Ep 151 / Hooked on Stories: Wyatt Ford Unveils Fishing Secrets

Wyatt Ford joins us to dive deep into the world of fishing, sharing his expert techniques, tactics, and some epic personal stories that will have you hooked. As an avid angler and a PhD student at the University of Prince Edward Island, Wyatt brings a unique perspective to the table, discussing everything from the best times to fish to the intricacies of salmon ecology. We chat about the thrill of catching sea-run brook trout and the challenges of fishing in different environments. Plus, you won't want to miss Wyatt's hilarious encounters during his fishing adventures. So, whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, grab your gear and settle in for a fun and informative ride on the water with us!

Takeaways:

• Wyatt Ford shares his extensive knowledge on fishing techniques, emphasizing the importance of adapting to different fish species.
• He recounts a hilarious yet tragic tale of the only deer that made it to Prince Edward Island, only to be hit by a truck shortly after arriving.
• The podcast highlights the significance of conservation and responsible fishing practices to ensure sustainable fish populations.
• Wyatt explains the differences between various fishing setups, including the use of fly rods versus spinning rods for different types of fish.
• He discusses the impact of invasive species on local fisheries and how anglers can help protect native fish populations.
• Listeners will learn about the unique fishing opportunities in Prince Edward Island, including targeting sea-run brook trout and Atlantic salmon.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to the WhitetailAdvantage Podcast with your host
Brett Bovin.
Thank you for tuning in andenjoy the show.
What's up everyone?

(00:23):
This is Brett Boven andwelcome to the Electronic Campfire.
We are not politically correcton this show.
Strongly believe hunting andbrotherhood go hand in hand together.
So yes, there's going to behazing along us here as the team.
Hopefully Wyatt joins alongwith us.
If not we're going to kick himoff right away with but we also invite
you guys to haze along with usas well.

(00:44):
Like I said, this is a brotherhood.
Brotherhood.
There's hazing on, picking oneach other, but it's all within due
love and we respect each otherand we all as we love hunting.
That's what it all comes about now.
Sundays and Tuesdays we do alive show every Sunday and Tuesday
at 8:00pm Eastern Standard Time.
However, the Let me make surewe say this right, There is no 10

(01:04):
ring news for today.
However, I will mention this.
We switched our live showstart time to 8pm we only do a state
specific show the firstTuesday of every month.
We don't do a live show on thelast Tuesday of every month.
The last Sunday of every month.
It's either going to be astump, a trump trivia night, a team

(01:28):
only event, or a call in night.
So stay tuned with that.
If you also want the WhitetailAdvantage calendar on your own phone,
send us your email and we canget you set up so that way you know
exactly what's going on withthe show.
Who's going to be going on ourfuture shows when we don't have a
show.
That way you kind of stay intune with what's more going on and
in hand.

(01:49):
I'll get more into all theother crap later on at the end of
the show.
It is episode 151.
Holy crap, we're getting there.
We might have to do somethingdifferent for episode 200.
Might just say that's episode 200.
Yay.
We're here.
Sweet.
All right, that's good enough.
Anyways, enough to me chip chatting.
I invite you all to pull up achair, gather around the electron

(02:12):
campfire.
Enjoy myself, Squatch andJohnny and our guest Wyatt as we
learn more about Prince EdwardIslands and Wyatt himself.
And I'm just going to stoptalking and whisper on as we get
into this soothing setting ofthe Whitetail Advantage podcast.
It's a very soothing night.
You need to get some ASMRstuff in here and just be very soothing.

(02:36):
I'm just gonna keep going makefun of you exactly I was gonna keep
going until one of youinterrupted me and just stopped me
talking.
I was kind of digging the BobRoss segment.
You were making out to be there.
Yeah, we're gonna.
We're gonna start off bypainting right here.
Yeah, you got.
You gotta layer it.
We gotta start from the top.
Shows a happy accident.

(02:57):
You can't.
Brett was a happy accident.
Now I'm gonna.
I'm gonna put a bush right here.
Yeah.
That's gonna be secret betweenyou and I.
Okay, now what?
You tell anybody about thatbush, I'll come to your house and
stab you.
They say Bob Ross's paintingswere all the spots that he hid the
bodies from.
People.
That's what I heard.

(03:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why did you regret joining theshow already?
Because we've been talkingwith off air, and now we're here
now already.
Hey, man, I got my alcohol.
I'm ready for it.
Welcome to the show.
Well, Wyatt, for anyone thatdoesn't know, you can give a little

(03:37):
background about yourself,introduce yourself.
Right one.
All right.
Yeah.
So, as you already know, myname is Wyatt.
I'm a punter from.
Originally from the state of Maine.
Now I'm Pei.
I'm a current PhD student atthe university Prince Edward island,
and I'm an avid big game hunter.
You and I talked a while ago.
I always request that we do ameet and greet with all the guests

(03:58):
before we do the live show.
You're a big fisherman,though, like, right?
That's what you.
You went into studying fish, correct?
Yeah, that's.
So what did you actually majorin in school?
Where'd you go to school forand all this and stuff like that?
Well, I started out.
I started out at theUniversity of Maine, degree in zoology.
So initially I actually wantedto clone recently extinct mammals.

(04:21):
Didn't exactly have thefunding for it.
Colossal Biosciences popped upand decided to take on all the projects
I eventually wanted to work on.
So I'm like, well, there goesthat avenue.
So, pivoted back to fish, didmy master's in wildlife conservation
management, then came up herefor Environmental sciences, where
I focus on Atlantic salmon ecology.
So your main focus is salmon?
Yeah.

(04:41):
So seeing how, like, habitatand invasive species are impacting
them across the northern Atlantic.
I love salmon.
It tastes delicious as shit.
Not gonna lie.
I.
I would smash a bunch of.
For some salmon.
Right now.
All I had was leftoverspaghetti for tonight.
I just got wrapped up in stuff.
Now I want salmon.

(05:02):
Thanks, Wyatt, for bringing up salmon.
It does sound pretty tastyright now.
See, it's not.
I'm not the only one.
No, no.
You.
Yeah.
Catch doordash, get it delivered.
I don't like doordash.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't know.
All right.
They even have that where you are?
Me?

(05:22):
No, Brett.
Oh.
Doordash is everywhere, dude.
I didn't know they had it wayout where you are.
Do they have it up there withyou, Wyatt?
Yeah, I think they actually doup here in Canada, weirdly enough.
Huh.
Flavors of the forest.
Flavors of the forest commented.
The river in front of my houseis full of salmon right now.
The main.

(05:45):
I can't say that word.
River.
River.
Me and my highly pronounced.
I want to go there.
I'm gonna.
Oregon.
For anyone that doesn't know,you should.
I just booked my flight outthere for end of August, beginning
of September for my hunt.
So.
You hear him?
You hear him?
You hear him, Brett?
Hey.
He's built my flight out to gointo November.

(06:06):
Dude.
I'm gonna go sit the.
Sounds like I just put thisplay into Oregon.
I'm Johnny Nitro.
I'm somebody and I just put my.
I'm going with flavors of the forest.
I'm gonna sit out there andshoot elk.
Yeah.
I'm gonna go hunt elk and fly.
I can't wait.

(06:27):
Oh, my God.
Y.
That's.
So.
That's our.
That's our 13 year old segment.
Here's Michael leave now.
When you.
Let's just get this over withbecause Michael is going to ask about

(06:49):
50 million other questionshere tonight.
Although he hasn't asked onequestion yet that I haven't seen
yet.
Why have you tried opossum?
I can't say I have.
Damn it.
I really thought you weregoing to say that you did.
He.
He loves he.
I can't wait to find the oneguest that we get on here and he
says, yep, I tried to possum.
I want to.
I wish we could record every reaction.

(07:10):
When he said Arkansas or likemaybe Tennessee or something like
that.
Somebody there might have oneof those Appalachian states.
West Virginia or Louisiana bemy best bet.
Yeah, Louisiana.
Yeah, I'd say Louisiana too.
Well, we had boondocks from.
They came on and XavierLeggett, wide receiver, he's eating

(07:30):
raccoon.
So I wanted try possum.
So why you are.
You're a big.
Are you big into hunting aswell or is it.
Are you mainly into fishing oryou kind of like a mix of both?
Definitely a mix of both.
I've been a very avid deerhunter since I think like 10 or 11.

(07:52):
Just recently got into bear,black bear in Maine the past couple
years, and got into moose hunta couple years back.
So when the, you know, whenthe fishing season's closed off in
the fall, I'm in the woodswith a gun, so.
Wow.
But so you got all your kind of.
Your basis of your outdoorlife from Maine, correct?
Yeah.
And then you just recentlymoved up to pei?

(08:15):
Yep.
Yeah, this past fall.
So transitioning from Maine toCanada, you know, it's.
It's interesting.
You know, I.
At the time, I didn't knowthat P.E.I.
was devoid of any big game.
So I'm driving through NewBrunswick, you know, dodging deer
all over the highway.
I'm like, oh, this is off to awonderful start.
So I get over on the islandand looking around like, man, this

(08:35):
is all agriculture.
I'm gonna hit a deer like any20ft from now.
So I'm driving like, you know,20 miles slower than I should be,
just creeping through theisland to get to my apartment and
then like, oh, wow.
I didn't.
Didn't encounter a deer at all day.
That's weird.
Find out the next day there'snot one on the island, so.
Wow.
So it was a lot like Maine,you know, like, just looking at,
like, the topography andeverything like that, but no big

(08:57):
animals to speak of.
And that was pretty much theonly difference, really.
At least I found.
I have a question before weget into the story of that you shared
with me.
What's it like kind of beingon an island?
I mean, it's not.
It's.
It's a.
It's a pretty big island, inmy opinion.
And what's it like to livethere in general?

(09:21):
Lit and hunt there, fish there?
What's it.
What's it kind of like?
Do you feel kind of weird?
Like, in it, you're isolatedin your own way in some capacity?
You know, weirdly enough, Ididn't really ever get that feeling
up here.
I grew up on the coast ofMaine, so I was always used to, you
know, being right on the ocean.
So.
So, I mean, the one weirdthing being up here is, like, all

(09:41):
the sand is, like, really red.
So, like, you go out to, like,any sand dunes, if you pull up like
a picture online, they're alllike, maroon colored.
So, I mean, other than that,you know, fairly similar.
I mean, the place is full ofrivers and whatnot.
So, I mean, fishingopportunities are great.
I could actually, you know,legally fish for Atlantic salmon.
And there's.
It's also the one place in theeastern seaboard you have wild Self
sustaining steelhead which aremigratory rainbow trout.

(10:03):
So plenty of those to fish for too.
Wow.
I, I've never been really.
I grew up doing some fishing.
I, I like to fish, don't getme wrong.
When I can.
I've only been out forbluegill and it's always been my
dream to catch a massive pike.
Like I'd love to catch salmon,don't get me wrong.
But my buddy, he.

(10:23):
He helped me catch a pike.
It was like a baby pike.
But I'd love to catch a bassone day.
I just want to catch.
I can't remember exactly howold I was, but I remember I was up
in the up spending time withmy grandparents up there.
And we went out to this cabintype area that my grand.
My grandpa was staying at as well.

(10:44):
And I was going on a dock andI looked down.
This massive pike was justswimming right underneath.
And this is like middle ofJune, July something like that.
And it's right underneath.
I'm just like wanted to jumpin and grab the.
I was like ever since that dayI just want to catch a G.
A giant massive pike.

(11:05):
Is that just me or is someoneelse like Squatch?
Do you have a dream ofcatching like some specific type
of fish?
Well, yeah, I, you know I goafter big trout and stuff like that.
I, I've.
I've targeted lakers up in ourone reservoir.
I mean they're in excess of25, 30 pounds.
I've, I've caught 12 poundersup there which is really super, super

(11:27):
duper good for where I go.
You know.
Both reservoirs, they're.
They're great fisheries.
They hold huge brown trout,huge lake trout.
So it's.
Yeah, it's one of those thingswhere I try to you know, get on the
fish and.
And you know, absolutely tryto catch the biggest part, biggest
species there that I can.
You know, it's, it's.

(11:48):
It's just a cool thing, youknow, starting out.
When I got on the reservoir,we knew there was big lakers there.
We only caught like five orsix pounders the first year we were
there.
Next year we made a couplestrategic moves.
We got on 12 pounders, man.
So it was.
It's really cool.
And I'm fishing.
I've had bigger fish on there.
They've broken line or gottenoff and you know it's.
It's one of those things.
It just happens.

(12:08):
But I know people that dive tocheck the dams and stuff and they
said there's fish down there,it'll scariest.
So I know they're There.
I know know they're there, sowe'll get them.
John, before we get to you,Michael's asking, do you drink?
What sort?
Sortilage.
I have no idea what that is.
Do you drink sortilage?

(12:30):
I never even heard of that.
Explain, Michael.
Okay.
I'm glad I'm not the onlyidiot that's, like, confused any.
John, what about you?
Is there like a.
A dream fish of yours that youwant to catch?
Besides, like, it'd be amazingto catch a shark, don't get me wrong.
But, like, here in, like, thelocal states is.
There's like, something coolthat you want to.
I would love to catch amuskie, man.

(12:52):
Like, that's the fish of10,000 casts.
I mean, that.
That's.
It's like your pike, but it'sbig brother.
But I mean, I've never caught one.
I've never even caught a pike.
I've never really.
I'm in pond fishing.
Bass, sunfish, bluegill, stufflike that.
But yeah, I think a muskiewould be my.
My funnest one.
I've caught salmon and stuffout on.

(13:13):
The lake, but, yeah.
Wyatt, what's been yourfavorite catch or what?
What would be your dream catch?
So if we're just sticking tothe, like, you know, North America,
definitely a big sea runsalmon, getting that on a fly rod
would be just phenomenal.
If we're going beyond that,though, Mongolian tamen, second to
none.
Nice.

(13:34):
Nice.
That would be.
That'd be really cool.
My buddy.
If I want to know anythingabout bass fishing, I go.
My buddy Dan, that I was theone, he started this with whitetail
van chair, and then he gotbusy with life.
So he's hoping to come back soon.
Anyways, I got him involvedinto hunting, and everyone knows
if you've been listening tothe show.

(13:55):
Like I said, he's a big fisherman.
He loves bass fishing.
And I told him, try huntingone time.
Try.
Try it.
You're gonna love it.
It's 10 times more expensivethan your fishing sheet.
Are you sure?
I spent like 10k on a boat and3k on this fishing rod all together.
I'm like, trust me, dude.
Hunting is 10 times moreexpensive and it's 10 times more

(14:18):
fun.
And I don't.
I said, I love fish.
Don't get me wrong.
When it comes to hunting, it'ssecond to none in its own capacity.
And he tried it two years ago.
Loves it.
Don't wrong.
He loves hunt fish still.
But he's like, brett, you're right.
I spent so much on this Stuffand I love to hunt.
I gotta have that balance.
You know, my, my seasons, likenow we're.

(14:39):
We're in the middle of turkeyseason right now here in the Northeast.
And you know, I'm usuallyfishing by now too, but every time
I get ready to go out, it'seither downpouring rain or 40 mile
an hour winds.
And not going out in that on arowboat, trying to row around a reservoir,
I'll.
I'll get capsized.
But just having that balanceof the different seasons, you know,

(15:01):
summertime, you got your preptime, you know, getting out there,
getting your stuff ready forthe fall.
Fall comes, you're in it towin it, and then, you know, you're
right back to winter time andyou're predator hunting.
And, you know, it's just thatcircle, man.
It's.
I got to have that balance.
I can't just say I like onething the best.
I.
I love everything.
I love everything.
I mean, there's nothing thatcould take the place of killing a

(15:23):
whitetail with a bow and arrow.
Right.
You know, but everything like,you know, I.
I got that.
Harvested the turkey the otherday with Frank and made great memories.
We had a blast.
It was.
Well, I mean, you know, it'sjust that time of the year.
It's awesome.
You know, as long as I'm doingsomething, I'm happy.
I just had a question.
Oh, that's what it was.

(15:43):
Michael was explaining whereto go, but he said it's a Canadian
whiskey.
I haven't seen it up here atany of the liquor stores.
Might be a regional thingpotentially up here.
I'll have to give it a try though.
This is the name of it.
I'm embarrassed.
Portillage.
I'm more in shock that Johnnydoesn't know.
I'm embarrassed Johnny doesn't know.

(16:04):
And that Michael's 14 and he knows.
It must be some bottom of the.
Barrel whiskey stuff like youbuy it for just a penny.
Like my Tippy Cow type stuff.
Exactly.
There.
Make fun of my own ticket.
Anyways, why I gotta.
I gotta ask you guys.
Sure.
The story now of this deer.
All right.

(16:24):
So remember what I'm talking about.
Oh, yeah.
So to give you guys somebackstory, Pei.
Perfect habitat.
You'd think there'd be liketens of thousands of deer here.
Not one.
So the one deer in recenttimes to actually make it to the
island, it swam eight milesfrom mainland New Brunswick all the
way to the island.
Know.
And they'll do thatoccasionally, deer and moose, but

(16:46):
typically they end up Drowninghalfway and just end up floating
dead on shore.
So, you know, occasionallyyou'll find like a moose or a deer
carcass and like, oh, well, it tried.
This one actually succeeded.
So it got all the way to the mainland.
I mean, the thing wasexhausted, you know, barely moving.
It was eating a little bitwithin, I think trying to remember
exactly how long I was told itactually survived.
Got up and it was again reallyslow and couldn't react.

(17:09):
Got right onto the highway andgot immediately hit by a 18 wheeler
like 10, 15 minutes intolanding on the mainland of PEI.
Oh my God.
But we had a deer populationfor like less than 10 minutes or
so.
He told me that story when wemet before the show and I was just
like, what the fuck, man?

(17:30):
Well, and not only that, heleft the part out that the driver
of the truck got ticketed forkilling an animal out of season that's
not in season.
Critically on that island.
That is.
So you still have no deer onthat island?
No, they, they triedhistorically bringing them to the
island back and people wantedstuff to hunt and I don't know if

(17:52):
it was a combination of badwinners or just no protection on,
but they literally all gotshot immediately or people started
beating them and then theyjust died off.
Let me ask you that.
Okay, yeah, you're on anisland, but what's the landscape
there?
So it can't house any deerwhen they try to import them there.
Oh, it like now it can easilyhouse them.

(18:14):
You know, you have less harsh winters.
You know, past 10, 20 yearsyou got tons of agricultural land.
You know, you got that, likethat nice edge habitat that whitetails
like, you know, going betweenforest and like fields and stuff
like that.
The problem is a lot of thepeople up here are potato farmers
or corn farmers.
And anytime anyone tries tobring anything, including turkeys,
they shot that down thinkingthat they're going to wipe all their
crops out.

(18:34):
So anytime they try to bringin any like big game of any sort,
it always gets tossed, whichis a huge shame.
I mean, this would be likeprobably the best deer hunting in
North America.
If they put deer up in here.
Man.
So the biggest thing you canshoot in P.E.I.
is a goose.
I, I kid you not, I was.
About to ask, what's thebiggest game there you can hunt?
It's a goose.

(18:56):
Yep.
Weren't you telling me thoughthat that area is like the home,
like if you want to migratorybird hunting, that's like the upper
echelon of places to hunt.
Oh, yeah.
I mean world, world, worldclass destination People to come
for waterfowl.
I mean, you'll see just swarmsof geese as thick as like, mosquitoes

(19:18):
just coming in every fall.
Same thing with black ducksand so many other different types
of waterfowl.
So, I mean, if you're.
If you're a big waterfowlhunter, this is definitely the place
to be.
It.
I might be missing it, butwhat makes it so drawing, what's
it makes.
What makes it so perfect for.
For birds to go there?
I don't know if it's just likeso many agriculture fields that just

(19:39):
have so much like corn lyingaround in the ground that they just
come down as like a feedingarea on their way up or way down
south and they're migrating orif it's just, you know, just along
their migratory path and aneasy place to hang out for a bit
before making the rest of the journey.
But whatever reason, I mean,this, this island is just incredible.
Incredible for waterfowlcongregation in the fall.

(19:59):
Well, since you don't haveanything to hunt there besides birds,
are you big bird hunter then or.
Not really.
I mean, I try to be.
I.
I mean, I can shoot and hit deer.
I can shoot at ducks.
So if that gives you any ideaof things.
So, yeah, I'll give another.
I'll give it a try up herethis fall.
I mean, this past year I wentback home most.
For the most part for huntingjust because, you know, I actually

(20:22):
had time then.
Yeah, I'm gonna try to getinto it a little bit more this year.
I mean, just driving around, Imean, I'd go out and see some of
the river bays that hadn'tfrozen over and they'd be completely
black with birds.
Yeah, like, you could justcover your eyes and just shoot in
the general direction.
You'd probably feel like 10 limits.
It was like, it was insane.
So then, yeah, I have a chance.

(20:43):
Then what would.
So you have to go back toMaine in order to hunt deer and other
type of game then.
So without getting a guide.
So how it works in Maine, Imean, you don't.
You're not required to get aguide to hunt, obviously, being a,
you know, from there and beinga resident, I can go there and just
hunt off my license.
So this year actually, I'mgoing to be hunting around the Maritimes

(21:04):
coming up.
So black bear, caribou andwhitetail deer, obviously.
But you have to either have tohave a resident with you that's willing
to take you along with them oryou have to hire a guide.
So.
But hey, got some pretty Good offers.
So I mean, I couldn't turnthat down.
So you're basically just upthere fishing then?
For the most part.
And then come October,November, I'm finally out in the

(21:25):
woods.
Unfortunately not much in pei,but I mean, hey, I'll go where the
big game is.
What would you say you learnedthe most that's helped you from Maine
to pei, at least for fishingwise, you.
Know, honestly, justunderstanding like hatches and like
just basic fish biology whenit comes to fishing.

(21:46):
I mean, yeah, the rivers aredifferent, your, you know, your gravel
and stuff like that, all yoursubstrate is going to be different.
But I mean, honestly, the fishbehave the same general way.
So as long as you know how totarget like trout and salmon, one
area, you can pretty muchcatch them anywhere you go.
Now, I'm not the big.
I don't know a whole lot about fishing.
I know in April it's a greattime for bass fishing.

(22:09):
I know that.
Enlighten at least me or andeveryone here.
Something unique about likebass fishing or just something fishing
wise up there that peopleshould be concerned about.
Definitely like if PI specificor just like in the region as a whole.
You can do both or either one.
Definitely invasive species.

(22:29):
I mean, obviously, you know,Atlantic salmon, for anyone who knows
about them, they used to goall the way south as New York.
And you know, obviously peopleexpand in, you know, our population,
more development comes in, thehabitats don't get it, you know,
they get degraded.
And then eventually whenpeople start introducing other species
for sport fish purposes.
So obviously rainbow trout,they're native to the western part
of North America, right.

(22:50):
They shouldn't be out here inthe east.
You know, you put somethingelse out here just for sporting value,
you people, you know, value.
Because I mean, hey, I meanthey're fun to catch and they're
everywhere but at the same time.
And you can't have two thingsthat occupy the same, you know, point
in an ecosystem and have them coexist.
So you start out in the nightand again, you know, the place used
to be 98% old growth forestand now it's like maybe 40, 45% forested

(23:14):
across the island.
So you have to take that into account.
But I mean, rainbow trout andsteelhead, whatever you want to call
them, they're found all acrossthe island and salmon are down to
I think maybe like a quarter,like 25% of their historic range
here.
So nice, you know, justlooking at yo if you're putting something
in for sporting value, you gotto be careful.
That's not Going to wipe outwhat you already have.

(23:35):
So now what fish are youspecifically targeting, like when
you go out?
What.
What's your main go to ifyou're going out there?
So primarily I'm trying to gofor Atlantic salmon.
But they're fairly rare in therivers here because they come.
They come into spawn typicallyafter the season closes.
So I try to target them.
But place is also really goodfor sea run brook trout.
And you can get those anywherefrom like, you know, one to two,

(23:56):
all the way up to, I guessnine pounds in some of the rivers
up here.
So.
Okay, you run an egg sacks.
Are you, what, what you're.
Are you running bait?
Are you running just lures?
Are you fly fishing?
What, how you going about it?
Primarily fly fishing with streamers.
I mean you got these big fish.
I mean they will take nymphswhen they get that big, if they're
like right in front of them.
But typically, you know, nice,nice little shiny streamer about

(24:17):
that big they get.
They see a little injured fishtwitching around, they hammer it
every time.
Nice.
Nice.
So what's.
What's your setup?
What.
What size weight rod are youusing for that?
Like a nine or a.
I will hang on.
Before you answer that, Squatch.
I need to let Johnny go.
He's got a family emergency togo to.
Get off here real quick, guys.
Why?
Good talking to you, man.
I'm gonna listen to you guysfrom the truck.

(24:38):
Good talking too, man.
Yeah.
So what I was saying was what,what Typical.
What's your setup for yourweight rods and stuff?
If you're running somethinglike that or you know, like are you
running fluorocarbon for your leaders?
Usually I'll have like afluorocarbon leader at least for
my 9 weight.
Just because, I mean, in theevent I hook into a striper or salmon,

(25:00):
I don't want that thing to snap.
Yeah.
Typically I'm going to thesmaller streams for brook trout like
in the upper headwaters.
So I'm usually fine running my5 weight.
I haven't come into too manyissues with it other than a couple
of times when I mean thatthing just completely horsed my line
and broke me off.
But usually the five weight's good.
Yeah.
Or like an eight and a half,nine foot rod.
So.
Right.

(25:20):
Doesn't track pretty well.
Do you do any bead fishing?
So what Squatch, when youasked them, do you use an egg sack?
What.
What does that mean?
So for salmon, typically, likeI'm sure he probably knows of it.
Oswego County.
Oswego has A lot of salmon run.
When I was a kid, we used togo up there and float egg sacks.

(25:40):
So what it is, it looks like alittle piece of net, and you tie
it.
You actually take salmon eggs,and they're like reddish color or
an orange color or yellow color.
And you tie a sack and thenput a hook through it with a small
weight that slips in and outof the line.
You throw it out, and then youlet the current kind of bounce it
along.

(26:00):
And those salmon come in and they.
They hit that egg sack andthey take off with it.
So that's why I mentioned theegg sacks.
I didn't know if he fishedwith egg sacks or, you know, because
salmon.
A lot of salmon guys, they do that.
But he's.
He's fly fishing.
He's using fly rods and stufflike that.
So, you know, it's a.
That's a whole.
Whole different from processwhat he's doing.

(26:21):
What I was going to ask you,Wyatt, before that was, do you try
bead fishing for your.
Your brookies and stuff up there?
Not typically what I'lltypically do, it's similar to the
egg sack thing you mentionedis I'll take like a beaded egg pattern
fly, like a little.
Yeah, I don't know if this isthe actual name or if this is just
what they're called in, like,you know, Maine, New Hampshire.
But it's called a crystal methpattern fly.
And it's basically just a really.
Yeah, it's like a shiny orangething that looks like of sucker eggs.

(26:45):
And I'll fix that with alittle bead head on it.
And that seems to do the trickreally well.
Nice, man.
Yeah, we used to.
We used to make them up.
I mean, geez.
I remember we were gettingready to go on a trip when I was
a kid with my father, andOswego is about three and a half,
four hours from where I live.
And the whole night before, myold man's getting the stuff out,

(27:06):
he's making all these, youknow, things rigs for the next day.
I'm like, what the hell are we doing?
He's like, oh, that's how youcatch the salmon.
I'm like, okay.
So we go out there, and we'dactually wait out in the river, and
there's guys shoulder to shoulder.
And, you know, it's like, fishon, hey, dummy, get out of the way.
You know, and you're like,trying to reel your fish in and snagged

(27:28):
in like, 13 other people's lines.
And it's a show but it's, youknow what you, you could catch some
really nice ones.
And I got some friends of minethat actually have, they'll go out
in their boat, kind of anchorout and you know, they'll get the
salmon.
I haven't been on any kind ofsalmon stuff in a long time.
I went out on a boat on.
We caught a couple salmon whenwe were out, but nothing huge.

(27:50):
They were just like, you know,typical five six pounders, nothing,
nothing up in the double digits.
So.
But that's cool.
That's cool.
I want to ask why are you moreof a.
A lake or a fish lake or a river?
Which one do you kind ofprimarily go to fishing wise now
for ice fishing?
Obviously I do a lot of thatin Maine.
You know, being in, you know,one of the northernmost state in

(28:12):
the northeast.
But by much for open water,I'm a big river guy.
Go out there, you know,flowing water with a fly rod, I mean,
you really can't beat it.
Yeah.
Did.
Was it hard to learn fly fishing?
Because I've always wanted todo that.
I've watched TV shows with flyfishing stuff like that.
I always thought that wasfascinating, but I never, I never
did it obviously.
I never got into doing that.

(28:33):
I never knew.
I never have any friends thatnever have any friends.
I, I have, I still have nofriends really.
Online, I have brothers.
That's what I have.
Yeah, I just learned a coupleyears ago casting more like, like
I can't remember the nameexactly, but it just seemed fly fishing

(28:53):
would be easy and hard tolearn all in the same time.
It can be, especially ifyou're coming out from just like,
you know, spin cast fishing.
Because I mean, but at the endof the day the really, the only difference
is like when you're spinnerfishing or anything along those lines,
it's just the weight of yourlure is pulling your line.
And fly fishing, it's just theweight of your line that's flinging
your fly out.
So really, as long as you canmaster just a basic cast, which is

(29:14):
just like a 10 o' clock, 2 o'clock, back and forth, you pretty
much have it at that point.
Well, this might be a stupidquestion, but how the do you know?
Because I see them going likethis back and forth, back and forth,
and it's like the line barelytouches the water and they know when
to catch and they're all right.
I got one right there.
So like, so kind of how itworks is like you pretty much build

(29:35):
up momentum.
So like when you like let'ssay you're in your forward cast.
Eventually, when all your lineis out, you're gonna feel a little
tug at the top of it, and thatway, you know, all your line and
all your momentum's, you know,in front of you, and then you pull
it back, and then you can pulla little bit of line out to give
yourself, you know, more lineto cast.
You just kind of keeprepeating that process back and forth
till you kind of get like, aneyeball of, like, all right, that's
generally enough line I needin order to get to where I want to

(29:56):
cast it.
And then you pretty much justgo complete 90 degrees and in front
of you.
As long as you've been doingthat, where you can feel the tension
on each end before you, youknow, go back and forth, it'll go
right where you need it to go.
So, Brett, to like, layman'sterms for you, it's like you bow
hunt with a compound.
Fly fishing is like huntingwith a recurve, you know, in the.

(30:17):
In the fishing world.
So it's.
It's a little bit more, youknow, paying attention to the details.
He probably.
Do you tie your own flies, Wyatt?
Oh, yeah.
You do.
Cool, Cool.
So he'll match the hatch instinct.
He'll match the hatch.
He.
He'll go out on the river orread reports, and they'll say, okay,
you know, they got a cadisnymph that's starting to hatch now.

(30:40):
So he'll go in his box andhe'll match that up.
Or he'll.
Maybe he doesn't have any.
He's got to tie some.
But it's an art.
It's.
It's.
It's another step.
It's like making your ownarrows for your bow.
But he's making his own fliesto fly fish, which is.
Which is really cool, youknow, but.
You know, go ahead.
No, I'm curious.

(31:00):
How long does it take to makeyour own lure?
I mean, not too terribly long.
Like, I can probably crank outlike, a dozen in about an hour once
I get to it.
Because I type, I typicallytie streamers, which are, you know,
a little bit bigger.
And, yeah, there's not a wholelot of stuff going into them.
So, you know, you got yourbody material, get your tail, you
know, bead head or whatever.
And as long as you can get the.
It's really just a finishingknot that if you know how to do that,

(31:22):
then, you know, they comepretty easy.
Yeah, I mean, you can alwaystie, like, I'm sure you've probably
seen like those like steelheadand Atlantic salmon streamers, those
really complex ones you see inlike picture frames, whatnot.
I don't fish with that.
And that's.
It's just not necessary.
So, like, if you're trying totie something like that, then, yeah,
you could be at that, youknow, all day long.
But if you want somethingthey're going to eat, it doesn't

(31:42):
take long at all.
What, what rods, what rodcompany are you using?
Fenwick or Fluger or what's,what's your company?
What do you, what do you like?
No, it's a local one domainactually called Main Fly Company.
So they're based out of.
Oh, I should know this.
It's somewhere in SouthernMaine, near Portland.
Okay.
But yeah, you know, they makethem all by hand and in Maine.

(32:05):
So like, hey, supporting alocal business.
And honestly, they make afantastic rod.
So that's great.
That's really either the 5weight that I have.
I mean, without the reel, thewhole Rod only weighs 4 ounces.
So it's like casting, youknow, butter.
Yeah.
Air.
You're just casting air.
Yeah.
Now, I know with spinning rodsyou got like medium, medium, fast,
medium heavy.

(32:26):
What do you, what are your,like your, your Brookie setup, you
said you're going with a five weight.
Now is that like a five weightfast tip?
So you can feel that Brookiehit real quick and light on there,
kind.
Of for the most part because,like you go like up in size, it definitely
becomes more stout.
So like, if you were to run afive weight, which is basically your
general, you know, trout rod,small bass, small salmon type of

(32:48):
rod, I mean, you'll feel like,you know, I mean, you can still feel
like, you know, 4 or 5 inchfish, but I mean, like, if you were
to downsize like a three or afour weight, that's going to have
a lot more flex to it andyou're really going to feel it, but.
Gotcha, gotcha.
That's cool.
Now, do you run any floatersor anything like that when you're,
when you're running your setupor you just strictly.
That streamer set up, nofloaters on your line?

(33:09):
Oh, when I do, when I donymphing, especially in the fall
for steelhead, I'll do like alittle float and then maybe like
foot, foot and a half below it.
I'll run like maybe 2, 3 nymphs.
So most productive patternonce the season gets really late.
Yeah, yeah, you're.
You're keeping that bait justkind of like suspended over the rocks.
And those fish are, they'reresting behind those rocks and they'll
come up and just smash ontothat lure.

(33:31):
A technique a lot of, like thelocal streams up here.
We, we had a really good onefor years and then it got ruined
when we had the hurricanescome through.
But I had a, I had a nicemountain stream where I could catch
like 14, 15 inch brook troutall day long in it.
And you know, to set up wasstay low.

(33:51):
And I'm a spin fisherman.
I, I, I did been dab with thefly rods and stuff over the years
and working in sporting goodsstores and stuff, so I know very
little bit about it.
But I would take just a littlechunk of worm and a small, small
hook.
I cast it upstream and justlet it float natural down between
the little eddies and the back pools.

(34:12):
And those brook trout, as longas they didn't see it, they would
come up and just smash it, you know.
And it was, it was fun.
It was fun.
But when we got thehurricanes, what ended up happening
was the rush of water throughthese mountain streams took all the
boulders and rocks and filledall these pools and holes and the
spots are ruined.
And it's like I went up there,I was looking forward to going to

(34:34):
brookies one day.
And after that happened, thespots were totally gone.
They weren't even there anymore.
A lot of those fish probablygot washed downstream into the main
river.
And you know, it was nicewhile it was there, but I mean it
was, I had little, littlehoney holes in state land.
I used to like trek down there.
I actually had a mother bearand two cubs come across the path

(34:57):
like 20 yards away from me.
And I'm standing there with mypole, my hand, and I'm like, I'm
like, oh God, please don't getmad at me.
I'm just standing here fishingbecause she had her cubs with her.
And she turned around and shestarted snapping her teeth.
And I, I wasn't, I didn't evenhave my pistol on me because I wasn't
a pistol holder at the time.
I was so young.
I had just started drivingaround and finding places to fish

(35:20):
and I was like, this bear isgoing to kill me.
And I'm like, where the hellcan I go?
She's gonna, I'm in a valley.
I mean, she's gonna tear me apart.
But luckily she just kind ofsnapped her teeth a little bit.
And then she put her head downand kind of went after her young
up the mountain again.
But it was pretty cool.
Really pretty cool.
I didn't realize what an Eddie was.
And I'm not the person toexplain what an Eddie is.

(35:43):
So scratch or why you want toexplain what an Eddie is.
And the reason I say isbecause there's a school in our,
in our conference that weplayed, they were called the Edwardsburg
Eddies.
And we were wondering what.
What like what the.
Is an Eddie.
And they said obviously youcome to find out it was, it was in

(36:03):
the fish stream.
Like it was like that poolunderneath like a, like a rock behind
the thing.
They had circle and swirl like that.
But their mascot was like a.
What's that guy's name fromlike Wisconsin and the up that lumberjack
dude.
Oh babe.
No, no, I don't think it was him.

(36:25):
I don't know.
Lumberjack something.
Okay.
I can't remember his name, buthe was basically a minor.
I'm like what the.
Yeah, so it was just weird howI got older and I was like, oh, this
is what an Eddie is.
Anyways, I, I digress.
Why?
Are you able to explain what,what an actual Eddie is?

(36:46):
Yeah, it's like that like backpool kind of swirling thing.
They'll form behind like alarge boulder or if you have like
a big enough like log in the river.
So it's a spot where a lot offish will hang up because it's not
going to put as much pressthem from currents.
They can just kind of sitthere and wait for food to get blown
right in front of their face.
Yeah.
So basically it's an objectthat goes out in the river and it's
stuff behind it and it justswirls in like a circle right there.

(37:08):
Yeah, yeah.
Cuz the current just comesback and it just back fills it.
So it creates like a spinningcurrent that's a lot slower than
the actual main current itself.
If you've ever, if you've evertook a trolling motor and kind of
like turned it on but didn'thave it down deep enough and you
get that little circle ofwater that kind of spins like a.
Yeah, a little tornado behind you.
Yeah, that's, that's an eddy.

(37:29):
But just imagine a boulder ora log or something out creating that.
And the reason why fish loveit like, like Wyatt said, was there's
just a lot less pressurehydraulically on that fish.
And then what they'll do isthey'll sit there, but that flow
is taking like, you know,night crawlers that have fallen in
the bank or bugs or whatever'sfloating down the river and they

(37:51):
just sit there and they're notspending so much energy.
And they're like, oh, look.
And they, you know, they getwhat they get.
Yeah, it's like a buffet forhim at the Eddie, you know, it's
like the Eddie buffet, so.
But yeah, that's.
That's some good techniques.
So what's your biggest.
What's your biggest brook trout?
You've.
You've managed to land up there?
Oh, managed to land being thekey part.

(38:12):
Yeah.
Into one last fall, and I wasgoing for one of the extended season
spots that was probably aboutsix, six and a half pounds.
Nice.
Wow.
There's a video of me breakingoff on it, and I don't think that
needs to be publishedanywhere, but.
Yeah, I know.
Biggest one I netted, I washelping out some of the people working
with the fisheries departmentup here like a week before the season
opened.
So they're doing like atagging project.

(38:33):
And I think the biggest one Inetted was like three and a half
pounds, I think.
And again, these are all searun brook trout, so.
So these aren't like, you'relike, residents and whatnot.
Yeah, so they fight a lot.
Big, you know, pound forpound, they're a lot more powerful
fighting fish than the regularbrook trout would be.
Oh, sure, yeah.
Oh, definitely, definitely.
Are there fins a littledifferent than.

(38:54):
Than a regular brook trout?
Like a North American brook trout?
They get like a longer finbecause they're a sea fish.
You know, like, proportionallythey're the same.
The difference is, like,they're more silvery colored.
Kind of like if you look atsteelhead or Atlantic salmon before
they come into the rivers.
So you can still kind of makeout, you know, okay, these are the
blue and red spots, but like,if you look at the side of them,
it's like all like matte gray,silver color.
So.

(39:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Really?
Look at.
I wonder if they almost looklike a Splake, because splaker's
silvery.
Yeah, actually.
Yeah.
I wonder if they're more likekind of like in that Splake family.
I've some of the Adirondacklakes and stuff that I fished up
their landlocked.
They got.
They got Splake in them and stuff.
They're pretty good.
They're good eating, too.

(39:35):
It's a nice eating fish.
They put up a good fight, butthat's cool.
Now, do you ever.
Do you ever go out, you know,from the island?
Do you.
Do you fish out, you know, onthe coast, or do you go out on like,
maybe like a charter boat andfish for some other species?
Are the salmon out in the ocean.
You're going out for them on aboat maybe or something like that.

(39:57):
So I've been on the boat formackerel and striper so far.
Planning on doing a deep seatrip this year off of the north shore
of P.E.I.
to go for, like, cod, haddock,oh, maybe even tuna, depending on
if we can get enough peopletogether for that, but not, not so
much, at least for like, troutand salmon.
I know we plan on going toNova Scotia here in a couple weeks.
Try to go for c.
Run brown trout.
And then I don't know if it'sopen or not, so maybe salmon.

(40:18):
If I can do it by then, who knows?
But nice.
Yeah, pretty much kind oftraveling the rivers along the coast
and seeing what's running in them.
At that point, I'm there.
Yeah, that's, that's awesome.
That, that's really, it's funto get out and like, you know, explore
the different spots that youcan get into and see what you can
catch, you know, especiallywith that fly rod.
It's a challenge.
It's, you know, it's not likethrowing bait.

(40:38):
Bait you can catch pretty muchanything on when you're, when you're
out there, but you got to pickmatch to hatch and, and fool their
eyes.
They got really good eyes.
They can, they can see.
So I'm on this website.
Yeah.
Titled Prince Edward IslandFishing the complete guide for 2025.
First off, this photo theyhave there is amazing, beautiful.

(41:00):
And it shows, like, the typeof saltwater fish that you can catch
there.
Tuna, a cod.
Why this woman's kissing the fish.
I, I, I don't know.
Good for her.
Atlantic mackerel.
This mackerel looks like afreshwater trout.
Oh, my gosh.
I, I want to catch a trout now.

(41:20):
Yeah.
Perch up there.
I, I, Some reason I thoughtperch were only home to Michigan.
I feel betrayed now in my ownweird way.
But then you have PrinceEdward island fly fishing.
Like, the aesthetics, justlooking at this photo just makes
you, oh, my God.
Like, it looks like Alaska.

(41:42):
What's so funny?
The website.
He is on his own.
Leave it up to that freakingkid, right?
He's 14 years old and that'sall he does is with us, man.
He listen, he ain't payingattention in school, so he's like,
what can I say?

(42:02):
On Tuesday night, Sundaynights, when I get on the show with
Brett and Squatch and Johnnyand Dave.
Yeah.
I want to say about that.
That is definitely not fromthe island.
It's not?
No, no, no.
Like, the island's Pretty flat.
There's no mountains like thator hills.
Well, this is.
This is the photo.
So I got right here.
This.
This is the main photo.

(42:23):
Yep.
That would be the capital, Charlottetown.
And then.
Yeah, here, like a tuna.
Now that on a fly rod would be fun.
Oh, my gosh.
Massive.
Dude, I know one guy back homethat actually, it was.
It was a blue fin, butgranted, I think it was, you know,
only like £200 or so.
And he.
I think he fought for like 14hours, but he never lost the fish

(42:45):
and got on the boat.
See, just kissing the fish.
That's a walleye she's catching.
She's kissing a walleye, I guess.
So.
I don't know what this is, butthis Atlantic mackerel just screams
our target to me.
Not the kid, the fish.
Those things are stupid.
Easy to catch.
Just take like a little like.
I don't know if you've everheard of like, sabiki trees or anything

(43:06):
like that.
Yeah, yeah, you just take that with.
A little red devil on the bottom.
Just bounce it off the bottomof the sand and they'll hammer it
left and right, like right there.
That's a.
So like, that's like what Iwas talking about for like the C.
Run brook trout.
Like, if you look.
If you zoom in a little bit,you can see like the side of it how
it's like all like white, gray.
Like you don't see like thetypical brook trout colors.
Yeah, yeah.
Like you.
They will color up like yourresident fish once they get into

(43:29):
fresh water and they start spawning.
But like, when they first comein, just like, you know, fresh salmon
or steelhead, all silver like that.
You can tell that the brooktrout, too, by the jawline.
It's kind.
Their face is kind of roundedlike a.
Almost like a bullet, youknow, like the head of a bullet.
Like a round nose bullet,where the other trout, like big lakers
and stuff, their jawline goesway back.

(43:49):
It's like they're a totaldifferent fish.
They're pretty cool, though.
Wow.
What's it like?
We're getting close towrapping up the show for tonight.
I want to ask for anyone thatwants to come up there to Prince
Edward Island.
What would be some laws orrequirements that they.
Besides getting your passportand stuff like that, to travel.

(44:11):
But to come up there, whatwould they need to know?
Obviously, you're gonna wantto know, like, water specific regs,
because a lot of places arefly fishing only or artificial only,
but because, again, this is anarea where Atlantic salmon can still
legally be fished.
You know, Maine, NewHampshire, Massachusetts, obviously
that's been shut down fordecades now.
So they're really protectiveof Atlantic salmon, you know, whether
you're targeting, you know,brook trout or steelhead up here.

(44:33):
So a lot of places will havebarbless only regulations throughout
the whole watershed or certain sections.
So, you know, when you getyour fishing license.
Yeah.
So, like, if you look like ahook, how, like on the end of it,
it'll be like a little notchcoming out.
Oh, yeah.
Like that back end.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, like, you'll either haveto pinch the barb down before you
go fishing, or you'll have tohave it where there's just, like
a straight point coming inwith no barb.
So that's obviously a veryimportant thing to have.

(44:55):
Obviously, you know, you'refishing regs for, like, what you
can and can't harvest, but, Imean, hey, that's kind of given wherever
you go.
Yeah, but, yeah, just makingsure, you know, whether you can.
You have barbed hook or notis, you know, huge difference, especially
depending on what you want totarget up here.
What makes that point so special?
Granted, we have a stupid law.
Like, I know in Idaho, youcan't have lighted knocks.

(45:16):
I get sometimes they're juststupid laws.
Yeah, exactly.
Like, explain how lighted knocks.
You can't have on your arrowsetup when you're hunting out there
in Idaho.
It could have changed, but Iknow as of last year or something
like that, it was still a law.
Is that just a weird law therethat you have up there in pei, or
is that something specific?

(45:37):
There's a reason to it?
Yes, the reason to it, like,if you have, like, a hook, if it's,
like, really deeply embeddedinto, like, the mouth of a fish or
if they swallow it, especiallyif it's an Atlantic sandwich you're
not allowed to harvest, youwant to have the most minimal amount
of damage to it.
So, like, if it's.
If it's barbless, the holeyou're putting in the fish is just
as good.
It's just gonna be as wide asthe, you know, the width of your
hook.
If there's a barb in it, itcould get caught.
It could tear more tissue, andit could lead to damage that could

(45:59):
lead to an infection orpotentially kill the fish.
Yeah, so because they'reendangered, they just don't, you
know, and, you know,rightfully so.
You want to make sure peoplecan still fish for them.
So making it so people cantarget them and leave as little damage
to the salmon as possible.
I Mean, yeah.
I mean, again, if you'refishing, a lot of people don't like
barbless hooks.
But I mean, really, the onlydifference is just don't give them
any slack and you're not goingto lose the fish.

(46:21):
Keep the head pressure on them.
Yep.
Do.
Sorry, but the.
In the Hudson river here, thestripers run up the Hudson.
They made regulations.
Now you can only use a circle hook.
You can't use any other hooks.
You used to be able to usetreble or a Snell or whatever, but
now they only allow you to usea circle hook because they don't

(46:42):
want that going deeper downinto the sand into the striper's
mouth and killing it.
It does happen, but a lot ofthe problems with circle hooks is
guys that use chunk bait herring.
So what will happen is thefish will come up to grab the chunk
herring by the head and thecircle hook will actually hook back
into the bait, and it won'thook this striper in the mouth.

(47:03):
So guys are like, this sucks.
You know, I lost another one.
They're just running with it,spitting it out, and, you know, it
happens.
But that's what the state regsare like here.
They.
They said no more.
It's got to be a circle hook.
So do a lot.
Before I get to my nextquestion, do a lot of people prefer
just regular hooks or they do.
They prefer the hooks with the.

(47:24):
The notch?
Honestly, a lot of people I'vetalked to, and again, a lot of them
have been fly fishing, buteven some spin fishermen that even
if they're in a body of waterthat you can use barbed hook, they're
not running them.
I mean, one big reason is ifthat if you get caught on a branch
and you pull your hook backand it comes in and hits you, you
don't want to be pulling out abarbed hook.
I mean, speaking fromexperience, I was out at a river,
which I'm not going to name itback in Maine, because I don't want

(47:46):
that thing getting overfished.
But I was going for landlocksalmon, and I had this really, really
good fly I tied, but at thetime, I was only tying with, you
know, barbed hooks.
And that thing came back at,like, probably 100 miles an hour
and went right into my thumb.
Oh, like all the way down tothe bend of the hook.
And that was a very unpleasanttime getting that out.
So since that day, I have notfished with a barb hook.

(48:09):
I remember.
What was it?
I was 10, I think.
I was fishing up in the.
Up with my Grandma and grandpa along.
My sister, I'm facing one sideof the boat, she's on the other side
of the boat.
And you can already see howI'm going with this.
She flings back to cast it andthis somehow gets it caught in my

(48:30):
cheek and I'm just like.
And then she started yanking it.
I'm like, ashley stopped.
It hurts so bad, man.
That was your first piercing?
That was my first piercing.
We had a kid.
We had a kid on.
On the docks.
We were down on Long beachisland one time and this guy that

(48:51):
we had went down with part ofthe family and stuff.
His kids run around and hisdad cast back and hooks a little
bastard right in the ear.
And this kid is screamingbloody murder.
And it's lodged in his lobe ofhis ear.
So his old man's like, how thehell are we going to get that out?
I says, I'll get it out, butyou're going to have to hold them.

(49:12):
So I got about my forearm onhis neck.
He's got him by the legs and Igot a pair of needle nose pliers.
I had to push that son of a.
Through his ear and thencrunch the barb down and then pull
it back out.
That kid was screaming bloodymurder, man, for like an hour.
But we.
We got the hook out.

(49:32):
Did you have a question there, Wyatt?
I was gonna say, do you fishthe up often, like, or plan on going
there anytime soon?
I fished the up I haven't.
I haven't fished up there and12 years, but I have a couple spots
up there that I just love.
The reason I was asking was.
I don't know.
I'm pretty sure it's the up orit might be the upper part of the

(49:53):
Lower Peninsula, but theMichigan that they've been.
I think they've just finallystarted reintroducing Arctic grayling
back into some rivers andlakes in that region.
It sounds right.
Really?
Yes.
They used to have arcticgrayling all the way up to Michigan
then, you know, back whenpeople were, you know, not really
caring for the environment orforest cover, they destroyed streams
and stuff and they died out.
So they.
They had a program toreintroduce them back into the state.

(50:15):
So I think they.
It.
It's been either one or twoyears, but they've been stalking
some lakes in the UP and thenthere's some rivers I think, also
in the UP but definitely inthe upper part of the Lower Peninsula.
So if you don't want to go toAlaska or I think, think Montana
has them still.
You Know, they're, they'refinally back.
Trying to show picture of whatyou're referring to right here.

(50:37):
So for anyone that doesn'tknow an arctic railing is this right
here.
I have never caught one of those.
Now get a picture one of theirspawning colors and then tell me
that you've seen a prettiersalmon fish spawning.
Yeah.
You see one, let me know.
See, you see the one with thehand, it's kind of purple looking.

(50:58):
This one?
Nope.
Go to the right a little bitmore and then down one.
Oh, this one right here?
Just to the left of it.
Oh, right here?
Yep.
Oh, my gosh.
That looks beautiful.
Yeah.
All right, that's cool.
Can you explain this for theaudio version, Wyatt?
Yeah.
So you've got like a reallygood rainbow hue.
Think of like a white fish,but like, like every imaginable color.

(51:20):
You have like blues, purples,greens, yellows, bright red tail.
So like more colorful than abrook trout.
And almost they're a superstunning fish.
And they've got a really bigdorsal fin in the back of it, bigger
than any other somewhatspecies you can catch.
That fish almost looks likeit's like oil stain on a puddle of
water.
That's the coloring you couldalmost imagine.

(51:42):
It goes from like a purple tolike a pink toe green.
I don't know what it is, butsome fish just give me that.
That look of like it's aninvasive species.
And this, this, the look ofthis gives me that feeling like it
just looks like an alien, likea tropical.
Fish, but it's like so out of place.
Exactly.
Yeah.
It's a cold water tropical fish.

(52:04):
Oh, man.
Wyatt, I want to say thank youso much, man, for coming on the show.
Learned a lot more about fishing.
I love to fish.
I want to get more into fishing.
With that being said, I gotsome rapid fire questions I want
to shoot your way first.
Okay, well, first off, Michaelwants to ask what kind of hunting
do you do?
Wyatt, we already discussed this.

(52:24):
If you're watching the startof the show, Michael, you piece of.
Oh, God.
He.
He hunts with whatever hewants to hunt, Michael.
I mean, he hunts worms.
That's what it does, Michael.
That's what he deals with.
He hunts hackle shops so hecan find, hack the tires, fly.

(52:48):
Not the one with four paws.
It's the one with two feet andgiant boobies.
Michael, pay attention.
I thought you were a fan ofthe show.
He was playing Nintendo and hetuned back to the show and he lost
track of what was going on.
Yeah.
To answer his question, canyou answer his question?
So primarily big game, youknow, deer, black bear, when I can

(53:11):
get tags, you know, otherstuff like moose.
I'll dabble in bird hunting too.
You know, like rough grouse,pheasant, turkey, if I can ever manage
to shoot one, and thenwaterfowl as well.
Hey, I got a quick question.
Why?
Have you ever ran into how blood?
No.
Weirdly enough, I've almostmet him at a couple of the different
sportsman shows back in Maine,but I've read a.
I think it was a book he wrote.

(53:32):
I've seen his podcast a lot.
You know, really knowledgeablebig woods hunter from northern Maine.
So yeah, he's great.
I love watching his stuff onbig woods, Big woods outdoors there
on, on YouTube.
He's just a down to earth guy.
I mean that's, that's.
He's like us, man.
You know, he just, he doesn'tcare about the publicity or all that
crap.
He just wants to go out, youknow, still hunt deer and freaking

(53:54):
dude gets on him, man.
He gets on.
It's one of my, one of myfavorite time.
I would love to go to Maineand do a big woods hunt myself, you
know, someday, honestly, youknow, and.
Probably some people are gonnaget mad, I'm saying, revealing this
bit, but honestly, if you goup here during the muzzleloader season,
you're probably not going toencounter a single other hunter.
No go.
Yeah, people just give upafter the end of rifle.
I mean like, like last yearwhen I, when I went down, I only

(54:16):
had the black powder season to hunt.
So yeah, took my inline outand I'm like, well, there's no one
else out here.
So like anywhere I wanted togo and I could shoot pretty much
anything.
Wherever.
That's awesome.
That was a question before weget to the rapid fire segment.
When would be the best time tosomeone come up there to come fishing?
Oh, well, depends on if you'remore of a fall or a spring guy.

(54:37):
But I love April.
Yeah, if you're going for thefall, October is good.
If you go to one of theseextended season places.
So they have, there's a fewplaces across the state that have
late season stuff that.
Because typically everything'sshut down by October 1st, there's
a few places that run untillike, you know, mid October or the
end of October.
And you can get like fullspawning dress colored brook trout
and landlocked salmon,occasionally even lake trout too

(54:58):
in some of the rivers as well.
But I mean, end of September,if you're just gonna try to go anywhere
in the state, that would be ideal.
So then you can go into otherstuff like arctic char or white fish
or, you know, pond based brooktrout and stuff.
Yeah, I definitely want tocome up there.
At least try fishing.
If I get the money and thetime to do it.
I can't even fake times take piss.

(55:18):
I will say this before we getto the rapid fire, Michael's got
nothing.
He's been silent.
Come on, Michael.
Well, he's in that segmentwhere he's not paying attention again.
And then he's going to get onand say, well, what's the best time
to go up there and fish?
And you're gonna be like, you.
You already said it.
Shut up.
You know, and then he's gonna cry.
He probably won't come back onthe show again for a while.

(55:41):
He hates us.
That's all right.
It's all right.
Sorry.
He'll get over it.
Wyatt, rapid fire segment.
We got about seven questionsfor you.
Okay.
All right, let's hear it.
Besides hunting and fishing,do you have any other hobbies or
interests?
Yeah, you know, I like, likemountain hiking.
It's a lot of fun.
I do like photography a bit,you know, kind of capture, you know,

(56:01):
snippets of different, likehabitat that you can find.
I'm pretty avid in canoeingand kayaking, you know, paddling
around differently evenwithout the rod.
I mean, just being on thewater in any way with watercraft
is honestly a lot of fun.
I do love the kayak.
That, that is pretty fun.
It's a nice little workout youdo a nice core workout, shoulder
workout, but just floatingalong the river or the lake.

(56:22):
I like it.
Man.
That's a lot of fun.
Don't get me wrong.
Do you have one that you go inor do you have one that you sit on
top of?
Oh, one I go in.
It's got like a internal compartment.
There's a thing I, if I canget the thing working.
It's like a zipper thing youcan put kind of put around it.
I mean, I'm never going totake this thing.
White water, but like, itseals it in.
So like, if you ever capsize,you can just kind of like yourself
when you're driving.
Yeah.

(56:44):
What about you, Brett?
What about you, Brett?
You got the one you sit on orone you go in?
I just sit on it and if I fallout, I'm.
But I've seen these ones outthere where you can like these motorized
ones, they're like pretty badass.
And I was like, oh, I'd loveTo get one of those.
So you compared to theexercise out of it that way you always
got to go to lazy route.

(57:05):
I know I'm a lazy.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
If you don't have a freakingmotor in or something.
I don't want to do it.
Really.
The only thing I like withmotors is motorboating.
Okay.
That's the only thing.
Well, who doesn't?
But I'm just saying, you know,like, you know, you're.
It's not a kayak then you'relike in a banana hammock kind of
situation with the motorboatand stuff.

(57:27):
You.
I don't know how the hell youget in a kayak anyway with that big
ass head.
That boat would want to goright around again bouncing your
head off the rocks.
I don't know how you can seemy big head down here when I don't
have it on screen, but it isbarely pretty big.
Don't get me wrong.
God.
Here he goes to his only fanspage now.
Oh, you were referring to my cranium.
It's still pretty big.
Yeah.
Richard Noggin.

(57:48):
Talking about your Richard Noggin.
Jeez.
All right, back to the segment.
Back to the rapid fire questions.
Why?
At the entire time we've beentalking, even off air and during
the show he's like, what thedid I get involved with?
Why did I come on the show?
This is why did I agree.
Stupid.
Yeah.
I thought this was going to bea show where we talk about fishing

(58:09):
and hunting.
Yes.
Not curves and motorboatingand hunting cougars and giant dicks
and.
Yeah, exactly.
But you know, that's, that'sthe, the tardation that comes out
of us here on the white toe advantage.
Exactly.
It comes about.
We're digress.
Why?
I am so sorry, man.
We're just going on.

(58:31):
These rapid fire questionshave turned into a show.
So get back to the rapid fire question.
We try to keep these rapidfire questions like.
All right.
Straight to the point.
Yep.
Yep.
All right.
Sweet.
Awesome.
And we learn a little bit moreabout them and then wrap it up.
No, Instead of like five to 10minutes, we make it into like an
hour itself.
There's nothing rapid about it.

(58:52):
It's.
It might, you might as wellcall it like slow motion questions.
We're going to call this the.
The glacier fire questions.
The glacier questions.
Yeah, exactly.
The glacier freeze.
I'm starting to think it'smore like the broad spectrum questions
because we just get off on afreaking tangent, you know, and it's
like.

(59:12):
And then you know, and it'slike, come on, you know, you're holding
the guest up.
Maybe he's got to go to the bathroom.
Maybe he does.
I don't know.
I think Johnny got the shits.
And that's why he had to getoff the show.
I really do.
Understandable.
That's the.
Oh, family emergency.
Gotta go, you know.
No, Michael, he's asking to you.

(59:33):
You know, Here we go.
I told you.
I told you.
He's playing Fortnite and gotback to the show, and he didn't hear
what we had.
The questions were.
So here's Michael's question.
Do you do any, like, upland game?
He was not paying attention.

(59:54):
He doesn't even pay attention.
To clarify, I do a lot ofupland game shooting.
I don't really do a lot ofupland game killing.
Michael, we'll say this.
It's probably the best placeto go in the world anyways.
Rapid fires.
Questions.
Geez, man.
Stop distracting me.

(01:00:14):
Why?
Why?
Oh, my gosh.
Come on, Brett.
Get with the program.
You suck.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
When you start talking aboutbig dicks, my brain goes somewhere
else.
You're holding up our guest.
He's probably got other peopleto talk to that are more important,
so just get on with it.
Michael, I had to get off fora few minutes.
You lol.

(01:00:35):
Yeah.
You went to the bathroom for afew minutes.
That's all right.
There's my pecker.
He's like that little bird.
Want to see my pecker?
What's growing down there?
Oh, my gosh.
Want to see my pecker?
All right.
Freaking questions already.

(01:00:56):
Come on, hurry up.
Jesus.
You know, I don't.
If I knew what the freakingnext question was, I'd ask it.
I forgot what it is.
Why?
What?
Amazon.
So that was what animal is onyour bucket list to hunt?
Oh, so caribou.
And that's going to be donethis upcoming year, so happy to do

(01:01:19):
that.
Aside from that, though,probably pronghorn out west.
Definitely up there in the list.
I.
I'd love to go pronghorn running.
I don't think we have a guest.
Stay.
Pronghorn hunting?
Well, you know, I actually wassupposed to go up.
Yo, pumpkin head, shut up andgo play on your Grinder account.

(01:01:39):
Oh, I was actually supposed tobe going on a pronghorn mule deer
hunt this past fall.
So I got cleared with my gradadvisor and everything.
And then a.
I think a couple weeks beforewe were supposed to go out, a wildfire
started hitting Wyoming.
There was a river that wasseparating this.
It was a, you know, big, hugeprivate game ranch we were going
to go on.
It wasn't like, not a range,like it was like free ranging, like,

(01:02:01):
you know, a big open pastureand stuff.
You know, not a high fence hunter.
So don't.
I remember reading about thatfire and it was basically just as
big as that one in California.
But the only reason it didn'tget the status, if you want to call
or the notoriety through mediawas because.
Popularity.
Yeah, the popularity, becauseit wasn't in California.

(01:02:25):
It was like, oh, it's justanother wildfire.
But like this wildfire isn'tjust no Tic Tac.
Oh, I burnt five acres.
This thing burnt a ton of land.
Like several wildlife.
I don't know, I can't rememberexactly what they're called.
Like wildlife management unitout there or whatever.
Yeah, like it went through a lot.
Like three or four of them completely.
Like the whole ranch isnothing but just ash.

(01:02:46):
So we're like, all right,we're just going to get our tag reef
on and go another year whenthis is all grown back.
But right.
Like it was just a fire thathappened out in the woods compared
to that one where I was like,oh, we're going to kill thousands
of houses.
Oh, it's just another fire outin the woods.
No, it's not.
We actually, I'm recording asegment while Wild America where

(01:03:07):
we go.
I read off articles of stufflike this so videos of that would
be released and one of them isactually covering that fire.
Wow.
Why?
What is an animal you want totry eating?
Oh, does it have to be one youcan hunt or you can be a fish?
Oh, yeah.

(01:03:28):
You know, I've always wonderedwhat like walrus tastes like, you
know, I mean, you gotta thinklike fatty, but you know, that.
That's what I thought too.
But then I was.
I was talking to someone whoate seal meat and it's like, like
if you look like a cow orwhatever, you kind of like they get
the fat kind of marbled intothe meat and everything.
Yeah, it's like.
No, like, I guess like sealsat least.

(01:03:49):
I mean, I don't know if thisis the same thing with walrus or
whatever or like other likemarine mammals.
But like you've got your meatand then you've got nothing but fat
right underneath the skin.
So it's like all like superdense, dark red meat and then you
got that layer.
So I mean, it just, it's justso like different from like anything
you can like conventionally hunt.
Unless you're with like, youknow, an Inuit group in like northern

(01:04:10):
Canada, Greenland or Alaska.
So it's just, you know,something out of the ordinary that
you know, you wouldn't be ableto try anywhere else.
Yeah.
What has been your favoritestate that you've hunted or fished?
Hunted.
Got a rep main, you know, bigshout out there.
But fished?
Oh, I fished it quite a few,but you know, I gotta give it to
Maine.

(01:04:30):
I mean, there's a really goodvariety of cold water fish up there
that you really aren't goingto find anywhere else in the Northeast.
But yeah, Maine.
Close second.
Tied for second.
Probably PEI or Vermont, I'd say.
What would be.
What is the top state you wantto hunt and.
Or fish?

(01:04:50):
Oh, easy.
Alaska.
No, yeah, it seems like I want.
I mean you've got like so manydifferent varieties, you know, salmon,
trout, whitefish and stufflike that.
Then I mean, obviously the biggame and you got anything?
Grizzlies, caribou.
I mean, there's just so muchvariety and so much to choose from
up there.
Right.
Grizzly scare me, but I wantto hunt them.

(01:05:11):
You know, they used to havethose in northern Quebec, you know,
way back when.
I did hear something about that.
Yeah, yeah.
Up in the Ungava regionbetween their Labrador.
So they had.
I can't remember exactly howthey got there, but like they, they
end up dying out during likethe fur trapping period.
You know, the French andBritish were coming in, but I mean
we had east coast grizzlies.
It just, I mean, kind of ashame that we don't have them anymore.

(01:05:33):
It'd be cool to go up thereand see them.
Did you ever see that videowhere this guy, he put on a trail
camera out there and there waslike this light.
I'm assuming it was just fromthe trail camera.
But then all of a sudden thisgrizzly bear just starts walking
up and then it's like giantsemi truck just walking through the
woods of like this giantmassive bear that just comes out

(01:05:54):
of nowhere.
First you just see its headand you think, oh, it's just a normal,
ordinary.
I don't want to say ordinary,but your average size bear.
But then it gets out more andit's just like massive, huge.
I'm like, I want to hunt oneof those.
But I'm insane for wanting tohunt that thing that.
Oh my gosh.

(01:06:15):
Because that's one of those things.
Like they can kill you just asmuch as you can kill them.
And they're fast too.
You don't think they're Fat.
You wouldn't think thatthey're fast because they're big
and stuff like that, but are fast.
Yeah.
Like, I don't get how peoplethink when they say like a gorilla
versus a grizzly bear.
I mean, they have that debate of.
Oh, what would win?
Stuff like that.
I think the only reason peoplewould say a gorilla is because, oh,

(01:06:38):
it can stand two feet.
It can is its arms and it'sgot strength and it can use like
a human type deal.
But a grizzly bear, man, I'mtaking a crispy bear nine out of
ten times every time, man.
Well, it's like saying, like,what do you what's going to win?
You put a wolverine or abadger against a person, like, yeah,
you might be a little bitbigger, but that thing's going to

(01:06:59):
tear you to shreds.
Yeah.
If you could pick anybody,you, you can get a family member
and a non family member to goon a hunting or a fishing trip with
or share a campfire with one time.
Who would they, who wouldthose people be?
Oh, definitely, if I pickfamily member, my grandfather.
Just because, you know, youknow, how long and far back with

(01:07:19):
like, you know, differenthunts in main he's been on.
If I had to pick a non familymember, obviously you guys probably
know Steve or Noah.
Meat eater.
Yeah.
I mean, he's like the JeremyWade of hunting.
I mean, come on, you'd have tohave him.
Yeah, there's just a giantsource of knowledge that he has.
Last question here, Wyatt.
What do you think we as fellowhunters and fishermen, outdoorsmen,

(01:07:41):
could or should do to improvethe outdoor community as a whole?
Honestly, give new people access.
Like if you got land, if youknow, spots, I mean, because eventually
we're not going to be around,you know, we're the people, you know,
fighting for this resource.
If new people aren't cominginto it, or they're coming into it,
they're getting crowded out orthey're not having a good time, they're
just going to give up andleave and they're not going to care.

(01:08:03):
So, you know, if you want tokeep having people that care about,
you know, science basedwildlife management that involves
hunting as the foremost tool.
But you got to make surepeople have a good time and have
an opportunity to hunt stuff themselves.
I mean, we all started out newsomewhere and someone took us take
someone new.
Absolutely.
It's absolutely man, you know,we got to start helping out the,
the new generation coming through.

(01:08:25):
I remember when I was at.
I give my dad so much patiencewhen he's just like, oh, I gotta
teach him and you don't know.
And it just takes forever tolike practice and train and teach
them all these things andeventually they'll pick it up.
But that's what's yourresponsibility as a parent, an elder
coachman type deal.
You're right.
You gotta take time to teach people.

(01:08:48):
I just want to say thank youso much man for coming on the show.
I greatly appreciate Squatch.
I love you too.
Watch.
I'll meet you in your camperlater this weekend for people that
want to reach out to you andfollow along your journey.
Squatch, I know we say it allthe time, but how can people do that,
man?
Yeah, so you guys all knowSundays and Tuesdays at 8 o' clock.

(01:09:09):
I'm on the way till advantage.
I'm also on the Garden StateOutdoorsman Boondocks Outdoors.
Mike Nitrate, Frank Mastica.
You can catch us on, you knowthe podcast shows there with everything
Instagram, outdoors and morewith The Squatch, my YouTube channel,
outdoors and more with the Squatch.
Still editing out our turkeyhunt where I killed my bird from

(01:09:30):
weekend or two ago.
That's almost finalized.
So look forward to gettingthat out there and letting you guys
see that and just basicallyall the social media platforms you
can always find me.
Why?
How can people follow alongyour journeyman?
Oh yeah, I'm.
I'm pretty active on Instagramso if you go to like at Wyatt Underscore
board, you can find all myfishing and occasional successful
hunting posts on there.

(01:09:51):
You know, if you ever needinformation on how to get into fly
fishing or just any info ingeneral about, you know, fish ecology
or whatever, shoot me a message.
Always happy to answer.
Cool.
All right.
You taught me a lot more aboutfishing than I already know now and
definitely have to have youcome back on the show and talk more
about it.
Why?
I just want to say thank youso much man for taking time out of
your day to come on the show, man.

(01:10:12):
I greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for having me up.
Thanks.
Nice meeting you.
Great night rest you guys brothers.
Good night.
I botched that.
I sound like an idiot right there.
Anyways, well everyone, that'sgoing to conclude another episode
of the Whitetail Advantage podcast.
We want to say thank you toeveryone gathering around the Electron
campfire to today.
Joe.

(01:10:33):
Now this show made you laugh,made you think, gave you a new perspective.
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Stuff like that?
The audio versions of ourpodcast gets released every Monday

(01:10:55):
and Wednesday at 5am if youwant to be a guest on our show or
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I want to take a second to saythank you to all the companies out
there that's partnering upwith us here at Whitetail Advantage.
I also want to say thank youto all the men and women in the military

(01:11:17):
for your service and your sacrifice.
We greatly appreciate it.
Thank you to all the policeofficers, the firefighters, everyone
in public service, EMS as well.
Thank you for your service.
We greatly appreciate it.
Now, with that being said,hope you all have an amazing weekend
and we'll see everyone on Sunday.
Have a great rest of yournight, everyone.

(01:11:43):
Thank you for tuning in toanother episode of the Whitetail
Advantage podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the showand we will see you next time.