Ep. 85: Pump Action Raccoon Streamers

This week, we destroy the lives of old people in the name of great smallmouth fishing, purchase tying thread off a guy that likely stole it in an armed robbery, debate whether fish would rather have Uncle Ben’s or Rice-A-Roni jammed in their body cavities, and tell you why you should just buy whatever fly rod you can afford.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Which may may have led to the officer informare a
listener that he himself was just listening to the Bent
podcast in his patrol car. She did a big hard
whip down with a rod and spun the hopper up,
and I turned around and he had it pinned like
a hitler must have in his upper lip. And then, um,
we're gonna do a sale bin that. That brings to

(00:27):
mind one of my favorite hip hop songs, Pistol Grip Pump,
which is on my lap at all times. Cops listen
to this good morning to generate anglers, and welcome to Bent,
the fishing podcast that really hates golf but has a
hard time denying the similarities between it and angling. I'm Joe,
Sir Melie, and I'm hating samac and I'm failing to

(00:48):
like see the connection beyond people like feeling the need
to wear various like logo wear in order to in
like flex on the folks around him. That's a You're
not wrong, that's that's correct. Uh yeah, but I'm you know,
I'm leaning into the analogy a bit today because, um,
of a few listener messages that I've gotten recently, one

(01:09):
of which we're actually gonna touch on in the bent
helpline later, but but the gist of them is this, Right,
people often want to know what is the one rod
and reel you need to do everything? And my my
answer is always, um, you can have one rod and
reel that will do a lot, but not everything. And
that's sort of part of the golf tie in. Right. Conversely,

(01:29):
whenever somebody looks in my garage at all my rods
and says, like, what the hell do you need that
many rods for, my answer is because you don't play
team holes of golf with with nothing but a driver, right,
you could, but are you going to be as effective? No,
you're not. Yeah, but you don't do them all in
one day. I get what you're saying, but I also
like sympathize with the mindset of a beginner because you
have to start somewhere, and like, if there's like one

(01:52):
thing that you ought not to do when you get
into a hobby is just like blow your entire budget
for like next four years on a bunch of stuff
that like you're gonna use one time or whatever. Like
I remember when I first started out, man, I bought
like a seven weight steel head rod, ended up using

(02:12):
it a lot, But like there was absolutely like a
scenario before I could drive and I had that rod
where it was like time to break out the steel
head rod that I could have just rented from the shop.
You're right, you're right, right, and and and I think
that that is true, like everybody does have to start somewhere.
But I think the broader thing I'm trying to say
here is is as you grow as a fisherman, it's

(02:33):
important to develop sort of like a sense of of
like the system and the weights and measures that that
that at play here to really be effective. And and
for like a lot of non devout anglers, like dabblers,
I think there's a sense that I just need a
rod in reel some tenttown tests and I'm good, And
you are good if you're okay always staying in the

(02:55):
parameters that year right, Like you know, I look at
it like, you know, if you just want to stay
at the driving range that's where you're happiest, then cool,
it's all it's all good, you know what I mean. Yeah,
So I I get that like fishing and pocket water
is like putting or like I don't know that you
need the right club to be effective there. Yeah. Another

(03:15):
I hate this metaphor so much it's funny because I
hate golf anyway. Um. But another analogy I can draw though,
is the idea of like a golf bag. And I'm
not a crazy large amounth fisherman, but I have been
lucky enough to fish with a few large amounth pros
over the years. And those guys are straight up, man,

(03:36):
they are golfing on the water right. They have all
their clubs laid out and they chip here and put
there and drive here. And I have adopted that method hardcore.
It's like my one takeaway from fishing with some pro
bass guys. It is extremely rare for me to go
out fishing and only carry one rod. Three is more
like it, because I want to have a Senko or
whatever on one, and a poper on this one, a

(03:59):
jerk bait on on this one, and they might all
have different lines and leaders and actions, but for the
sake of efficiency in covering water, I don't want to
retie three times at one hole, you know what I mean? Like,
I just want to cover it and move along. Yeah,
I mean, like I get that out of a boat.
But isn't that like a total pain in the ask
to carry three rods. I mean, well, I'm phrasing like

(04:21):
a question. What I mean is it's a total pain
in the ask to carry three rods. It can be, right,
not usually, like you said, on a boat, no issue
at all, dude. Like i go out of my my
little drift boat and I've got like thirteen rods jammed
down the sides. Um And for most bank fishing, if
you're just working a bank, it's not that big a
deal either. But the only time I'll have one rod

(04:42):
usually is if I'm waiting and I know I'll be
in the water most of the time, like summer smally waiting,
I put the bare essentials in one chest pack or
hip pack or whatever and wade with one rod because
I will be in the stream most of the time. Otherwise,
I don't find it that that inconvenient. Yeah, I mean,
like that's more my style. In fact, what I do
a lot when I'm like trout fishing is I'll have

(05:03):
one rod that's not exactly what I want for everything, right,
But then I'll have like a couple of reels with
like different spools on them, right, So I'll go out
and I'll if I wanted to like trout fish, I'm
eurim thing right, I'll have my like euro set up,
but in my in my bag, I'll have like a
wait forward floating all spooled up so that way, if

(05:24):
it's too windy I want to fish an indicator, I
can move over to that. Or if I see a
little dry fly action it's not perfect for it, but
it's like good enough. Um, but this all goes to, Uh,
this is leading me to the point that not all
of us can afford an arsenal of rods Joe. Not
all of us are, at least of all you, I understand.

(05:47):
I'm just look, look all I'm doing here. I'm just
passing along an approach, right, It's just something to think about,
That's all. I do. Believe that efficiency and maximum time
with a line in the water catches the most fish, right,
regardless of species, regardless of what you're doing. Um, I
think you know efficiency and keeping lines in like you,

(06:09):
you should train yourself to maximize that also, regardless of
your budget. Our sponsor thirteen Fishing at least has a
lure anyone can afford for pretty much any species. Well. Um,
but I'll also point out that as far as like
high quality, budget friendly like outfits like that's also something

(06:31):
that thirteen fishing is good for. So you bought up
wet waiting Smalley's that's something I want to do more of. What, um,
what would your ideal outfit look like? For that ideal
outfit for that, that's what's in my pack. Well, okay,
so I'm not gonna go through the entire pack, but

(06:53):
I do I will whittle that down. We're just talking, folks.
That's that's where the general to my small fac right. Yeah,
uh from thirteen the first and foremost for that, the
whipper snapper that is like the smallest jerk bait that
they make, um perfect for moving water, and the model
that dives three to five feet is might go to.
This would also come in very handy for trout. Of course.

(07:13):
It's one of those baits like you barely touch the line,
like you just barely snap it and it darts all
over the place. And in terms of an outfit like
anything in that like six and a half to I
don't know, you know, maybe seven foot um light or
ultra light range for summertime waiting, you know, ten pound braid,
something like that travel light, one little spool of eight

(07:34):
pound floral leader, and it looks like he's packing out
and elk with all the ship he has in his bag.
Now it's you would think that, And there was a
time in my life when that was true. Miles and
I talked about that a long time ago. How like
you're seventeen and you have more you know what it's like?

(07:54):
Four fly two is poking out of your backpack and
like one spinning rod in your belt and one in
your hands. Now not anymore. I do like I do
like your small mouth set up recommendations, and I will
be uh. I I never sent out that email to
thirteen that I promised I was going to send out
last week, So oh man, I'll have to be uh.
I'll have to be tacking that onto my order. Good

(08:16):
good anyway, So let's we'll do this. Well, let's switch
off conventional must haves for a minute, um and talk
about flying must have, particularly if you tie your own bugs.
I've always got bucktail on hand. Rabbit strips, those are
a must, right, But if you ever tied with raccoon? Um?
Have I ever died with raccoon? Um? You know? No,

(08:37):
the clothes I've ever gotten to tying with raccoon? Is
I used to tie with a dubbing from I think
like an Australian possum. Okay, I'm sure that they're they're similar.
Probably both only come out at night. Anyway, if you
need some raccoon and guide. If you need some, perhaps
our friend and guide Bart Land where it can help

(08:59):
and he'll tell you where his supply came from in
this week's Smooth Move segment. Why Why So, I'm very
excited today for our Smooth Moves guests. Some of you
might remember Tim landword of of Tight Lines uh Fly
Fishing company out there in in Wisconsin. Um, he's not here,

(09:23):
even though he's he's done several segments and and co
hosted the show. We have we have his cousin to
start by introducing. So we have his cousin Land Where.
And I'm going to give you bart a few seconds
to explain why you are the better land where? Why
are you the better land where than Tim Land? Work? Well?
Smarter for sure, okay, obviously better looking. I can vouch

(09:44):
for that. You are a good looking man. Yeah. On
a fishy level, I might be a little bit fisher
than him. I'm not sure better keg stand you were
Tim land work. He's got a problem. Okay, all right,
we won't we and dragging? Kidding? Of course I got
to hang out with bart um the same time I
hung out with him, and we were filming dost Boat

(10:06):
season two up on the man Nominee River. Um, and
you know we we I said, we had Tim on
and he's always been like, man, you gotta call bart
because if you need smooth moves like, he's got some
up stories. I think that's exactly how he put it. So,
um yeah, man, Just so I know how long Tim
has been goting, how long you've been goting? How long
have you been in the game? Uh the year twenty one?

(10:28):
I think twenty one years? Okay, all right, So I'm
just gonna give you the floor man. And and I've
drank with both. I've drank with you in a garage,
which was fun. It was like the one eight on
the video shoot. We drank too much and then couldn't
like we didn't. We were not as functional the next
day as we should have been. Um, but I'm gonna
give you the floor. Dude, hit it hit us with

(10:49):
a smooth move. The w t f moment from twenty
one years guiding that sticks out the most, All right,
sticks out the most. I've got a lot of stories,
but I'm trying to think of on that would be
a little different. Yeah, And the one I came up
with was a trip I took god Is, probably ten
years ago with a couple who were an older couple

(11:11):
from Chicago, very urban people love the idea of the outdoors,
love the idea of nature, and they wanted to see
that just didn't really experience it much or know anything about.
They didn't know as much about it as it really is. Right,
So they come up for the day and they want
to see the most beautiful part of the river and
they want to see all this great stuff and catch fish.
So I set it up. We have a perfect where

(11:34):
where is this Wisconsin? So I took him to a
spot on the river that is not developed at all.
There's no cabins. It dials up, you guys. It's a
perfect like seventy eight degree day, no wind, perfect smallmouth weather,
little humid. So we start off and everything is. They're
enjoying the hell out of it. We've got perfect weather,

(11:55):
we've got happy fish. We see a deer early. You know,
everything's great, We're having the best time, and I'm literally
looking for anything Flora fun and related I can show
them to give him a piece of the great Northern experience. Right,
is that because you questioned whether they'd actually be able
to catch the fish? Yeah, you have that, And and

(12:16):
they weren't stellar, but they were hard workers and we
were having a great time and the super nice people
and everything was Remember Caddy Shack, Remember the old Caddy
shack that go golfing and everything is the greatest. And
that's a peach hun and the husband life. That's who
they reminded me of, right, because everything she did he

(12:37):
would compliment her, and vice versa and ad nauseam. Right,
but we're still having a great time. It's a lot
nicer than the alter. So I'm enjoyed by samm Gladys. Right.
So like midway through the morning, I'm a quarter of
the way into the float and there's no one around.
It's perfect day. And I started hearing a dog barking.

(13:01):
So there's some bends coming in the river, and I
figure we're gonna make a bend and we're gonna have
someone with a canoe and their dog, or they're on
the river hanging out. So we're talking, oh, somebody must
be up here. We make this bend and I'm here
in the barking intensifying, I can't see a dog, so
I'm kind of now they're fishing. I'm watching river right

(13:23):
and the river has come down. It's early August, mid
August maybe, and the root wads on the base of
the trees are kind of all exposed on the river bank,
and all of a sudden, I see the back end
of a dog that's hung up in this root ball
and barking its head off. So you're trying to figure
out what the hell is going on right now. So
I'm thinking, all right, something's wrong with this dog. Is

(13:45):
he called as he hung up? Is he in distress?
They're asking me questions that I can't answer, So I'm like,
all right, guys, check it out. We're gonna reel up
and we're gonna roll over and see what's going on.
And they go cool. So they reel up their stuff,
and I start kind of pushing rolling over to this
dog and as I'm approaching, he's just intensely barking under

(14:05):
this tree, and I'm starting to question whether or not
he's stuck. As we get over there, I'm close. Now
he's not stuck. He's underneath this blowdown, and another dog
appears on the bank. The second dog is a home
with a big whip antenna on his neck. Well in Wisconsin,
late July and early August, the bear hunters, they run

(14:26):
their dogs. But what they found and we're interested in,
was about to happen right in front of us. At
about twenty I can't get away from it, and the
one dog and the other dog dive in and they
come out with a raccoon and proceed to eviscerated from us.
So this is a two minute not even this is

(14:48):
probably forty seconds, but it feels like an hour and
a half. It's blood hair, snarling, squealing, screaming, and they stop.
One of them looks over at me and starts where
I can his tail kind of comes up, smells the boat.
The other one's happy as a clam. Meanwhile, there's a
raccoon in its death throws rolling in the shallows, and

(15:09):
every time it comes up it's making noise and going
back up is dying. And at this moment, what what
if you had to imitate this noise. What would it be.
I'm not doing that, come on, because think are a
really nasty, bad noise. So I'm just watching what's unfolding
in front of me, and I'm like, okay, dogs and
they bounce away, they're gone, and here's this raccoon dying

(15:32):
yet the water's got blood in it. And then I
realized I got people with me, and I look up
and they are pale, speechless. The wife's mouth is a gape, obviously,
and I don't even what the hell do you say
to him? And I go, uh, for lunch, that's what
you know, you guys, ready for a sandwich. So I'm like, well, um,

(15:56):
that's the reality of nature. Some ship you say, you
don't know what to say a right? So as I
started to bite my oars in to pull off the
bank and leave the situation, the woman goes, is that
another one? And I look up on the bank. There
was like four little rulings that were with mom and
they must all been in there, and the dogs killed
them all. It was awful and I'm not messing around you, guys.

(16:21):
It was like lunchtime right there. Lunch brots right here, guys,
let's go out of sand much the reality of nature, folks, Well,
it is the reality of nature, except that the dogs
weren't really like wild It wasn't like wild animal. Well
it was kind of manufactured, you know. So how so
did they eat their lunch or just have like one
bite or just sort of poke around the tuna sandwich

(16:43):
or it was the rest of the day it was quiet.
People were have been concerned with what they'd experienced. And
I'll tell you I do have the backup end of
that stories. Right out of lunch, we came out and
we got going again, and the weather's nice, and that
raccoon is dead along behind us, and the fishing actually
got pretty damn good. Right, Yeah, things were hungry. So

(17:06):
we were fishing hopper patterns, first of all, mouth and
they were crushing, and the lady was in the front
of the boat and she could not hook fish. And
her husband, who was so flattering to her all day,
it became an annoyance to her because he was, oh,
you get him next time, and he kept hooking up.
And at one point, and I don't know if it

(17:28):
was because the raccoon had a little miffed and upset
and everything, but she had a fish come up after
about the tenth miss fish, and she did a big
hard whip down with a rod and spun the hopper
up and I heard him squirrel behind me, and I
turned around and he had it pinned like a Hitler
mustache in his upper lip. So I just turned around

(17:48):
before he could do anything. He said, don't wait, and
I just put my hand in his face and took
it out right away. Wow, man, that was a two.
That was a two fur right there. Yeah. Do you
know what he reminds me? A man? Like One of
the many times I've ever seen like dog led destruction
like that was it was like early spring, and uh,

(18:09):
we were doing like some like yard work around my
house and my mother is in like this like front
garden that we have. There's like me, my dad. You know,
we're like in bad because my brother and my mom
they were in front. Comes around all exide, you know,
the dogs running around, and she comes out, come, look, come, look,
there are baby rabbits. By the time we got there

(18:30):
in her absence, the dog went right over and just
destroyed the entire net. Had similar things happen, and also
like do you know, like if a baby rabbit is
sick or something I think like the mom will actually
eat it to get rid of it. I did not
know that. Like I've had baby rabbits in the yard,
and like there'd be like one all of a sudden
one day, like one's not there and it's just like

(18:51):
eaten in half, but like nibbles, tiny nibbles. It was
the rabbits. Rabbits. You might want to qualify that one
a little. This ship just got all really weird, ben listeners,
do mother rabbits eat their babies if one of them

(19:11):
is sick? And like can't? I don't. I don't know anyway,
did those people come back? They happen back? Good? Do
they do? They? Are they on guard now for the nature?
Do they still love the nature as much as they
thought they did? I think they understand nature a little
bit more so. How do you like that one? Meat

(19:32):
eaters this role? That's what that was? Anyway? Huge thanks
to Bart for sharing that one. He's just out there
hammering small jaws and scaring old people for life. So well,
in case you haven't had enough carnage, sit back and
listen to Joe and I tear each other to pieces
in the Virtual Raptor Paddock. We like to call fish

(19:53):
news fish news. That escalated quickly. So here's a little
fun shout out caveat being. We're gonna exclude names and
states as a matter of protection, which and this is
the first on Ben, but it's all gonna make sense
because we need not call anyone out for fear of

(20:16):
judgment nor getting anyone in trouble. And I would like
to point out that I I whatever Joe was about
to like drop on y'all. I'm not proving to it now.
This came through Instagram, but I got I got this
note from a listener on Instagram who told me he
may or may not have gotten pulled over recently on
his way home from a fishing trip, and he may

(20:37):
or may not have have recently partaken uh in the
consumption of we'll say CBD products if you catch what's
swirling around in my bond water. And since we're not
talking about the gummies here, there may or may not
have been a noticeable odor in his vehicle which the
officer that pulled him over smelled. Anyway, the officer may
or may not have noticed the fishing gear in the car,
which may or may not have quickly morphed the convo

(20:59):
from CBD products to local fishing, which may may have
led to the officer in form are a listener that
he himself was just listening to the Bent podcast in
his patrol car. Cops listen to this, maybe this could
be a hypothetical situation. All of this may have led
to our dear listener getting off the hook. So what

(21:20):
he asked me to do was shout out the officer
by name, which I will not. Like, No, that isn't
going to happen. I'm not even saying he really exists.
But if he does, officer, you're cool, and it just
goes to show you, um Bent fishing or like PBA
cards sometimes. So that story, I I enjoyed that story.
Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. That's hilarious. I can't believe

(21:42):
like police officers listened to this show like that is
just like one. I don't know why. I mean, I
guess it makes as much sense as anybody fish, dude.
I know it would be like, you know, like I
would be equally surprised if like a doctor or like
a a fireman, or like just just somebody. But you know,
it seems like once you have like a I don't know.

(22:04):
There's just something about a police officer listening to this
that just seems like I think. I think it's because
the whole degenerate angler thing, because like cops are supposed
to be like very generate, well put, well put anyway, listen,
no judgment for either party. Uh. If this hypothetical officer

(22:25):
is listening and wanted to, I don't know, send some
p BA cards since you've kind of been shouted out,
that would be cool anyway. Uh, yeah, I won't hold
out hope for that. So let's ufore we move on,
let's knock out conservation minutes real quick here. Um, here's
what I got. Okay, Cross Louisiana scientists are finding non
lethal ways to collect information about spotted and alligator gar

(22:47):
tro Yeah, to assess the overall health of floodplains and habitats.
The guard provides samples for isotope analysis. However, historically collecting
those has been lethal teams who relied on muscled issue
and stomach contents. Interesting. Man, Interesting. I'm about to talk
later where I guess my lead off. I'm going to

(23:07):
talk about a non leafal uh science based fishing thing
thing right anyway, Sorry, so I didn't, no, no, no.
So now these research teams from Austin, Texas and Nickel
State University have devised a way to gather the same
info with just small fin clips, which means more healthy
gar to eat your carp chunks or um for someone

(23:30):
to just shoot in the head with an arrow and
collect zero data. Either way, more guard for everybody. So
for my conservation minutes, um, we are going to talk
about not live fish, but dead fish. A fish kill
in Mobile, Alabama has been reported. Is it mobile or mobile?
I've heard it said both ways. I say, is my

(23:57):
leg I always mobile? But then somebody from there is
gonna be like it's mobile, you know, like you can't win,
you can't win people us Well, the red drum are
stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again anyway.
In Mobile, Alabama, a large fish kill was reported. A

(24:18):
video shot by charter boat captain Blake Crap Mike Mikailski
Milk I'm gonna go with Mikaelski showed hundreds of dead
red drum along a tideline in the mouth of Mobile Bay,
heading towards Sand Island Lighthouse. UH though an immediate cause

(24:41):
is not clear, scientists aren't particularly worried about long term impacts,
as the incident seems to be relatively isolated. The source
of the kill is not clear, as a likely cause
had already dissipated by the time scientists got to the scene. Um,
this fish kill is unique in that most of the time,
fish kills are only detected as fish wish up on shore.

(25:01):
This one, however, was discovered in open water. Anyhow, if
you have any information on this, go ahead and uh
talk to uh some fascinating Alabama I know they. I
know they recently had a nasty cold swing down there,
but I don't think it was long enough like the
one last year in Texas to to do that. So
who knows. Anyway, Alright, minutes have been conserved now for

(25:24):
the blood baths. Remember this is a competition. Hayden and
I do not know which main story the other fellows
bringing to the table. At the end, our audio engineer Phil,
we'll take a fin clip from each of us to
determine which guy spent more than ten minutes looking for
his story. Uh, as you've already pointed out, it's your
lead man, So what do you got? Okay, So today
on Fish News, I'm going to talk about something I'm

(25:44):
totally qualified to share my thoughts and report on neuroscience.
Oh good, Yeah, anyway, this comes to us from interesting
engineering dot Com, as well as a press release from
USC and that's University of Southern California. To that, researchers
at USC have for the first time observed memories forming

(26:04):
in a living animal. And guess what kind of animal
that was? Joe, h it was? I know because I
almost grabbed this. It's like a zebra h sounds a fish.
You're not supposed to, like tell him the whole why.
I just told him it's a zebra fish. That's what
they always do. It's for the banner, Joe. Anyway, Yeah,

(26:26):
it was a fish, because this is a fishing podcast
and this is fish news, and as Joe pointed out,
as a zebra fish. Anyway, Yeah, scientists capture the first
ever snapshot at for memory being formed in a living
animal by harassing larval zebrafish with laser beams. But before
you get to that, let's talk about zebrafish as model organisms. Uy,

(26:46):
tank fish. I'll tell you that they're very boring and
they fade. The stripes fade. It's like then it's just
like a minnow, you know. Yeah, Well, anyway, a model organism,
not to be just totally derailed by Joe's feelings on
zebra fish's tank. Fish UH is a non human species
study to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that
discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into

(27:09):
the workings of other organisms. Zebrafish happen to make particularly
good model organisms. I think that's like my fifth particularly
in this UH episode of fish News. Anyway, being that
they're you know, the zebra fish is easily modifiable, they
develop outside the womb, which is useful in observing that
stage of organism development, and they breed more prolifically than

(27:31):
like mice, for example, So there's a lot of them
in there, you know. Anyway. Uh. The other thing about
them is they're basically see through, which makes them particularly
that's number six, useful for making observations of their on
their vascular and nervous systems. Oh, this is great. This
particular story is rooted in the ladder. Dude, I was

(27:52):
writing horribly this week, Okay, onto harassing GMO zebrafish with
laser beams, scientists at USC you wanted to learn and
about the ways memories were formed and what physiological changes
occurred during that process. What they did was they exposed
a twelve day old zebrafish to a light source, which
is a fancy way of saying they turned on a light.
Then they heated the little zebra fish up with an

(28:13):
infrared laser, which the little fish found uncomfortable, at which
point they would try to swim away to avoid the laser.
The scientists trained the fish for five hours until the
fish had learned that when the light comes on, the
laser beam is closed behind it. Eventually, the fish would
shake their little tails when the light came on, meaning
they knew the laser beam was coming, meaning that they learned,

(28:35):
meaning that they developed a memory. Uh uh okay uh.
This was documented importantly with a special way of imaging
their brains. A problem with this kind of like micro imaging.
I don't know what the real term is, obviously, like
my my comment about this being something I'm well versed

(28:57):
into the top of news was made in jest, but anyway,
the problem with this type of imagery is that the
scientists would often kill the fish with the photons used
to generate it um. Using a special microscope, they were
able to observe live fish, which was previously impossible. You
you pretty much had like one before or after. Right,

(29:19):
it was like here's the fish and was alive, here's
the fish being dead. Um. Now you can have like
a like a a linear before and after progression. And
actually thinking about it, probably what you had was you
had fish that were exposed to this thing, and we're
not exposed to this thing, and like not being the
same fish. One live fish, one dead fish, and you

(29:39):
try to parse the difference anyhow. Uh. Using that special
microscope and looking at living zebra fish and their little
fish brain, scientists discovered something interesting that instead of a
synaps is being strengthened during the making of the memory,
what actually happened is that some synapsis is, some synapsi
snaps and snapsis. As a some disappeared while others were

(30:04):
generated elsewhere in the brain, leaving scientists to a completely
new understanding of how a memory is formed. For the
last forty years, and this is a quote, for the
last forty years, the common wisdom was that you learned
by changing the strength of synapsis is snapses but it's
just synapses. I know, man, I know, it's just a
tough word. Man, sit down and let me finish the

(30:25):
new story. But that's not what we found in this case,
said Carl Kesselman, a computer scientist at us cry USCRBY.
I don't know either, Uh, thanks Joe. Anyhow, scientists think

(30:46):
this research could mean big progression in uh, in the
understanding of things like PTSD and why uh and why
those unpleasant associative memories seem so strong? So yeah, yeah,
I mean it's a very cool study and it's very
cool technology, but I think I'm gonna I have no
choice but to strip it down to a more like
fishing base level. I think, um, what, Well, what this proves,

(31:10):
right is that fish have memories. And we all kind
of knew that, right, but I mean, there it is
right in front of you. I mean, this study literally
watched a memory form in tiny fish. So like everybody
gets hung up on conditioning and pressure and it's like, oh,
we're all chasing these things with these ted little brains
and yeah, but I mean there's sort of proof in

(31:32):
the pudding that, um, you know, fish are are are
smarter than we think. And what I looked at this
story briefly. I didn't grab it, thank god, because we
would have crossed over. But um, what came to mind
was literally just this past weekend, I took my son
out fishing for a little while, and there was this
pond that I found in this park where I was

(31:54):
looking for mushrooms last spring. Did not know it existed, right,
And I just kind of like tucked it away in
the back of my mind. And it's a cheesy little
pond with benches and stuff around it, and I just
rolled in there with like a bunch of worms and
and bobbers for him and dude. When I walked up
to that water and looked in, I was like, oh
my god, there are like thousands of the biggest dinner

(32:14):
plate bluegills I have ever seen in my life swimming
around these shallows, and this is going to be an
absolute slaughter. And every single bit of worm that went
in that water, they would rush it, stare at it,
and turn around and swim away. Bluegills we're talking about here,
which tells me these fish get the living ship pounded

(32:37):
out of them, like they are too exposed. And too
many people roll up to this tiny little park pond
and like, yeah, like to get one to eat, I
had to like take the bobber off and like fly
cast with two pound tests and like make sure the
hook was hidden. And it was completely no fun for
my son because he just wants to catch the bomber
and have it go under. But point being like those

(32:58):
fish have learned something and retain something, So if nothing else,
this story proves that fish do have memories of the
bubblegum pink Sanko. You insist on throwing and don't understand
why it doesn't work anymore. Please enter your password. You
have one unheard message. Hey Joe, Hey Hayden, just figured

(33:24):
i'd give you a call. I've got a little bone
to pick with you two, and I'm actually speaking for
Set as well. We do not catch, just just time
to drink a little wall eye here. We're catching mainly giants.
Like last year in Fort pac Man we caught when
I was purt near twelve pounds. Anyways, screw you guys,

(33:45):
Wally are great. End of message, delete press seven save deleted.
We actually have um man. There's a lot of common
threads between our stories today, UH, mostly that they are
dealing with uh small fish and technology that neither you

(34:08):
or I truly understand. But I'm gonna go with anyway
because I found this interesting. Um. I think we all
pretty much know what radio tagging or acoustic tagging is. Uh.
It's pretty common in fisheries research these days, but much
of it is focused on larger Well, okay for those
of us that doesn't need a quick version. You implant

(34:30):
a a tag that emits a signal on either the
inside or outside of a fish, and that that transmits
data about where the fish swims and how deep it
dives and all that good stuff back to a satellite
or whatever, and then we collect the data on our
lapity topities. Uh. Most notably, you can you can, actually
anybody can hop online and track great white sharks all

(34:53):
over the world that have been tagged. Um, do it
every time I go swimming. Yeah right, yeah, yeah, you
look first exactly. Uh. I remember a long time ago
we reported on how there was a sports book being
created where you could like bet on where the sharks
would pop up. Anyway, forget about the great whites, and
we're gonna talk about little itty bitty salmon. A team

(35:14):
from the Pacific Northwest National laboratory has developed acoustic tags
smaller than a grain of rice, which is pretty impressive,
and they've been implanting them in juvenile chinook salmon throughout
the Pacific Northwest. I love like grain of rice as
a standard unit of measuring. Yeah, but very expensive Bosmati

(35:39):
ship you get in whole foods. I mean it's a
long grain alright, Seroni is delicious anyway. Uh, So there's
a very specific purpose for this um. And then similar
to the research in your story, right, this can be
useful all over the world. It's not, it's not focused
just on this one thing. But the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic

(36:02):
Telemetry System collects the data from these tags to study
how juvenile salmon running back down stream to the ocean
modify their behavior as they approach a dam, and then
how they navigate through those dams. So praer the story
from op b dot org. Uh. Juvenile salmon generally have

(36:22):
four options where they encounter or damn. Right, they can
use the specially designed juvenile Fish Bypass system in place
on dams throughout the Pacific Northwest. They can run the
gauntlet and go right through the turbines. They can plummet
over the spill way or go over the less harsh
surface spill way, and that last one there, as I understand,

(36:44):
it means that the water is spilling, if this makes sense,
at the same surface level as the water behind it
versus the regular spill way, where the fish would sort
of have to like fall down a few flights of
stairs and then get spit out the other side. It's
like jumping off a cliff or falling down an escalator
and then falling off a slightly shorter cliff. So those
are kind of the difference. It's like one shot or

(37:06):
a little torture on the way. Anyway, It goes without
saying that the information on how the majority of these
fish are getting through the dam is valuable. As the
story points out, collecting this kind of data to prove,
you know, or disprove different hypothesis without acoustic tags would
take a very long time to be very costly. They
note that these tags can be implanted in baby salmon

(37:27):
very quickly with little stress, in most cases, with just
one or two suitures. So as the fish approached the damn,
scientists collect information on um where the fish are swimming,
how long it takes them to pass through the dam,
which route they're following, and if they survive. So I'm
curious any guests from you on on which of those
options the fish take most of the time through the dam,

(37:50):
whether it be the built in salmon bypass, the uh
steep fall, or the short tumultuous fall or right through
the turbines UM six to seventy maybe of like the
young salmon pass over the tops of damns through surface spills.
What did you just google that? Because that's like the
next thing that I'm going to say. You just cheat

(38:11):
it somehow because you're a dick. Yes, that's for ruining
my guests earlier, Joe. So far, the studies have found
the young salmon pass over the tops through the surface spills,
meaning the spillway that's spilling from the same level as
the water behind it. UM. So the direct dive off

(38:31):
the cliff instead of falling down some stairs first is
the main way. And while that sounds harsh, the acoustic
tags are also proving that most of those salmon survived
that drop, they are doing well on the other side.
So if you think about this UM, that means in
this case less than half of the fish are using
the special bypass hamster mays put in place for them

(38:54):
to use, which I suppose begs the question of of
do you actually need those or do you just top
spill more? Um, there's no answer right now, but these
are the kinds of questions the study hopes to answer
and apply to damns the world over for all different
species of fish. Damn, that's a good news story, Joe, Damn,

(39:17):
is it not? M hm? You know what, like my
favorite but oft unheralded version of of fish transportation is
what is that? I'm a fan of the salmon cannon. Man,
you ever see that the salmon cannon? Yeah, I've seen
the salmon cannon. Salmon cannon is pretty good. I mean,

(39:38):
if you guys don't know what like the salmon cannon is.
Basically it's like I don't know, actually like the actual
like prevalence of biologists transporting salmon in that way. But
it's basically like they load it's like a man gun.
They just swim in And no, that's not quite like that.
The funnier the biologist load these uh you know, these

(40:02):
salmon up into what appears to be like flexible piping,
and like they kind of go through this vacuum system.
And they even like have videos of these things being
backlet where you can see like just this perfect silhouette
of a salmon like snaking through this like large rubber pipe. Anyhow,
it takes them from one spot, puts them in another spot.
And I don't know if you have you ever seen
like those videos of that being slight spliced to like

(40:25):
somebody getting hit in the hitting the side of the
head with an Asian carp. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's it's
it's it's TikTok just got all over that. You know,
the technology out there to move salmon. I appreciate it
very much, whether it be the salmon cannon or like
building better damns if that's really a thing. And but
it's like, man, we can get all these people together

(40:45):
to do that, Like, can can Pennsylvania get enough volunteers
to float stock instead of just dumping them off the bridge?
Like can we just get like a couple like retired
kids to just float stocks and trouts so they're in
the hole. I remember when I was a kid. Anyway, Um,
Phil and I the science guy. He's got some picks
this week. Zebra fish that think or um grains of

(41:06):
rice Serrouni stuffed in juvenile Salmon. We're gonna we're gonna
hear from Phil. We're gonna get his judgment and then um,
we're gonna do a sale bin. That that brings to
mind one of my favorite hip hop songs, Pistol Grip Pump,
which is on my lap at all times. Joe. This
week on The Winner, that's right, Phil is h Phills

(41:30):
down working in Texas. So I'm editing the podcast this
week and there's not a damn thing anybody can do
about it. Why did you put the hand to pay?
You don't know what I'm getting? Man? What you didn't
have to be so hurtful with me? So angry? All right?
This week in the sale Bin, we uh we have
a doozy and you know you know what else? Man?
I I believe this is actually the first ever sale

(41:52):
band that I'm leading off made could surely remember, might
be yeah? Anyhow, This one was submitted by listen ner Derek,
and we're not going to use his last name here
because I don't want the guy who posted the listing
he submitted like like tracking him down. Well, if you're yeah,
and if you're wondering why that would even be a thing.
Just hang on, hang tight, because you're gonna you're gonna

(42:13):
find out. We're gonna get there in a second. So
this is either criminal or the Listers easily the most
degenerate angler of the degenerate anglers. And this is very
little to do with the items being sold and more
with the items that happened to be in the picture
attached to the listing. Yeah, yeah, like you said, right,
this is either a degenerate fly tire or a degenerate

(42:35):
who robbed a fly tire at gunpoint and is now
trying to flip based stash um of stolen materials. The
broader point here is sometimes it's not even the thing,
it's the surroundings in the photo anyway, why at gunpoint
you ask, Well, we're gonna get to that, but first,
let's let's just tell him about the rest of the
photo before we get to those juicy bits. Okay, So

(42:56):
the photo is like, I don't even know how this
was staged. First off, it's a photo fly time material,
that's what the dude is selling. And it's kind of
spread out on a bed, but not just any bed,
like a dirty mattress with a single stained fitted sheet
on it. The mattress is on the floor, like you
remember that Joe, You remember that like gross stoner buddy

(43:19):
in college who would trash all around his room and
just got that just had that grosty mattress on the floor. Yeah. Yeah,
it's that guy exactly exactly. And man, yeah, it has
all the hallmarks of stonerism because if you look around
the peripheries of the photo, um, you've got like all
the usual suspects. Okay, is dirty laundry. It is an
extremely dirty floor, like if you walked on it barefoot,

(43:41):
like it would be disgusting. Um, there's outside furniture inside
that's always a big one. Yeah you know what I mean,
Like if the Walmart lawn chair is also the TV
chair you know, um, big gulp, big gulp on the nightstand.
Hey guys, oh, big gulps. Huh one of the never
and I would say it's it's full of like cigarette ash,

(44:04):
except for the fact that there's like an ash tray
on the decrepit old coffee table there, right, yeah, and
you know there was mountain dew in that anyway, Yes,
we got the ashtray on the old coffee table. Snack
Rappers the whole deal. Um. I mean it's your stoner
buddy Dave's house, who always had enough money to like,
you know, just fund his hobbies, but no full vocation,
you know what his hobbies. Yeah, except it's even worse

(44:25):
than that, because when your buddy in college might have
just been stoned out of his mind. Uh, this guy
seems to be just regular out of his mind or
perhaps criminally out of his mind. And Joe, why do
we think that, man? Because because right there in frame
and by the way, we're gonna post this on Instagram,
but this this was totally cropable, Like this didn't have

(44:47):
to happen. You could have cropped in on the materials
for sale. Um, but I don't know why he didn't
just crop this all together. Anyway, Right there in the
frame is what appears to be like a straight up
fucking sawed off shotgun, like legit as sawed off shotgun
that looks like rusty and weathered. It's weird, dude. I

(45:10):
know you can buy like pistol grip pumps that have
enough barrel length to be legal, but uh, in my
semi expert opinion, is someone who has messed around with
like a lot of shotguns in my life. This is
not that. In the words of UFC President Dana White,
that's illegal. Yeah, indeed it is. I'm gonna back you

(45:30):
up on that. Uh. Look, the listing isn't really that
remarkable outside from the excellent photos. It just says fly
tying twelve hundred dollars. I mean that's kind of remarkable
because it's just a bunch of threatened ship willing to
sell separately priced and gootiable uh used like new, which
is which is actually good because there's no way what

(45:50):
he's selling is worth first of all. Uh, mostly everything
is inside an old school three tiered plane oh tackle box,
So it's it's not like a ton of stuff. This
is not like you're buying like lefty craze tying materials,
you know what I mean. Yeah, And like you said,
it's mostly thread and wired. To be fair, it's a
it's a pretty legit selection of thread and wire. But

(46:12):
it also looks ancient. So like the used like new
tag is dubious at best. Uh. Maybe this is a
good time to remind folks that replace your tying thread
like semi regularly, Otherwise you're going to have some shitty
experiences with with flies coming undone there. That is true.
That is that is a good tip right there. You
know what I was thinking? You know what? This also

(46:33):
looks like This looks like a scene like this looks
like a photo that could have been taken in like
Buffalo Bill's house, Like if there was a death's head
moth on the bed next to the flying materials, like
it would have been right out of silence of the lamp. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
this is where somebody goes get murdered anyway. It's It's
also not like they're like like hackle capes or whatever.
It's mostly just that thread, some bucket, pretty threat, the

(46:56):
guys selling threat some Zonker strips, like all inexpensive items.
So we know it'ss But how much do you think
you'd be willing to pay for all that fly goodness? Man? Uh?
How much? I don't know, fifty bucks? Because this seems
like the kind of guy Like if I, like, if
I like bumped into this dude to saw this and

(47:17):
he was trying to like sound, I'd be like, I'll
give you bucks, and I don't. Is it weird to
say he'd he'd probably take it. It doesn't make the
photo like he would take He would take it. He
needs forty bucks and he needs it. You would have
to pay me more than this was worth to even

(47:38):
go there and get this stuff, Like this isn't Jerry
with a cup of tea, right, Yeah. And I think
a lot of people are either scared off by the
price tag or the implications of what might happen should
you get there and try to negotiate, which explain I
think maybe that's why he's in there. I think that's
why the shotguns in there. He's trying to dissuade negotiation.

(47:59):
This it could be. I mean, regardless, it's sketchy, and
like that's why it's been there for three months. Well again,
not to pass judgment, but like if you knew where
this guy live, I just keep an eye on the
curb because this seems like the kind of thing that
like eventually he just chuck out there, you know what
I mean. So it's sketchy. It's sketch um, you know.
And I've been known to drive like hours for a

(48:19):
bargain and meet up with like some folks I don't
really know too well if there was like a good
deal on some gear, but even I would shy away
from this like price notwithstanding. Yeah, and it would be
it would be a hard pass for me too. I
don't know, like i've I've I've had some dabblings and
used fly material. I've never bought them. But there's been
a few times when like a friend of the family,

(48:41):
like you know, somebody passes away and they tied a
little or something. It's like do you want this stuff?
And you know, yeah, you end up with all these
hackles and caps and stuff that like you look at
them and they turned to dust, you know what I mean. Like,
So I don't, I don't. I haven't really dabbled that
much there anyway, Derek, uh last name excluded. Thanks for
sending us in And if you come across a similar

(49:02):
listing or something else you'd like us to highlight on
the sale bin, go ahead and uh email us a
link at bent at the mediator dot com. And if
you're in p A and decide that this particular bargain
might be for you, make sure to text me or
hated with your location. Uh, you know if you're meeting
this guy, and uh, what time we should call the
cops if we haven't heard from you that sale bin

(49:24):
reminded me of a contender from many moons ago that
we never ran, honestly because I just couldn't think of
enough to say about it to cover an entire segment.
But a listener sent it in. Um and it was
a guy, you know, Caroline as I believe, selling a
bait canon. You know what that is? You ever seen
one of those? Dude? Yeah? I love those things, man,
particularly because like when I was a when I was

(49:46):
a kid, we used to build like PVC potato cannons
all the time. Oh yeah yeah yeah, and this is
just one of those with like legit utility. Yeah. So
this guy, this was not a homemade job or this
was like the expensive, you know, aluminum bait canon. Um so.
And it was a very short description. It's just like
bait cannon five bucks or whatever. But there was only

(50:06):
one photo of the bait cannon on his lawn. But
his giant dog, which I think was a boxer, is
taking a huge steamy shit right next to the bait
cannon that is for sale. Like this giant curling turd
is falling out of the dog's ass like within inches
of the item, and it's just like take another photo, man,

(50:28):
Like digital photography is free. Like you can't say that
you didn't notice that. You know, it's funny because we
sit here and we analyze all this ship. But the
truth is, I just don't think people care. I don't.
They really don't. I'm certain the guy who took the
photo for today's sale Ben never gave the surrounding of
thought cared then or will care now if he here's
this no, which which he won't. But you know what,

(50:50):
we we hear uh you, we hear you and your
questions bent listeners. So to take this episode full circle
to the start, where we touched on the existence of
a perfect being or bait casting rod, let's chat about
whether such a thing exists in the fly world. In
today's installment of the bent Helpline, what are you laughing at, Marktini?

(51:10):
You're not an idiot, You're not a gamblooning hell boy.
You're a fisherman. What's your emergency? All right? So, this
week on the bent Helpline, we are hearing from Ryan
Glarno a k A. Crayola munches on a great handle,

(51:34):
Great handle, Love to know more Kariola munchies on the Instagram?
He asks, been fishing all my life, but never fly fished.
What would be the best way to start? Now? I
got some thoughts on this job, But why don't you? No, no, no,
you go first, go ahead? What are your so? Um?

(51:54):
I have? I guess I've been in this position more
recently than you beginner fly rod first off? Right, Like,
don't go out buying like a crazy nine rod because
like that's what you think you need to be good
a rod or just even like you know, a more
upper echelon rod has its place. But I don't know

(52:16):
about you, Joe, but like I don't feel like that's
something that I was really able to appreciate until I
was like far enough along in my like fly fishing trajector.
That's exactly right. That's like getting your your learners permit
when you're sixteen and somebody putting you in like a
BMW sports car, Like you don't know how to drive
the Corolla yet? So are you really going to appreciate

(52:37):
the difference? Um? And I agree with everything you just said.
People ask me all the time, you know similar, like
I'm I want to start or set up? What what
brand do you recommend? And truth be told, my answer
is always figure out what your price range is for
the rod and real combo, and then pick the one
that you like aesthetically, because really, I think if you're

(52:58):
looking at fly rod in real combos in in similar
price ranges, I mean I haven't fished them all, so
I can't like say, well this one is better, and
is there really a terrible fly rod anymore? And in
any in any price range, especially if you don't know
the difference, if you don't know how to cast yet

(53:18):
at all, you will learn just fine on whether it's
an Echo orvis what whatever sort of budget lower end
brand you can afford. And if you stick with it,
like you said, someday, if you pony up for the
nine job or then you'll be like, oh now, I see,
But there's no point in jumping to that. Yeah. Um,
you know if you want a specific like combo that

(53:40):
I like a lot, uh, And I this doesn't interfere
with thirteen. I don't think they don't make fly rods,
and not at all the orbs clear Water combo. I
think it's great because it comes with your line, it
comes with your real uh, it comes with your rod.
I think it even comes with some leader material. But
I remember I had gotten a girlfriend one of those

(54:03):
at a at one point in time, man and I
fished that thing for a while and it was great.
It's like, you know, even somebody who knows something about it, Man,
I thought that was totally sufficient. So yeah, I mean
I've said I've said this before and I'll reiterate it.
In my opinion, Um, you can either cast a fly
rod or you can't. There is no such thing as

(54:25):
a fly rod that is going to really make your
cast better. There's not. There's not. So even if you're
the guy who's got rod in thirty years of experience,
if somebody's like, hey, dude, your only option today is
this orvis clear water, you will get by and cast
just five. So I have done. It's this. It's it's
the skill, not the not the tool. I'm you know. Yeah. Anyhow, Um,

(54:48):
so that's like your rig. Next I would identify what
sort of species you were going after primarily and number
one by the rod. That's like conducive to that. Can
I can? I can? I can I add a little
caveat to that because what I also see people say,
you know, because that's what I'll ask, well, what are
you fishing for? And a lot of times you get
well trout mostly but sometimes carp an occasionally small mouth

(55:12):
and the thing the thing for people to remember, which
has has shocked a few people. I'm like, you don't
necessarily match your rotten reel to what you're fishing as
much as the flies you have to throw to catch
that thing. So, I mean, a nine ft five weight
fly rod with floating line is is what you would

(55:33):
call the basic middle of the road. Um, if you're
gonna throw a bread fly thirty pound carp though, you
might not want that one though, so you know, yeah,
let me let me throw a caveat to that. Yeah,
if you're going for like a trout centric approach or
like a smaller scale fish approach, I would definitely say
the nine ft five. If you thought you might primarily

(55:55):
be going after like, uh, small mouth and you know
fish like that, I would say bump up to a six,
six or seven. But but I mean, that's that's the problem.
You know that you have a five weight rod and
it does, it does stuff that you wanted to do,
and then it's like, oh, I'm gonna throw some hair
bugs for some large mouth today. Now it's not gonna

(56:16):
turn over it's not gonna it's and and it's it's
not that you can't fight a ten pound large mouth
on a five weight fly rod. You're gonna have a
hell of a time delivering that fly. Because fly fishing
is a system, the line, the rod, everything has to
come together and and be in harmony to turn over,
flip over, and present. The size of the fly based

(56:37):
on how air resistant they are, how heavy they are. Um.
But all that said, it's kind of getting in the
weeds because I do believe anybody who wants to get
into this should just forget the big fish dreams for
a while and just get yourself a nine ft five
weight and learn how to cast it. If you're catching
pan fish and trout, learn that and then and then
worry about it from there. That's my okay. So that's

(56:58):
like your your your basic you know, line reel rod
set up. And by the way, don't buy an expensive reel,
particularly if you're like just going for like trout and
bass is just a line holder. Man. If you're going
for like steelhead, yeah, if like that for some reason,
that's where you decide to dip your toe into fly fishing.
You want some good drag then because it's gonna pull yeah.

(57:20):
Um okay. So now like tactic wise or like general
approach wise, um, I would say, like start in a
high probability time of year and fish the same areas
you would as if you were conventional fishing. And what
I mean by that is like, if you have a
lot of experience flipping I don't know, you know, just

(57:43):
three in grubs underdocks right on your conventional setup, do
the same ship. Just do it with do it with
like a bunny leach or something. Well, let me jump in.
Well here's what I would do. Go buy you go
buy your nine foot five weight, put basically any fly
that you have on it, whether it's a dryer or nymph,
and go to the easiest bluegill pond you know of

(58:03):
where all the kids go with with zero ship in
the way of your back cast, like preferably of a
pond in the middle of a wide open Nebraska field
would be good. And even if you have graduated from
that long ago, uh, catch a bunch of bluegills, because
you take the mystery of fly selection right out of it.
They'll eat any nymph for any dry or any tiny

(58:25):
popper you put out there. And um, you're gonna learn
how to set the hook with a fly rod. You're
gonna learn how to fight a fish with a fly rod,
because quite often too you don't ever touch the reel.
You strip your fish in by hand. Um, and you're
gonna learn how to present. You're gonna learn how to
cast far. You're gonna learn how to cast close blue gills.
Man like kind of go back to the beginning. Yeah, yeah,
you know, and adopt the mindset of, like a true beginner,

(58:49):
have your goal be to catch a fish. It doesn't
matter what fish that is, it doesn't matter how big
it is, and really try and learn from that. Um,
you know, take notes on what works and like what doesn't,
and above all else, don't put yourself in technical situations
right away. Do stuff where like a good cast will

(59:10):
be rewarded with like a blue guilt hitting your hitting
your fly. Don't like, you know, try and catch a
trophy brown trout. Yeah, and I think the way to
step up and you kind of alluded to that with
your flipping docks references. You know, once you get a
little bit comfortable, um, you know, devote a day to
going out. Don't bring your spinning rod, just take your

(59:32):
fly rod, no matter what happens. And when you put
yourself in positions where you've you've you've gear fished before.
I mean really, every time I'm out with a fly rod,
I'm thinking, you know, how do I present this like
gear or vice versa. Like they're sort of interchangeable in
a way. So if you look at the situation, go
normally I would throw a panther Martin right here, and

(59:53):
I would put it over there, and I'd move it
this way. Just try to emulate that with what's in
your fly box, whether it's a little zonker or a
little muddler. Um. Again, it all goes back to like
everybody thinks there's this huge disconnect between fly and gear,
there's no disconnect at all. You're doing the same thing
with different tools. No, and and just remember, man, you're learning.

(01:00:15):
Have fun. You know you said you've been fishing your
entire life. Man Um, the learning curve isn't going to
be as steep as some folks might want you to believe.
You know, just let it be what it is. Have
a good time, man, you'll catch fish, and if you don't,
right in again, we'll tell you how you're messing it up. Yes,
it's gonna say, let us know how it goes. And

(01:00:36):
we enjoy this segment a lot, So please keep all
these great questions coming because we love answering them. And
now you can send those two Bent at the meat
eater dot com best of luck Crayola munches. So that's
it for this week. Hey, please don't forget if you're
selling a child's toy and gently use wheelchair or a

(01:00:58):
set of encyclopedias on Craigslist, make sure you're sawed off
shotgun isn't in the photo that you post to attract
buyers to come to your home and look at your wares. Also,
don't forget if you don't use those degenerate Angler and
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and drug paraphneia, we might not see it, and we
very much want to see it. We do. We also

(01:01:20):
want you to keep sitting those awkward moments, questions and
all that jazz to Bent at the meat Eator dot com.
And finally, we hope we have inspired you to taylor
your rod and real arsenal to the unique waters where
you fish so that you can finally bow and arrowcast
that spinner to that impossible brook trout under the tree,
giving you the confidence to say, if we learned how
to put you d lst night