Ep. 75: My Crappie Swing Has Mad FG-Force

got motto on their fly reel. I always feel like it's too difficult of a not it's actually pretty easy. Oh well, all right, and good morning to gendered anglers, and welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast that prefers to wet its knots with someone else's saliva before sinching them tight. I'm Joe Surmelli. That's how you get the COVID and I'm hating salmac. Yes you are? You are still hating? Uh yeah? And yeah today, how are you feeling better?

By the way you're all over your you know? Oh yeah, yeah, well, you know, like I said, I didn't really end up again like that. Stick to begin with, you don't have the long COVID very thankfully, No, I do not. It appears away. It might drop dead in ten years, but you know I don't. Yeah, well, yeah, so so might we all? Who knows? Anyway, Uh, today on the show, let's see what we got. We're gonna talk about get this. We got a bar today with its own theme song.

Excited about that, And we're gonna talk about knots and everybody loves to talk knots, right, um, And by the end of this you you might finally get off And by you, I mean you hate and finally get off the clinch knot I think you use for everything. Isn't that what you do? It's so easy? I mean, I mean sort of sort of it is. But life, you know, sometimes life is hard anyhow? Um you know? So hey, look,

you did finally make it back to Montana. Did Phil's announcement last week spark spark a little more enthusiasm to get back? Did it once again? Early again? Joe? And then listeners, here's a weekly reminder that I am, in fact not high. Yeah. I don't know why people won't let this go. Have you guys ever considered like I might just be kind of dumb. No no, no, no, no, I don't say that You're not dumb. You're just You're just special and that's why we love you. And I

hope it never dies. I think we should just keep that one going, you know. Thanks anyway, Yes, I did in fact make it back to Montana. Yeah. Well, you know, with all those delays and and rescheduling, you know, I got to thinking about it, and I'm like, you were here for so much extra time. We probably still could have gotten a fishing trip in. We didn't know that

you were going to get stuck. But in hindsight, I'm like, damn, you actually were here with a negative COVID result for like, you know, three or four more days and you should have been Yeah. Um, and the weather was nice, I mean relatively speaking, so uh yeah, we we probably could have. But I did get to hit the I did get to hit the ice. I was gonna say, you did. You did one wish did come true for you? You You got you finally got back out there and back out

on the ice this weekend. How was that? It was good? I got to break out all that ship that thirteen sent me and everything that i'd hoped for and more. There you go. So now having actually finally gotten to use it, um any any favorite piece of of thirteen fishing gear emerge out of the glorious pile you were sent. Yeah, I'm gonna get into it, like you know, I think we'll talk about a little more in this episode later on.

But uh, what we ended up fishing for was mostly like, there was this farm pond that we ended up fishing, and so I bought a lot of the lighter stuff. You know, there aren't any like Walleye or like anything super big in it. But I was fishing one of those little ultra light omens with like the split grip. I love that thing, man, It's it's unbelievably sensitive and so like the blank starts around right and then the tapers into like a flat like ribbon of metal. So

it's the tip of supersensitive. So you don't have to use one of those what do you call like those like spring dipper things. Oh god, yeah, I know you know what I'm talking about. I I do. I don't, I don't, I don't know the lingo, but I know exactly what you mean. But yeah, those rods are pretty slick like the tip of those rods. It's like it's like a noodle, but it works somehow, especially light for

smaller light biting fish. Yeah totally. I mean, like you know, it's it's good for two things, right, You can really see anytime something interacts with your bait. And then also if you just like move your wrist to touch, it kind of works as like a spring to amplify that. So it gives you like a really nice action. And that rod, because of how it's designed, has some really

like it has some surprising backbone to it too. I actually hooked into like a fairly sizeable brook trout, like you know, fifteen inches, which you know for a brook trod, was like a great brookie And man, I licked that thing before it knew it was hooked, you know. So anyhow, the split grip Ultra light omen is a new favorite, and I'm a big fan of that. Yeah. Yeah, I lick a lot of brookies before they know they're hooked.

When you do that, you would end up over your shoulder, you know what I mean, on those little streamers like to fish just like, oh he's behind me, Tony. Anyway, that's that's actually not where I thought go with that. But but yeah, no, I could have gone in several directions, but I chose that one. Um, since you we choose to wed our brookies with other people saliva too, Yeah right, exactly exactly. Um. But well, looks since you've left, it has gotten colder here, um, but still not cold enough

for local safe ice. So I'm not using any of my thirteen nice fishing gear, at least not around the way. You know what I'm saying, Maybe a little bit of skim ice that's gonna go away when it gets back to forty five this week. Um. Anyhow, moving on to those knots. Did you know I'm actually fascinated by fishing knots. And here's why. I think that anglers obsess over them too much. Right, Like, in my opinion, there are four

maybe five knots every angler should know and that's it. Yeah, yeah, I you know, we were joking about me using a clinch knot for everything. That's not exactly true, but uh, you know, I think they're like people are like, oh, you gotta use this for this, and this for that and this for there are a whole bunch of knots that have like different applications, right, But you know, I don't think that you know, if you're a saltwater fisherman, you use a series of knots if you're yeah, as

I was gonna say, right, so it's situational. And now, in my opinion, every anglersh should know the clinch, palamar, non slip, mono loop and a unique union splice. And then like you say, there, there's there's outliers like if you fly fish for trout, you gotta add a blood not today have to know how to tie that. Um. If you saltwater fish, you should probably be able to tie a spider hitch. Maybe not the Bamni twist, but

the spider hitch. Um. But what I see happening, uh, is these new knots get popularized by the internet right on like TikTok and reels. There's always these little tutorials on tie these crazy knots, which is fine and new is good, there's nothing wrong with that. But then what happens, I feel like other knots apparently become weaker. It's like, oh, you're still tying the palamar. That's so two thousand five dude,

you know what I mean? Only only not I'll use these days to San Diego jam, Like, come on, man, and not that was good ten years ago. It's still for the most part of good. Knot Yeah, people are too obsessed with knots, man, And like, here's the thing. If I wanted to spend all my free time tying knots, I'd get into crocheting and not like five fishing. The my like kid basically is like five turned clinch kids,

the improved clinches in garbage. Don't use it, um oh, explain yourself so you don't go back through the loop to make it improve. Because here's like the thing that to me, because of how that not tightens when you pull it back through, sometimes that loop will close on your tag end, and before the the turns around, your main line have like seated themselves. So you're saying a lot of times and this is just for me, you know,

I shouldn't say it's garbage for everyone. Man, If you're better at that, I just find that they don't sit as well. And I find that I guess it kind of I guess an opening that loop a little bit by bringing your tag end back through, you kind of take some pressure off of it. And I guess it's not cutting in so much. But no, no, I wasn't trying to give you a hard time. It's actually I'm I was intrigued that you said that because there have been articles written right and and some other like really

hardcore anglers that say the same thing. You don't need to go back through the loop. I don't think you need to do that, man. I think it's like a I think it depends. Yeah, I think it depends on what you're tying it with. But my point I was gonna say was, even though I've read them and I probably think that's right, I can't not do it. I can't. But I can't not go back through the loop. And I know other fishermen who read the same thing. They're like, yeah, but I can't do it. I can't not. It just

doesn't feel right. I will say before we move off of this um. The only time that I tie it is if I'm using a clinch shot for some reason on like a bigger hook that for some like I don't want to smell or something like that. Like so if if I'm like bait fishing or whatever. But I'm trying to think of like a good way to wrap

this up. If I'm using like, if I'm using a hook with like a heavy gauge wire and I'm trying a clinch shot on it for some reason, I will use the improved clinch because the diameter of like the hook I sometimes your regular clinch will slip a little bit. Well, that's that's what it all boils down to, is diameter. In a matter of fact. You know, if if you're doing twenty pound tests or heavier, you don't need five turns three, I'll do it and we turn clinch on

a heavy saltwater leader. No problems there, No problems there anyway. We'll get off of that now. And I just want to reiterate that new you know, it's not that new knots aren't cool or good. It's just that I think we get obsessed with them. And there's one not in particular that has really blown up and let's say the

last five six years or so. So we're gonna move been to actually a very special tackle hacks for a change, UM with Elite series bass pro Carl Jakobsen, who was here a while ago, UM to discuss this not and let's see if he sells you on the merits of what I'd considered the second most pain in the ass, not next to the Biminy twist. I'm getting hacks coming from inside the City the Blood at joining us today for tackle hacks. Carl Jocobson is here, uh bass Master

Elite Series angler. You've been on before for smooth moves, reminding everybody you were the first Australian angler to qualify for the bass Master Elite Series. Um. Yeah, Man, whenever we have a chance to get like a really high caliber bass pro on like yourself, we'd be remiss not to get a tackle hack, because, i mean, bass is America's fish. We have a lot of anglers that chase bass.

So I'm always so curious to hear uh tips from from guys like yourself to do this for a living with everything on the line, with all the pressure, something that that you have in your repertoire, you lean on a lot that can just make Joe Weekend Angler a better bass fisherman. Man. The floor is yours, Coral, Yeah, no doubt. Um, thanks having us on. I think the best one for me is we talked about it before, is the f G knot And that's a question that we get asked a lot is braid to leader, what

not to tie? How do you tie it? Should you use straight through fluora carbon, when do you use braid um? But the FG not sort of eliminates a lot where you can get the best of both worlds. And it's a difficult not to tie, but if you learn it, it's sort of worth it. And the reason is it's a platt so a lot of braid leader knots um that will be the weakest point in your line and

a lot of people lose. You know, you go out there, you spend all that money and and to go out and fish, and then you lose that trophy fish of that fish that you've been chasing for the whole time because of a failed knot is not a good feeling, and it happens all the time to so many So um, learning a good braid lee to n is key and being able to use big long leaders. When you do so,

you kind of get the best of both worlds. You get that stretch um and the allow on their bait to to move naturally with a big long fluori carbon leader. But then getting the feel and the hook set and everything of having braid and the and the lightness of braid. You know, the castability and everything that comes along with trade. So the f G knot is a platid knot that is very thin and long. The break the fluora carbon does not turn. It stays straight, so it flies through

your guides super smooth. It doesn't catch and break your lure off or just have a one of those ones where you cast in your bait just slams the water, which happens a lot with the leader. It just eliminates that. Then it's a hundred percent not strength UM, so you get um, that's not the weakest point in your line anymore. It's actually the strongest point. It's going to break everywhere else. And generally what I found when I started tying it is I like to improve my not to my lure then,

but because that was where the point was breaking. And so I've done it now to where I don't know where it's gonna break. When I get snagged, usually straighten as the hook or break somewhere on the loudest part of the later um. Although you know, usually dawn need the bite where it's like being roughed up or something like that. So for me it would be learned that f J not in a good not to your bite, and uh, you'd be enjoying fishing bride later a little better.

I'm actually really pumped you you brought up this not because it's an interesting topic. First of all, if I'm not mistaken, it was the Australian anglers that popularized that not. I mean I remember, like five six years ago in the saltwater scene, nobody was talking about the f G and all of a sudden, I do a lot of saltwater fishing. You see like that is everybody will tell you that is now the only not worth using. Um. I use it a ton to saltwater fish, like tune

in stuff. But here's my issue with it, And maybe you have a quick add on to fix this. I love it, but I need to set up all my rods tonight before to be out there doing all that plating and crossing over. But and if something does break, or if I have to do one on the water while we're rocking around in six foot seas, I always feel like it's too difficult of a not to do properly in those conditions. But I know some guys are very good at tying them faster. Like, is there people

people listening. It's one you've got to look up on YouTube because it's very hard to explain how to tie it. But once they understand that, is there anything that comes to mind that like makes you tie that knot quicker and smoother on the water, it's actually pretty easy. People get too caught up making it look with making it look they not easy to explain why. Sorry, it's easy to um, but people try and get caught up with

making it look pretty, and that's what happens. They want it to look perfect and they want all the plats. But the truth is the second that you've done five uh plats, that's the knot it's done. Like all the rest of it is just is nothing. The not, the strength of the not is in those first five to

ten plats. And so you guys gonna have a laugh at my expense, but I'm going to take that to the bank because when these things first came out, it's like you have to do cross and you're our mouth there with the thing in my mouth for five minutes trying on one leader. You don't have to have a certain amount, but the not strength is in those first few plats. So you get them correct, then just plat it and then half hitch it to finish it off

and just do don't get crazy. They want to do all the different types of ones to make it like looks like it's a needle point. And that's the way I do it the night before. But during the tournament, I can tie it as quicker than anyone can tie night Like. I sit on the leader, I pull it up, it's around my fingers. I'm like platting it and half hitching it and I'm winding it up and I tie

it all the time. But the thing that most people don't get is if you tie it the night before with a leader and bass fishing, you won't have to retie the next day because it won't break. It'll break down near the knot and you'll be able to read tay and you can retail. I dropped shots and as many as a lot because you can fish a huge long laid on not run adelaida to where you're having to ry toy like during a tournament. It's rare that I have to toy and fj during the tournament. That

is a fantastic tip from Carl. He knows more about f gns than I do. So listen to him learned the knot and then practice tieing it quick because you since that one upright, it is pretty strong. I definitely didn't spend an hour trying to learn that not at

my desk. Right after we recorded that. I actually know you didn't, because right after that we were online together and you fired up a tutorial video on the f G on your phone, and as I recall, you watched it for thirty five seconds and said, you guys are such dorks. And by you guys, you must have meant serious anglers that care to know more than your favorite clinch knot. That's the way I interpreted that response. I

did say that it was too many steps. Man. It's like again, if I wanted to spend all my time tying knots crochet. Yeah, see I I waver right, Like when it first got popular. I tried it and I liked it, and I actually got made fun of for it, like guys on the boat like give me a hard time, like you know, insisting that the unit to UNI or Alberta not we're you know, we're better braid to leader connections.

I wouldn't know, I know, but that's okay, um, But I will say that after that chat with Carl, I'm starting to lean back into it a tiny bit for things I normally wouldn't write, like I only used it um in offshore salt water. But after that talk, I went on that brown trout trip that you missed that we talked about last week, and I got to think it about it, and I'm like, why not? You know what I mean, it's not gonna hurt. It can't hurt.

I did. I did because I'm using stick baits and and fifteen pound leader because we're angling for big fish. Did you notice, like, was it smoother? Well, it's always that was the whole thing. It is smoother to cash to right, it slides through your guides. Nice. There was nothing to notice because I didn't break off. But I didn't break off the last time I did it with

a different knot. So it's it's not really something that's like that's tangible, but it's just, um, I don't know, maybe that little bit more confidence that like if a you knowty Brown comes out and tanks that it's not going to snap it off with a connection. It is a very very solid knot, you know, right right, and regardless. You know tying most of the time, if you know how to do it, Tying a more complicated knot is not going to hurt. It couldn't possibly hurt unless you

were to tie wrong right, I probably would. But what is going to hurt is me crushing you Joe. In this week's installment of fish News, Fish News that escalated quickly. So before we kick in the news, I just want to say that we got some some really nice notes about the bent helpline, and um, I just wanted to thank you guys again for so many great questions, and I did you know we mentioned when we kicked it off that we've gotten a ton right, and we're not going to get to all of them, but I did.

I did just want to read a few very quickly from Neil angling. Okay. He he wrote in with like a laundry list of questions. And the only reason I'm doing this is because these are ones that will absolutely not make a bent Helpline segment, like there's not a chance, but there's still fun and I appreciate them. So, um, Neil asks who's more punk, g g Allen or Lemmy? Now? Why? Well, okay, did you really want my like longhand answer on this

or you wanted like short and sweet, short and sweet please? Well, uh, g Allen did what iggy pop meant to do with the peanut butter. Right. If you guys know G. G Allen, you'll know what I mean there. Yeah. G g Allen was famous for like taking a poop on stage and throwing it at the audience and like smearing himself with it. Yeah yeah, Now. Let Me, on the other hand, was initially in a band called Hawkwind, and Hawkwind was like

more like of a psychedelic sort of bent. Yeah, let me decided that he didn't fit in with like a lot of those philosophies, famously saying that he had some proclivities that we're not in line with the exact proclivities or habits of Hawkwind, and so he left and made

motor Head punking two ways, Punking two ways. But I still have to go with G. G Allen, although for all you G. G Allen fans, he was a terrible trash human being and it is very hard to say anything good about him other than perhaps he embodied a certain ethos I was not expecting this to to generate this much conversation. I'm very surprised. Is it's great though, So my answer would be in terms of like who

is more punk? Yes, it's G. G Allen, Like he sort of lived the punk lifestyle more, but his music was terrible. Like you're not you're not singing G. G Allen in the shower? You know? Yeah you know? But yeah, you're right, you're right. Let's move on. Next question from you, did Myles ever purchase a record player? How the should I know? I have no idea if Myles ever bought a record player, you'd have to ask Miles and his final one here, Bob the garbage man owes me some sticks?

Can I send you some smokes so you can trade him? He hasn't picked up the pay phone number he gave me. That's between you and Bob in the Better Business Bureau, my friend, I'm trying to get burner number. Um. But yeah, so it just goes to kind of show you the range of questions we've been getting. They're all super fun, but um, I don't think we could do a full segment on G. G Allen. I actually think we already kind of did too much. You know what I'm saying? Uh,

the point is where really haven't fine with this. Also, I just want to say sorry to all the people that wrote in and said I didn't notice the best pro trucker hat thing and now I noticed them everywhere. Thanks for officially ruining those. Yeah, well it wasn't us, it was it wasn't us. Man. What we can officially ruin, however, is Phil's day by making him listen to our ship and judge our news stories. Remember, uh, this is fish news.

It's a competition. Joe and I do not know which news story the other guy has grabbed, and our beloved, loved audio engineer Phil Taylor will declare a winner at the end. And Joe, I believe it's your lead this week. I believe it is too. So I'm gonna open with a question before I get into this news story. What was your very first job as a kid, like you know, like like kid kid like paperboy era that type of thing. What was your first game? I was. I was a

paper boy in a slightly different bent. My dad had a printing business. It's since like change into something else, But I used to work in the bindery department of that business, meaning I would like shrink wrap in spiral bind things, and I still have nightmares about it to

this day. I remember one time, one time I did this, I shrink grabbed this huge stack of hospital like forms, right, and after doing that all day, Uh, this dude Ryan came in with a stack of yellow papers and he said, I forgot to put these on top of each one of these things that you just did. You need to unwrap all of them, put this paper on top and then rewrap all of them again. So that punched him in the face and got fired. No, no, I I kind of just did as I was told, uh, like

a good little drawer. And yeah, so that was my first step. Okay, all right, there you go. So I walked dogs. That was my first job. There was a lady across the street that would pay me twenty bucks a week to walk her dogs when I got home from school. Uh, and it took me about a week of doing it to not feel like doing it anymore. Like, in hindsight, how lazy, Like it's a walk around the block, but I didn't feel like it anyway. You could have

gone a little bit more than twenty bucks. But this was in like the forties, so that was actually yeah, right, exactly it was. I was like a millionaire kid. So anyway, look, so now that everyone listening is reminiscing about their first kiddie job, um, I bet that none of them can top tongue cutter. Okay. So Smithsnyan recently published a terrific piece about child tongue cutters in Norway, and the tongues

they are cutting are cod tongues. But as I explained this, I want all of you that have children and like the six to thirteen year old range to decide, yes, my kid could hack it or hell no. Okay. So you recently covered, um, the reassessment of the cod stocks in the US, right, but over in Norway there seems to be a lot more of them. Those are some of the breeding grounds for the stocks of there, and the commercial cod fishing is still major business. So this

story is setting. It's either Ryan or Rhiny, probably Rhyney, which is a town in Norway's uh Lafoten Islands, Lofton Islands. I'm doing the thing that you do where I can't say stuff. Um. And this is this is of course well north of the Arctic circle, right, So there's several cod processing plants there and at the processors, the cod

bodies are dried, frozen, or salted, and then exported for food. Now, according to this story, a cod tongue is squishy, gelatinous and buttery smooth and likened to the filet mignon of the cod, which I've never heard before. If that's the thing that we do here, I've never heard of it. It's like when somebody tells me about, like I don't know, cooking, like perch cheeks or something ship and I'm like, how how much of meat is there? How big is a

cod tongue? I think cod tongues are pretty large. But all I can think of is those stories that are floating around down that nobody grabbed for news about those parasites that just replace the fish's tongue. That's all I could think about, Like we should I know, the idea of of of eating a fish tongue not super appealing.

Um anyway, So the thing about this is removing them is tedious, and the processing plants just can't make quite enough money off of them to to make the tongue removal worth their time, So instead they set aside all the cod heads for the local kids, many of which show up after school routinely to remove tongues and sell them on their own. Now, the processors know that they are leaving some money on the table, But um these kids known as I'm gonna try really hard here, and

I'm only gonna do it once. Tongueus yarn, in tongues yarning tong tonguas yarn and that's fine, which translates to tongue cutters. And that's what we're gonna say for the rest of the time. This is not something new. The people growing up in this region, kids have been doing this for generations. Um. And the processors gladly donate the heads because it quote introduces young people to the fishing industry and teaches them the value of entrepreneurship and hard work.

And hard work it is per the story, right. I love this quote. H This job makes selling girl Scout cookies or running a lemonade stand look like child's play. Right now, goes on. I want to I want to

read from the story. It's very well written. Um Uh that children as young as six goes straight from school to the docks, where they spend hours in the numbing cold, coated in fish guts, sharp knives in hand may seem bizarre when viewed from the perspective of today's developed economies and increasingly virtual workplaces, but the rarefied nature of this work, proudly undertaken by kids who feel a connection to the tradition,

is part of what makes the practice so fascinating. So it says the task itself involves spearing the head onto a giant metal spike and then slicing out the tongue. UH and the tongues pile up on the spike until they reached the top, where they're then tossed into a bucket. Right, and the author says the kid's handywork was so quick it was difficult to make out the distinct steps heads where grab spikes, slice tossed, grab spike, slice tossed until the large bin was empty and a new batch of

codheads arrived. Despite harsh winds and below freezing temperatures. A few of the older tongue cutters who worked fast, we're sweating piles of snow were pink with blood, but they didn't seem to mind. Right, So there's more to it than that, though. So they interviewed Um, a local fish exporter UH and he was like, yeah, like back in the day, I let my six year old stay out

there till midnight sometimes cutting these tongues. But then after these kids are done, then they have to go home, wash their own tongues, weigh them out right, separate them, package them, and freeze them. Um. And and these don't get exported. These are mostly sold locally. So they interviewed several generations of cutters. Is now a mother of kids

who cut. She says when she was young, when she was a young girl, she made thirty two thousand dollars over the course of six seasons and and used that to buy her first car. Now, yeah, nowadays, some of these kids are earning more than ten thousand in a single season. Right, good, yeah, right, And they talked to a fourteen year old girl who basically said, I don't want to talk about how much I make because it's a lot. I just don't want gangster four year old

girl old business. Yeah, exactly right. So it says, you know, she used her earnings most recently to buy a new iPhone and Apple AirPod so she could listen to music while she cut. And apparently these kids all use a mobile app called Marine traffic to see when the boats

are headed back to the dock. And then they sell their tongues now on like Facebook, marketplace and stuff, which some of the older people kind of said, you know, they say, like that sort of takes away the charm of what it used to be, like, you know, the little kids selling tongues now it's like it's a business now. Look, there's there's a lot of crafty, hard working kids out there in all countries, no doubt. It's not the racket and the hustle that that I find so special interesting,

but it's the conditions. Like some of these kids will stay out there until two o'clock in the morning cutting tongues in just brutal, brutal conditions. And I fully understand that these kids are used to those conditions, right that's

where they grew up. But still, like we had, you know, three inches of snow here the other day, and my little guy, who's like the hardcore fisherman, he's outside for ten minutes, was like, yeah, I'm cold, and then declined participation in all outdoor activities for the remainder of the day. So good on these kids. That is impressive, And like for the kid that's like I don't feel like walking

the dogs today. It's like, yeah, let me see you stand outside until two o'clock in the morning and subarctic conditions cutting out cod tongues. You know, such a punk. Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, man, it's a different breed up there. Man, those fishing cultures. Um. I mean you see this in a lot of like, uh, cultures that rely on like fishing or like a grarian or just what have you.

It kind of like just breeds this certain type of person that is just impervious to a lot of the stuff that like us soft Yeah, sure, no, and and that's exactly right. And I mean that's what I mean. I don't want to make it sound like, you know, kids in the US don't know how to work hard. You have kids who whose parents own ranches and grow up in you know, working farms and everything. I'm saying that, like the impression I get is that none of these kids need to do this to survive. It's not like

they're like they're feeding their families. This is basically for walking around money and rather than do what normal six to thirteen or fourteen year olds would do after school, like they're opting into this and that is badass, Like those are some tough ass kids, you know what I mean.

Please enter your password. You have one unheard message, Mr Smack, I have the mean calling getting ship like you really do you need to like do some basic research when you're doing a news story on I don't know Turkish names, maybe on pronunciation and bridget time air dewan. Dude, it's that is the president of Turkey. It's not like an obscure name. That is actually the current president Turkey. You should have got that own, buddy. Anyhow, we'll gets up.

Will end of message Delete Priss seven save deleted Phil. If I were you, I would pick Joe as the winner here. That's never good when you when you when you cross over like that. Yeah, well, anyway, I do think that I have a at least a contender here. Um, I wanted to talk to you, Joe about a Joe,

we need to talk about it. I wanted to I wanted to uh talk about a poaching incident that's getting a lot of coverage and in fact, this comes from USA Today, which is an interesting stories to like cover like an outdoor story, right, Um, well, they only tend to do it when it's pretty big and powerful to get to get there. They also they also have that that's a side site called for the wind and um, I mean I've had a lot of good things off

there anyway, God, anyway, good for you USA today. Uh. This December, Corporal Brian Talent of Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fishing Parks busted two folks who were caught with a hundred and fifty two croppy over their legal limit while fishing in Mississippi's Eden Reservoir or the Spillway I guess to Mississippi's Eden Reservoir. The limit would have been thirty between the two of them. So for those of you who can't do math, that's one hundred and eighty two croppy,

which is a crap ton of cross. You like that? I did like that? Oh man. I mean, you know, these things pop up every once in a while. It's it's not the first time, and I'm never less uh flabbergasted over just how how far you know, some people are willing to go over the limit. This is. That's a big one though. That's a big one for for a couple of guys. Yeah, Yeah, that's basically a truck bed full of full of croppy. Now the story is pretty like lacking in details. I tried doing more research

online and I was just like looking and looking. It's basically the same story, copied and pasteed, just over and over again. And that's really all the information that was there. This person busted these people, and these people had this many fish, and now these people are in trouble. Um doesn't name the anglers, doesn't talk about the method to take, doesn't talk about penalties, nothing that's interesting. Okay, that's that's fairly rare. They don't get in a little bit with

detail there for sure. So I put on my investigative journalist hat and got on the horn with M D. F W p oh phoning it in. All right, I'm impressed. Yeah, well, you know, you know, I like to do that every now and again. Keep the people in form, should factor that kind of stuff in, By the way, I hope he does, Phil, No matter what you're about to say or where this goes like extra more more effort tonight,

and everybody hung up on me the end. Uh. Anyway, it turned out there was um a lot I didn't know about the fishery itself, and I think that information really clears up a lot of the questions surrounding the story. So first, let's talk a little bit about crappy fishing in Mississippi. Uh, Joe, we both know that when you get into croppy, uh, you like really get into him. Yeah. Well yeah, I mean it's fair it's fairly rare to

catch one croppy. If you catch one, you've typically found them all, or at least a handful more So yeah, yeah, and that's just up north. Uh, Southern croppy is a whole different ball game. It's also big business. I think it's worth pointing out that, Like, yeah, Mississippi, Alabama, Northern Alabama in particular. Um, I fished in in Center Alabama,

which claims to be the croppy capital of the US. Um. Yeah, I feel like, by and large, in especially in the northeast, it's something that's there that you get into on occasion, but there's not the same kind of culture around it that there is in this area. Yeah. So again, it's a whole different ball game. Um. And it's a whole different ball game in like more ways than one. For instance, Joe, did you know that you could snag croppy in Mississippi legally. No, no,

I did not. So there are there are spill ways across the state where the croppy congregate is like temperatures drop in the winter, and it is perfectly legal to snag those fish. In fact, one person I talked to UH mentioned that there are even like plaques and these spill ways detailing exactly how one can legally go about it. It's one pulper angler, a maximum of two hooks, no bigger than a number two and no less than an inch apart, and no trouble hooks at all. Wow, man,

I mean, yeah, that's that's totally news to me. I had I had no idea. Um usually with any kind of game fish, I thought there was there was, there was no snagging of it, right right, Yeah? So, I mean, you know, we know when you get onto them, it's easy fishing. But like, even then, a hundred and fifty two over the limit, UH seems like gill net numbers. And the first thing I thought of was, how the hell did they do that? Well, there's your answer. They

were snagging, which is legal. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't, you know, abiding by that rule. Why they were completely ignoring you know, ignoring their limit. I wouldn't be surprised if they were like, oh, is are these hooks more than an inch? You know what I mean? Like, well, yeah, I mean I also wouldn't be surprised if they overlook the two hook um limit you know on the lines there.

But what's what's interesting to me, I don't know. It seems like if if there's a rule in place like this right where this is legal at a certain time a year when the croppy you're doing this typically, I feel like states would put those rules into play because a fair amount of people, um actually want to take them that way, you know what I'm saying. So without I mean, I don't know all the details, but it would seem to me like if that's a thing that people do so much so that there's rules in play.

Nobody else was down at this particular spot seeing this happen. I mean, they couldn't have called. They couldn't have snagged that many fish in ten minutes, or maybe they could. Maybe there's so many in there and they put nine hooks on their line. Who knows, But I just I wonder about that. Yeah, well, you know that is part of the story that I couldn't find out is exactly how this got reported, but it did get reported by by the public, like somebody said, suspicious activities going on here,

got it, you might want check it out. So I don't know exactly what that entailed, but that's what happened. So Yeah, the guys got busted, which begs the question, um, what does the fine for being a hundred and fifty two fish over your legal limit look like? According to the MWFPS Law Enforcement Office, the fine for the infraction is five hundred to a thousand dollars, Like that's your base fine, with an additional fine of twenty to a

hundred dollars per fish over the limit. That means, as I understand that the poachers are facing like the potential for a combined sixteen thousand, two hundred dollars approximately half of the fourteen year old girls tongue cutter money in fines for being like that, for being croppy hogging dumbasses. Yeah, well, you know, and I applaud the state for for thes per fish over I mean, they're not going to get that.

Well that's the thing, man, Like you see a lot of states really go for the throat and try and set an example here, um that might do something to scare off the next group of guys. We we've discussed that here before. Where just because that's the penalty, it doesn't mean they're going to pay it. And you know, in my opinion, if you're that much of a of a jerkass to do something like this in the first place,

somebody could take your license away or whatever. You're you're gonna do it if this is what you do, if you if you have it and you once, chances are you're gonna do it again no matter what gets imposed on you. Just my my opinion. Yeah, yeah, well, you know, I hope they throw the book at him. Anyway. The next thing I wanted to know is what the hell happens to all of these fish? So uh an employee

for mdf WPS Northern Regional Office. And you'll notice that, like I've left this particular person's name out of this new story. Yeah, I was wondering if you're gonna name drop. Yeah yeah, Well, I'm honestly pretty sure I was annoying that guy. So I didn't like ask for a lot of follow up, and in fact, I didn't even like get I didn't even want to ask him for his name again, because I was getting pretty curt answers at this point. You're just saying, yeah, man a lot, is

that what the so that guy? Uh, he intimated to me that it was up to the officer's discretion, like what happened to these fish, meaning that the officer could basically transfer the fish wherever he wanted to. Um. I used the example of a food bank, which he said would have been possible if the officer had deemed it appropriate. So he saw, like these fish were all good, they

were in good condition. Sure, let's get him to the food bank, right, Um, so you know, let's hope that that's where they ended up and not in like the landfill. I would also accept that officer hosting a badass fish, right though. Yeah, if it's at his discretion, man party at his joint, you know what I mean. That's not a terrible idea. That's not a terrible idea. No. So finally, um, you know, I was interested in like the frequency of

which things like this happened. The aforementioned guy, I'm pretty sure I was annoying, said that it happens all the time. But he he didn't in a shocking turn events. He didn't voluntarily like start listing off some specifics, so I followed up with with Major Chris reid Uh in the MDFWPS Central Region Office. Um, while snagging over their limit does happen occasionally, he said. Um. He also noted that

this event was particularly egregious. He said that in sixteen years, I haven't checked anyone that's been that brazenly over the limit. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but that's why we're out here checking to make sure the resources don't get depleted in this way. I've never seen a hundred and fifty is fish over the limit. Yeah, and some of that stuff is going to sneak by. I think, Um, you know, it's not easy being a being a conservation officer in any sting, you know what I mean, there's

only so many of you. You you you can't be anywhere. So I mean, even this bust, I think, you know, it should at least help to alleviate some of this and at least, you know, scare some people. I would hope that's kind of what all you can hope for with a lot of these outcomes. Yeah, yeah, is to you know, be taking a portion of these incidents, making them an example and trying to dissuade others from participating and just bullshit like this themselves. So anyhow, guys, don't

be a croppy catching ship head. I'd also like to thank Corporal Brian Talent for protecting the resource, and everybody at m d w FP who took the time to talk to me, even the guy who was very obviously annoyed with my line of questioning. Well, I still applaud you for calling UM. And let's see who feels going to applaud is it croppy catching ship heads or UM? The lovely, the lovely, you know, beautiful children of Norway who are up there cutting cod tongues while we um,

you know, live live the lavish life down here. We're gonna find out who wins. We're gonna hear from Phil and then we're gonna go have a drink in a Yanzer establishment, if you know what that means. I don't really open up about my process very often on this podcast, but I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm kind of tired of poaching stories and unless it involves someone named the Breeze, I'm also getting a little sick of record stories, So Hayden, I commend you hitting the pavement for this story,

but I gotta give it to Joe this week. I wonder if G. G Allen knew about these Norwegian kids, he could have invited them up to cut cod tongues out on stage as as opener. That would have been punk as hell best God damn bar tender from tim Buck to to Portland, Maine the Portland argument for that matter. So where are we going for some SuDS this week? Yinser country? How about that Western p a You ever spend any time out there? I went to visit Carnegie Mellon one time, and that is the extent of my

travels to Pittsburgh. My my wife actually applied there and when UH check that out too, ended up not going passed on that I'm not getting. I wasn't even gonna do it. You did it to yourself. Uh So anyway, So I've done some catfishing in the Burg, literally right in front of the stadium, and that was cool, and that was with my old buddy Joe Gordon of the

Three Rivers Catfish Club. I've also done some muskie fishing on the Allegheny, but I've never been out there for trout, and there is some damn fine trout water out that way. In fact, some of it runs directly behind this week's drinking establishment, which was submitted by listener Matt Wagner. Right. So, the the official name of this place is the Halton Sportsman's Lodge, but according to Matt, everybody knows it as the Halton Hilton. Here's how Matt opens up this fantastic nomination.

As a young man, I dreamed of having a beer in the famed Halton Hilton. This bar has a storied past and is really a cultural staple in the Allegheny National Forest. My family has had a camp in Halton since the mid nineteen fifties, and the Halton Hilton was established in the late fifties. It's located in Elk County, Pennsylvania, south of Ridgeway on the banks of the Clarion River.

My father and I caught some beautiful trout from the hole directly across the bar, and at the end of the day enjoyed plenty of straw beers before heading back to camp. According to relatives, people just started calling it the Halton Hilton and the names stuck. People come from miles around to check this place out, and it has almost become a right of passage to have a straw and a quote belly buster bellybuster. Right, So let's get into that. So Matt continues, Right, this place is famous

for it belly buster burger. The burgers were rumored to be part venison and are actually quite delicious. I mean, where else can you go and get a lukewarm straw and pickled turkey gizzards. The restrooms were an adventure in themselves, and at one point the men's room was just a hole in the floor. He says, the st poly girl cardboard cut out, and the old school cigarette machine, and then parentheses says, you know the style that had the knob you pulled and and the smokes came out, asked Joe,

he has definitely bought SIGs from one of these. I'll comment on that in a minute. Gave this place its own kind of nostalgia. Then when you looked up, you knew you were in an awesome place. Painted on the ceiling is a giant black silhouette of a flying goose, and velvet wall paper covered the walls. So, yes, I do know those sig machines, and I think I bought

a pack from one in college exactly once. Because I kid you not, I turned twenty one and within two months you couldn't smoke in bars anymore around here, and those cigarette machines just totally disappeared. Yeah. Well, and dear listener, I have also bought SIGs from one of those machines. Really. Yeah. There used to be this spot in a man Junk that I played called the Grape Room. I used to like play music. They're a bunch and they had one

of those old school sig machines, foodsball table man. Then one day I was like, I need some SIGs. I don't feel like walking into the convenience store. I'm here right now. Let's see if it has anything in it. So I put my money in, pull the lever for the parliaments and out came a nice little pack of parliaments, went outside, smoked one. Dude, that thing must have been in there for twenty years. Do you know what to like?

I remember it was. I took it one drag and I think the whole cigarettes just went up in flame. As I recalled to they only really could could could give you soft packs which like sucked, like off pack suck. You know, to break all your SIGs at once, man, put us off back in your pocket and go do anything anything, Right, kids, don't smoke. Stop listening to us.

If you're listening right now, I don't either. Anyway, regarding the belly buster, I gotta say now that sounds epic and I'm gonna prime the pump here for hate mail, but I don't care because I've had this debate privately with with many YenS and buddies, and it's time to take it public. So I'm a Philly guy, right, and I will put my Tony Luke, Steve's Prince of Steaks, and Geno's against that Permantis nonsense that you guys eat

out there. Okay, the first time I was in Pittsburgh, I couldn't get to the famous Permanni brothers fast enough, and I'm sorry, I didn't think it was that good. Right. Their whole stick is loading the sandwich with French fries, so to me, I just tasted like white bread and French fries. I didn't understand. So next time I'm out that way, belly buster all day. That sounds amazing, now, real quick. I did say trash, and I wasn't talking

about Permantes, was talking about Geno's. And what do you say, Tony Luke, Steve's Princess Dakes. I'm disappointed in you, bro. What's your spot? No, you gotta go to Chubbies, man, I think I've ever been a chubby, has never been heard of chubby Chubbies. That's in like East Falls, man, That's like, that's where it's really at. You go go to some catfish in this summer. Then go up by the Philly you campus or I guess its Jefferson now, and and go and go get one of those chubbies. Man,

you'll be you'll be happy you did so. Anyway, on for me ragging on you for your cheese steak choice. So Matt moves into the history and the characters you might find at the Halton Hilton Um. All great bars have a character too, he says. John Hanley bought the bar from his parents in nineteen sixty four and was the proprietor there until his death in He was always there to talk to people and provide some of his perspective, at least when he wasn't in his pickup park. Next

to the building. I like this guy. John was a local legend and folk in his own special dialect. He held the history of the Halton close to his heart and would willingly produce some of the old photos from the area and had stories to tell about every one of them. Some of his most loyal customers, the folks that he served for years, described him as quiet, honest and honorable. Yeah, quiet, honest and honorable. I fit that

bill except for quiet um. So to bring it home and to get to the best part, right, Matt says that upon John's death, his niece took the place over and updated it a bit um And as as he put it, he'd actually bring his wife there now. And that's cool. But that's also like a slippery slope because I know a few good bars that lost their magic after renovation. You know what I'm saying. The hole in the floor in the bat and the pissar kind of made it, you know what it was, um, And I

hope that's not the case at the Hilton. But here's what really sealed the deal on including the Halton Hilton. With this nomination, Matt sent along a link to the official Halton Hilton saw Yes, the place has its own song. And while I wish we had time to play the whole thing, we don't. But really you'll get it with just the first thirty seconds way up and oh they'll carry either's a tome by the name of or the

Criptian Clear and the claring flows on bone. There's a place where to do their meeting, have a drink and do some eating where the gossips saying, then you'll never here. Lie it was hotten. I was a Wilton, so I hit it for the Hilton to have a beer and I'll bared around some prize. They've been built in the days of Custer, and it's a home of the belly buster,

and I'll visit it again before I die. You know, I've never visited a bar that had its own either, And man, I thought that was like reserved for cheers. I don't know who's singing that, but I want to hang out with that dude. I want to sell shiner with him. Do you know who it might be? It might be the Breeze, the guy that caught the p a state record Walleye. Like, dude, how much you want to bet the Breeze has like swigs some bourbon at the Halt and Hilton. He's from those parts anyway, Matt,

thank you so much for a great nomination. This was this was a lot of fun. The theme song was amazing. Um And if you've got a fishy bar with or without a theme song that you'd like us to consider for a shout out here, send the deeds to Bent

at the meat eater dot com. So, since we just got done talking drinking, I gotta ask, right, you posted some ice fishing videos on the ground from that little sare and I couldn't help but notice that a sketchy brown like like an old school bootlegger flip cap bottle kept making an appearance. Was that homemade hooch? Because that's what it looked like. In fact, some homemade hooch had

a boy, you know. That was That was my very last bottle of a run of dandelion wine I made right around when the pandemic first hit, so like April or May, and you know I was I was out with I was out with Miles. Actually he came with me. It was me, Miles, my girlfriend, Miles, Miles Um, Miles kid, and Christine my buddy from the office here and we all, uh caught a couple of perch and a nice buzz because of it, except for Miles. Miles was he's doing one of those dry January things, so I couldn't. I

couldn't get him to try it. Okay, well you know what didn't? Did you write a story about that about dandelion wine? Now I'm thinking about it. Wasn't there something on the meat eat site that you put together about how you made that? I did? Um, Yeah, I'll put the link in my i G bio for anyone that's interested. It's a fun little project I do like every year

or two. It's I will say it is a royal pain in the ass because in order to make it like, the first thing you have to do is I'm gonna go through like a real quick explanation of the tediousness of this process is that you go to a field, right, make sure like it's not a dog park because they piss on the dandelions or like you don't get them from a bank where they're like spraying with like you know,

round up. But you pick like buckets, like a ten gallon bucket full of dandelions or like halfway full, and then you take them home and you pull the pedals off of the little green cup that holds them all together. It's called the spel. So you pull all the pedals and you put them in a pot until you have like a full pot full of dandelion petals, because if you put the green ship in, it's gonna make them

real bitter. That sounds excruciating. It's something you do when you have some time, like in the middle of a pandemic um. But you know, I love it when when when you have that, when you get everything all said and done and it's aged, and it's like if you like drinking like springtime or some ship. You know that's that's like such an It's like an Andrew zimmer And thing to say, like it tastes like grass coated and rain water on it. It's more boordine esque. But you

know whatever, I'm not it's not. In fact, I tend not to like wine. I just happened to like this. Yeah, you would like bizarre foods anyhow, I don't know. It's a dead of winner and you have this thing you made a couple of springs ago. It's like, I don't know, I like that. Yeah, well you can you can explain it more. Later people can read the piece, but right now, um, we we have some other more pressing things to explain.

Let's wrap things up with our news segment, the bent Helpline, where we answer your questions, and this week we even have a special guest. What do you laughing at, Martini? You're not an idiot, you're not a gambloony hell boy, You're a fisherman. So we've got a very special edition of the bent Helpline today. You've actually called in reinforcements

to answer one of your question. We're joined today by my good friend Jim Fieva on The Water magazine, who was a co host here before before Hayden signed on full time. Jim how Art thou good, good? Great? How's it feel? How's it feel to be here as an expert in a specific, specific faction of fishing. We don't people don't even know what we're talking about. Yeah, but you're the man, you're the guy. Oh yeah, I feel like I've earned it. So okay, so you know now

that you mentioned it. Um So anyway, because here's what we're talking about. This this question comes to us from listen to Ryan Foster and he says, I am curious about float and fly technique. Have you guys used it and how did it work out? What's the setup you used? Is it a Bent approved technique? And he says, I feel dirty watching these videos on it being a fly angler, but I am not a complete fly guy, Okay, So he dabbles in other arenas. Um, I like to fish

and catch fish. I think we all can agree on that. Ryan, Thanks and keep up the good work guys. So this is the thing. I know what flow and fly is. I get the premise, but I don't do it yet. Jim Jim here on a weekly basis in the winter months is just like you are the float and fly guy on Instagram. You do this a lot. So I'm like, we just gotta call Jim because he does this all

the time. So rather than me like make ship up about what I think I know right, which might not be anything, can you explain to us what float and fly technique is. Yeah. So I first read about it man probably in the late nineties and an in Fisherman magazine article, and it was real big for smallmouth bass in some in moving water. It was really big for them in the springtime. Also, it's what I use it for is in the cold water months. So that's one

of the things I think. I know it is a cold like it shines in the off season in cold cold water. So all you're doing is suspending a hair jig under a float and it's they're usually tied with kind of synthetic materials that are gonna have a lot of kind of breathing and action as that jake just suspends under the float, and it's it's kind of fallen out of favor, Like I don't think it's a modern technique that guys are really into. Maybe it's coming back

around again. Seems like all those things come back around, but ned riggs now or like that's that's all I hear about, is guys using in the winter in the wintertime ned rigging in the wintertime. So yeah, so that's again not the expert here, but that was the impression I got, Like it's it's specifically for suspended fish in cold water, and it's not super aggressive, right, Like you're kind of just like letting the fly breathe and it's just hanging in their face or the jig. That's the

other misconception. It's called float and fly. You just said, though it's a jig, you're not actually hanging a fly under the bomber. Yeah, it's just it's a hair jig on either a one eighth or one sixteenth pounce jake had. Those are the most popular sizes, so it's a pretty small presentation. But even though it's small, I mean people have called seven eight pound large mouth bass on it. It's really good for you know, small mouth bass four

five pounds. I haven't caught a seven or eight pound large mouth on it, but I've gotten the excess of five pounds on it. Right. But it was sort of developed from moving water, But yet you're using it in still water right up in Massachusetts. Yeah, I'm using it in the ponds here. Um. You know, I live on the coast on Cape con so we don't get ice every year, but those ponds are still full of fish

and there's great large mouth bass fishing there. You can fish to spending jerk baits or I like this technique because one, it works really well in cold water. And I'm using a real long like ultra light noodle rod to throw it because you need a little extra length to one not only cast like the you know long leader, but Also you're fishing it still, so you're gonna have a lot of slack on the water, so you want to be able to have a lot of room to lift to set the when that goes down at the

end of your cast. So is there like a specialized float or something, or it's just like your running the mill slip bobber. So serious bass guys that are on bass boats and have a lot of back cast room are using fixed loats so they know they're sending it to the same depth, you know, nine ft rods. I'm doing it from shore for my kayak mostly, so I use a little slip float and that one's called the

phil wobble bobber. The whole the whole idea is it's a tear drop shaped float and it has written on it you know this one will this one will work best with a one eighthounds jake. So it's like you're setting up for center pit fishing where the floats to spend a certain amount of weight and the wobble bobber the idea behind it. No, it's not just fun to say, but it uh when you have wind or waves, it

throws some action. It really does wobble all over the surface gives a little bit more very subtle action to the jig. That's what I's gonna ask. Like, I imagine at some point you have to work it, and at some point if you have a chop, like especially when it's cold, you probably get smashed just letting that thing bob around out there. Right if you cast it near fish, you can't pause it for long enough. The problem is

it's you. It's long pausitive. You have to know where the fish are, and it's not a search presentation, right, got you. Well, I mean, without even knowing all that, I already knew it was a ben approved technique because to me, there's no unapproved technique here barring I don't know, throwing a spear at him or something. Hey hey, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no. We have we have listeners who are

spear fishing. In fact, if you look, I'm wearing a spear fishing hoodie right now from my buddy Ryan Ebert. So well, that's a specialized thing to the guys. That's cool and if I can, okay, fine, whatever whatever. So I hope that answers Ryan's questions. I assume that that is the that's the floating fly he's talking about the only other thing that comes to mind, or like those casting bubbles you can put on your spinning rod to dry fly. Jim's like, I am about that too. I

never pick up a fly rod. I want to get into that. That is another that's also big up here, where it's the clear casting bubbles and you filled them up with a little bit of water and then the guy's up here all fish like wooly buggers. I've seen guys used the floating up Berkeley power worms behind them, and that is really good for trout. But I I I haven't dabbled in that yet, But that's like a

trout technique. That's that kind of casting bubble and fly, like you said, if you're just determined not to use a fly rod, and then that's also like kind of similar to like Joe, you and I talked a little bit about, like you know, people fishing with flies using noodle rods on like the Great Lakes steelhead scene. Yeah, I mean I've thrown a lot of flies for steelhead on on long conventional noodle spinning rods with and without floats. Um for steelhead, I don't know, I don't find any

of that dirty. It's all just it just works. It's just a different kind of prison. And then the and the other good thing is like your guides don't ice up is bad and like the in the middle of winter because you're not like sending that big thick fly line through them and get them all way right, just come up to the Pulaski. Man, everybody's just got motto on their fly reels. Do you tell me about it? Tell me about it. Yeah, it's not there's not even fly line. Well, I am so glad that I had

a float and Fly expert to call for this. Um, I'm a floating fly enthusiast editor in chief of Float and Fly Monthly. Um. But I mean I can, I can. I can tell you Ryan that even though I haven't done it, I'd like to. But it absolutely does work because, like you know, I'm I'm sitting here staring at the computer and Jim's posting his morning floating fly session photos and catching a lot of fish. So Jim, thank you

for that. Um, Ryan, thank you for the question. If you've got a question you'd like us to maybe answer here on the show, you can d m them to me on the Instagram. Or Hayden, or just go ahead and fire those off too. Bent at the meat eater dot com. All right, well that's it for this week, degenerates. If you're presently tying up f G nots for your floating fly session tomorrow, I say a little drip of superglue on the finishing raps never hurt anyone. That's what

I would say. I would also say, please keep sending in your questions, bar nominations, awkward photos, sale but items and what every else um you think up to Bent at the meat eater dot com um, and don't forget use those degenerate angler hashtags. Uh you know we see all those posts them, you know, I don't know. We like checking up on what you're into. So you know it's good when I'm at the office and I want to slack a little bit. There you go, Yeah, seeing that.

And finally, hey, keep in mind that not tying tools are for the week, and God gave you teeth so you wouldn't have to buy two tungsten carbide now clippers. M