Hayden. You're the winner this week. You know, sometimes when I work from home and I'm not in the office, I leave behind an albino robot version of myself just kind of prop him

up in my chair. It looks like a crash test dummy with a two thousand seven zac Efron haircut. It's been three months and Hayden still hasn't noticed, and I think that might say more about me than it does him. Mm hmm. Best God damn bar tender from Kim buck to to Portland's Maine Portland argument for that matter. So we're doing kind of a special That's My Bar this week free Form Jazz. That's My Bar. I guess it's kind of like a bar round table, if you will,

which is something that we've we've never done before. We've always relied on on listeners to write in and tell us about their favorite fishing bars. But well we'll shake it up. What the hell so so joining Hayden not today? Um, longtime friend of the program, Marty Ye Cross Current Guide Service.

He's been, He's been, You've been with You've been on here many times now, Marty, Yes, A couple of least yes that I know of, And it only seemed fitting since we have a loose party theme for this episode that we have to invite you because your I G handle is Marty a k A. The Party, So we can't, like, you can't have a party themed bent and not invite Marty a k A. The Party Now true, When when I was first introduced to Party, I was actually party.

I've been calling a party Marty all week. It's fun. Yeah, I was introduced to him as Party Marty. I just want to point out I never I don't think once in my life have like introduced myself like, Hey, I'm Marty the Party. That name was getting to be here, that name was given to me here on the Delaware, like the guys are the guides around here? Just started calling me that. Please expand because my next question was going to be how did you become Marty a k a.

The Party? It's so it's a probably based upon that. It rhymes a big deal to do with it. I don't I don't know. When I first came on the Senior in the Delaware was a couple of people that I'm still friends with, um rhymed. I don't know. I guess I just put off that vibe that I like to have fun, which I do in fairness, right, So for our Halloween episode, we didn't end up with a photo of you and a shark costume passed out in front of golf cart. That would have been like that

was like the traitive party Marty. So away I thought, I thought this is what we would do, right, we always we always have listeners right in about their favorite bars. Um And when we kicked off this segment, when we first started it many many moons ago, I actually talked about one of my favorite bars on the Upper Delaware where you are. It used to be Lyddy Is What the hell is it called? Now? I just keep calling it liddy Is? I mean I still do too. It's

called Nick Breezes Crosstown Tavern. Yeah, are the are the Are the fried mushrooms still as good there? Marty? You know I don't eat mushrooms, So but I could, I could, I could tell you what I normally get there is still as good. But I mean it's nothing. It's wings party. Marty doesn't eat mushrooms. That almost doesn't make sense, you know anyway, So you know, I think between the three of us, we've been to enough divy joints in different

parts of the country. Maybe something close to home, and I just hiden and I thought we'd rap a little bit about like what are just some of the most memory a fishing bar that sticks out to you, whether for a single experience or someplace that you visit all the time. It's a roundtable. Marty and you're the guest, so I'm gonna let you go first. Don't let me

go first? Yes, all right, I mean you're in Marty a k. The party, so like we're like, we're gonna have a hard time following you up, I think, yeah, so there's definitely there's definitely one bar. So there's one. When I first got to the Delaware, Um, I came kind of with like nothing ish, like a hobo almost, so I don't have much so yeah, yeah, what a lot of guides do, which I find is common even now when they first start guiding somewhere in the minuterary,

they like you know they're there. They try to be as cheap as possible. So I was in a trailer. I decided to live in a trailer. Sure, so I ended up through a body of mine at the Beaver Doll. So it's place is called I'm I might get crucified for like giving this spot out, but it's not really a secret spot, but it's kind of a cool hangout. So I had a trailer. So this is a place. It's a it's a campground, it's a bar restaurant combination

right on the Delaware. Is this on the East branch More. Yeah, it's right where at the junction of where it's just just near where downriver of where the junction of the beaver Kill and the Delaware meet. This this place is just really cool and it's kind of like, I don't I don't know if this is the right phradge. It's kind of like the UM. When I was there, it was like the first starting like underground campground, like it just started, like it just opened for the last couple

of years, so everyone was kind of new there. And it turns out that I still have friends that I met there, and it just turns out there's just like a bunch of guides and anglers, hardcore anglers that just camp, you know, most like I would say like fifteen percenteven were guys that live there like throughout the week and the whole during the season, and the rest are like weekend guys who have like trailers on the river, like, you know, you get this diverse mix of people like

old school fly tires, like guides, um, you know, like just all walks of life. And there's a bar to and not to mention it's just like a really fun bar. The people who own it and and run it They're amazing. I love them, and they're good to their customers and they treat us again, it's just a fun place. So you can just imagine like me first coming to the Delaware trying to learn the ropes and I just get thrown and this kind of like it's you know, an

underground e local diebee bar. I love it though, and uh, just all these mix of people of different flight tires, anglers, from all different experiences and just a really cool place. Is it The kind of place though that like you have to be in with the family and then if you are the random dude that just strolls in there, you're like, you're not supposed to be there. I wouldn't say that. I mean no, they're like I said, everyone's friendly there. You know. It's see the irony the one

that came to mind for me. I've only been there once, but man, it really stuck with me. And also ironically, I'm going to Montana for a bar. Okay, it's not in Bozeman, don't get excited, Okay, but this was years ago. My first assignment for Field and Stream Ever in mont Hannah. We ended up in a place called the Antlers Saloon in Wisdom, Montana. You heard of this, You're a liar, I swear to God. Up in the Shields Valley. I don't know. It's on the beats on the Big Hole.

It's in Montana, man, far far west side, almost on the Idaho border. Oh no, I have not been there's one with antlers in the Shields Valley because I burn hunt up there something. I bet you there's a bunch with antlers in Montana and generals. But anyway, so it's like this total honky tonk country joined on the side of the road and like it was me and my buddy from Jersey and we had no business being in there right. Like it was that kind of place where

you felt like, obviously we're not from around here. I mean, there's a gas station in the antlers saloon and Wisdom. But what it made it so memorable was you guys, ever been in a dive bar where somebody sort of sidles up next to you and starts talking. And sometimes that's cool, sometimes that's very cool, but sometimes the time you're just like, please stop talking to me, and like we must have just looked like baby faced, like not from around here. And this straight up Montana cowboy, like

grizzled flannel shirt. He sat down next to us, and I mean, by the end of the night he was begging us. He was he was giving us all his girl troubles, his girlfriend troubles, and like begging us to give him a ride back to Idaho. And then it got really weird and at one point and he said all kinds of wacky ship. But at one point he's like, you give me your ride home. I'll show you some ears. I'm like, what do you mean. I'm like, what do you mean you'll show us something's like ears. I'm like

human ears. He's like all right, And the dude just wouldn't shake us. But it was just it was like so dusty and dingy in there. I don't know how you just moved on from there, didn't You didn't say like, excuse me, No, I didn't. I didn't really want to. I just wanted I just wanted to shake the dude.

I just wanted to shake the dude. And that was that was That was like the Antler Saloon stuck with me because of that guy, who likely if he hasn't passed away, it's probably still there almost every night, you know what, I mean, but don't you wonder, Yeah, but you're covering headphones how much you wonder your whole life?

Like what if I would have said, like, yeah, I want to see your ears, so you would have gotten in the car with dude and just driven him across the border to Idaho through the mountains in the middle of the night to go see his ears and his establishment what I'm saying like you just like moved on, like it was like all right, whatever, Well I didn't quite go down like that, but I'm not gonna spend

an hour telling the whole saga. But I mean, I remember that it was one of those guys where he flim flamed, like he was in tears over his his woman leaving him. But then it would just shift into like his woman's waiting for him at home and like we can go meet or two Like dude, dude, it was just it was very all over there, very strange that a very drunk person conversation man speaking in which you having a holiday party. Attle. I just wanted to lead.

I just want the listeners to know that Hayden is mildly for this recording. Yeah, Phil, Phil who just popped in, was feeding you cider and my ties or something right. We have Phil's feeling good too, and chef Kevin Gillespie. Uh, he made hot buttered rum. Phil made like a buttery nipple. Is that like a tour of a buttery nipple? I don't know what it is. It tastes like if you let's see, if you dropped your fruity rum drink into the into the butter that you're dipping your crab in.

That's what it tastes like. But a good time is being had by A good time is being had by well me. Uh, we'll keep it going. What's your boss? What's your round table? Bar? Where Marty and I have most recently cross paths was out at an outfit or that I have mentioned on this podcast, I think a time or two before, owned by the folks that initially introduced me to party Marty. Um, we met there and that's that's Sam Probably yeah, senate or over Outfitters and

now Senate over Outfitters. In addition to having lodging and a you know, a pretty good tackle shop. Great shot by the way, really a good shot man. It's good you could ever want. As far as clothes, man, it's a good place to hang at um. Yeah, well I'm saying they like it's a great shop too, that he has everything as literally everything man has as he and that he were talking about is my buddy Chris Marty. Has Chris ever just run you out of house and

home on the dartboard? Yes, oh my god, yes, I lost two hundred dollars to him in a weekend one time playing. I don't have a smart enough I mean I'm terrible darts. I was smart enough, never bent money, but I've played. Yeah, well you're smarter than I am because she was the But anyhow, Senator for Outfitters also has a little bit of a greasy spoon and a bar attached to it. Now, if you go down the steps, if you go go through the fish and lode down

the steps kind of takes the subterranean enclave. Yeah, exactly, it's all like naughty pine and like you know, just would and they give you peanuts and you can throw the sh Don't they have don't they have them? Is that maybe it's not them? Don't they have the money all over the walls? Yeo, I was just getting to that. Now. The main like you know, the main quality that this bar has. The main characteristic is a few thousand bucks staple all over the wall and all sorts of just

drawn upon dollar bills. You know, I have one that I addressed George Washington up like Donald Trump with markers, and it says I'm gonna catch a steelhead. It's gonna be huge. Yeah, you know, I think there's one that has mind. It says Marty the Party on it. I wouldn't imagine it would say anything else. I'll tell you what, man, that bar starts off. It was like a normal bar where you buy your drinks and you to give you

the drink, and you and you're drinking. And then by bound ten o'clock at night, man, it is it is no longer a normal bar. You're behind the kitchen, you're making yourself a cheese, yourself out of the well. Yeah, they're like helping. We're too busy, you do. Like that

happens often there. My takeaway from this this very slap together, uh that's my bar round table, is that at some point down the road we should do Uh it was Hayden you mentioned it like an East Coast um bar crawl, fishing bars crawl and film that as it it should be a video series on the media YouTube channel. The local watering hole is important to the fishing like culture, you know. Yeah, yeah, so maybe, yeah, maybe maybe we'll

get together and do that after the New Year. We'll make that a goal and then maybe it expands out because I'm sure everybody else could fill us in on where to do the crawl in the Midwest and then on the West Coast and then through the Rockies. I'll tell you what man doesn't see as I will participate in anytime. Marty, thank you for bringing the party directly to Bent on New Year's What are you doing for New Year's? Um? I think I'll be at my brothers

and Massachusetts doing nothing. Actually, do you want to say that again, because I assume the answer would be partying. You're gonna ruin your whole ship here partying. Yeah, your headset makes you look like a stockbroker in two thousand and two trading right now. I got multiple screens. You guys don't know trading right now. So happy that Marty could stop by for that little watering hole rap sessions. It's always fun having Marty on. Um, it's even more

fun fishing with Marty. I know you guys have hung out. I don't know if you've ever actually fished together, but yeah, I say every time he's on, he's the best. Three of us. Need to fish together. That's the thing we have to make happen. And and the bar crawl, both

of those things. But maybe it's a good idea, um, And if you're listening, you know, put that in the uh in the content ideas we do need to go hang out and fish with party Marty all jokes aside um, And that dude is like like universally fishy, you know what I mean. He's really good at all types of fly fishing, from like drives to mice to nim thing. He's like, you know, a jack of all trades. Yeah,

and he really gets after it, man. Like he's fishing on his days off, dropping clients off in the evening and going back out mousing by himself. So if you live in the Northeast and one of your resolutions is getting better at fly fishing, Marty is not a bad guy to know, a good guy to contact. Yeah, he can help you out. Um now, now, well, well that's not a resolution of mind, you know, because I already

know everything about every type of fly fishing. I do have one more small fishing resolution, which i'll explain in this week's end of the line. Well, that's not loud enough. In honor of the new year, and since we've already brought up resolutions, I'm gonna close out end of the line for one talking about a lore I've never fished. I've just stared at it for about five years now. I've contemplated using it. I even thought ship maybe this

could be some kind of secret weapon. But like many many anglers, sometimes I'm guilty of sticking to the known and familiar just a little bit too much. To our listeners in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, I'm sorry you're gonna be cross with me after this, But that's okay because I'm already saying right now I'm wrong, and you're right. You already understand the power of the Tasmanian Devil Lord or TASI for short, if the Internet is correct, But

I do not. The Tasmanian Devil I own is listed on the website of Tasmanian Lord maker Wigston as Christmas tree. But when I look at the blended red, green and gold foil on that body. All I see are Rastafarian shades. Tasmanian devils are very unique. Picture a torpedo without any finds. The weighted body has a slightly tapered cigar shape which curves up just a little to give it a bit of bow. The cigar bodies are painted or foiled with all kinds of snazzy colors like hot Canary, Rally's Riot,

and bleeding Flamingo. That body is then completely encased in clear plastic, which forms a wide set of tapering wings on either side of the body. Now, the silhouette of a tazzi is kind of reminiscent of a man array or a flying squirrel or one of those red bull

whack jobs that base jumps in one of those wingsuits. Anyway, the Tasmanian devil is a line through lure, meaning instead of having attached hooks, you run the end of your liner leader through the hole in the lure's body, add a plastic bead, and then tie the hook of your choice to the end of that line in the water.

The combination of those big wings and the freedom of the lure has to twist and turn on the line creates a wide side to side wobbling action that I call like an odd cross between a traditional spoon and a chatter bait. It swims in kind of an arc, waddling up one direction before dipping back down and waddling up the other. Tasmanian devils are very popular as trolling lures, but the smaller sizes are extremely castable. In fact, much like a spoon, they fly far. At least in the

videos I've seen. You can also vertically jigitazi. They were popularized in Tasmania and New Zealand as a trout lower, and I got my hands on that rasta model from an old fan from down Under. Yet every time I go trout fishing, or small mouth fishing for that matter, even if the lor is in my bag, I don't tie it on, and before you know it, the day is over and I've fished my normal regiment of offerings.

The earliest versions of the Tazzi devil were created by Eddie Wigston, and according to Wiggston's website, he and his son's tinkered with prototypes all through the nineteen sixties and it wasn't until nineteen seventy nine that the lord you can buy today when in a full commercial production, and point being they've been around man and they're certainly proven, so it's not a matter of me thinking the lure

won't produce. For the longest time, I think I talked myself out of tying it on for fear of losing it. After all, you couldn't run too wally World for another one, and it was a gift from a fellow angler very very far away. But recently I've noticed something. Tasmanian Devils are gaining traction in the walleye seen these days. You can buy them on the website of Fish USA, and during a couple of visits to the Midwest over the summer, I happen to see Wigston's Tasmanian Devils hanging on tackle

shop pegboards. So while it's a minor resolution, right, I valve to finally fish that damn thing this year because it's not catching anything in the package in the garage. I'll report back. But despite any other resolutions, you make two maybe at tie on some wacky ship you'd have never used before, even if only for a day or fifteen minutes or just ten casts. So that's it for

this week and for this year for that matter. Um It's been a tumultuous here for Ben, shall we say, But I would just like to close out by saying how happy I am that you Hayden are here. Man. I'm looking forward to two and doing some fresh cool ship with Bent and you. When I look back on things in one that I was like really exciting, I

have this happy man. I like lie in bed at night at like you know, New Year's Eve or whatever, and I try and think of every like cool thing that happened to me that year, and like, you know, all the stuff that I was really proud and happy to be a part of. I try and keep the self loathing off the table that night. Uh. And this this is like got to be at least in the bottom of the top ten, right, It's higher than the bottom of the top ten. Man. I'm so I'm just

so happy to be here. Man. It's uh, it is an honor and not something that I that I take for granted. But hey, look, speaking of fresh news ship, don't forget folks that we're dropping our first listener Q and a segment next week. We want to hear it from you, So keep those questions coming to Bent at the Mediator dot com. Along with all those bar nominations, sale bin items, awkward photos, and whatever else you feel like sending. Yes, and keep those Degenerate Angler and Bent

podcast hashtags cranking on Instagram. We see them all and like them all. Yes we do. And let's let's let us just say thanks so much for listening to Ben this year, right. Nothing makes us happier than hearing from you guys about how we enhance your Friday's, your drive to and from work, or how you're actually listening to Bent and you're supposed to be answering calls to the emergency medical center. Um, don't do that, but please do have a happy New year, degenerates and go gear up to the right