Ep. 688: MeatEater Radio Live! Our Biggest Catches, Endangered Orcas, and Fishing for Treasure

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Smell Us.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Now, lady, Welcome to Meet Eater Trivia mea podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Welcome to Meet Eater Radio Live. It's eleven am Mountain Time.
That's one pm for our friends in Lincolnton, Georgia on Thursday,
April tenth, and we're live for Meat Eater, HQ and Bozeman.
I'm your host, Spencer new Art, joined today by Jannis
Butellus and Brody Henderson. On today's show, we'll interview Stephanie
Raymond from the Orca Network about one of the world's
most endangered whales. After that, we'll do one minute fishing

(00:49):
with our friends at Trout Unlimited, followed by the top
three biggest fish we've ever landed, and finally we'll talk
to James Kine about the day he caught one hundred
thousand dollars while magnet fishing. Lincolnton, Georgia is a place
I visited last year while attending the Masters. It's Master's
Week right now. I had one of the most unique
dining experiences of my life there.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
It was it was.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
So southern that I couldn't believe that it was real.
It's called Papa's Old South. You went into a little
trailer house, and you ate from their buffet of all
sorts of Southern fried foods. It was so satisfying. If
you live in Georgia, if you're ever attending the Masters,
make the drive to Lincolnton to visit Papa's Old South.
But I got one master's story to tell you, because

(01:34):
the Master's teed off today.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hold on before you tell us that, tell me what
you ate there.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, everything they had, every protein was fried, so like
fried chicken that was delicious. They're corn bread that was great,
and then carrat fish of course, they had catfish. Yeah,
they had Mountain jiganafish.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
They would shame you if you didn't take enough on
your plate. It was that kind of place. And maybe
that sort of experience is more common than I'm aware of.
And I'm just ignorant to like how Southern folks treat
you and how just dang nice they are and how
excited they are about their food. But go to Papa's
Old South. I loved it. I can't believe it exists

(02:19):
in twenty twenty five. And then the other best thing
was the dessert. It was a cherry pie, I believe.
Oh interesting, we were in there with all the good
church going folks while we were head to the Masters.
How much was this buf fey I don't know, probably
like twenty bucks or something. The price didn't feel very
Southern that that made sense to me as I, oh,
that's relatable. The rest of it was very different though,

(02:40):
what Master's story to tell you. You know our friend
Brian Harmon, who's been on Trivia, he's been on the
Regular Mediater podcast. We were there on a practice day,
which is when things are like less serious than the
actual tournament, so you can there's like a little more
leeway for the patrons. They call them patrons. You're not
a fan when you're there because you're not fanatical, you're
just like very respectful and you're a patron.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
They have all kinds of vocabulary things they have to say.
It's very different. It's not the rough. It's a second cut.
I can't say rough.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's very different. I'm glad it exists in that one place.
If the entire golf world was like that, I'd be like,
this is so pretentious, it's disgusting. But having it exist
in that one sort of place once a year, I
enjoyed that anyway. Brian Harmon. He was on the first
practice day. I was with a few buddies and I
was like, do you think he'd like look over if

(03:32):
I made a little turkey call. There are no turkeys
that live on Augusta. But he was probably seventy five
yards away, and there are hundreds of people around at
this point. You're hearing birds all day long, so you know,
let's watch this. And so I'm did that. Sure enough,
his head turned on a swivel over to my direction.
No one else though, in this crowd of hundreds of people,

(03:54):
acknowledged it. That was just very satisfying. That's why I'll
always cheer for Brian Harmon.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
So there is a lot of birds.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
They don't pipe in the bird noises, you know what.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
You don't see a lot of birds. You hear a
lot of birds, and a conspiracy theorists would tell you that, yeah,
there are speakers around that you can't see. I I
would bet there are speakers piping in some of those
other tournaments have been busted for doing exactly that. But
that place, yeah, that place is so manicured. Like you
stand under a tree and you look up and you

(04:22):
see that all of the branches off of the main
trunk are like tied with some wire to each other,
because every little blade of grass, every leaf, is so
impeccably placed and thoughtful that that nothing escapes them as
far as what this place should look like, smell, likes,
sound like. So if they were piping in bird noises,

(04:43):
that would not surprise me.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Brody.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
The epitome of cleaning up the woods, it's oh, it's.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
Wid That's what it is, the natural environment.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Uh huh, well no, I'm saying it's it's not. But
you know, my uh my elders, you know, my my
the generation of my dad's parents, and so they were
like my great uncles and whatever. They were big into that,
like when they had little cat when they had little cabins, cottages, whatnot.
Like that was the thing they did. I mean, they

(05:12):
were just working people. They loved to work. So they
would go up to their cabin instead of just like
laying around drinking beer getting sun. They would work and
they would do things like clean up, clean out all
the you know seaweed, not seaweed, but whatever, you know
plant was growing in the pond, sure, or go into
the woods and literally rake the woods clean, right, And

(05:32):
it was just like in their mind they're beautifying, right,
And let mean a lot of people do that now.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
I mean, let me look at lawns. I mean that's sure.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
People love to manicure. Oh man, like you means love
that look?

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Nature really doesn't. I worked on a golf court ground
crew all through high school and college, and this time
of year in the north, they're like way past this
down where the Masters is going on. But like when
it was first time to go to work in the spring,
that's all we did was pick up sticks off the ground,
Like hours and hours.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Of picking up stick What other work did you do
for the golf course? Would you like spreading.

Speaker 5 (06:10):
Grounds? Threw everything?

Speaker 3 (06:11):
And did you ever swing a golf club in those days?

Speaker 5 (06:14):
Once in a while we'd dick around. But like I'm
just like, you know.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
What about your peers working there? Were they not like
deeply no love with golf.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
No, like guys like we had a little like crew
of friends that worked out on the course and.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
There was a job.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
It was a job, but it was a cool job
because it started five or six in the morning, be
done like the latest we'd work. It was too the
rest of the day to do what you.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Want was that covered in turkeys?

Speaker 5 (06:39):
Yes, that course. What we used to hunt on that
golf course because we were like buddies with the dude,
the brothers that owned that course. So we'd now and
then hunt on that golf course.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
That that'd be a dream permission to get is on
a golf course something not Augusta though, No turkey's there.
But for Brian Harmon, he thought for two seconds that
there was so cheer for him this week.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
I think you actually like hunting the golf course, would I? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Absolutely. If you're out there and you got permission, or
you own a golf course, you're a manager at a
golf course, and that place is covered up in deer,
you let me know. I'll come hunt that thing for you.
Why wouldn't you like it? That's no different than hunting
a cornfield.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
No, it is a lot different.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Okay, I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (07:22):
I'm kind of leaning with if you're in to compare
it to a cornfield, it ain't that much different.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, them deer being deer when they're out on a
golf course.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
I also like the idea of hunting them in a
unique spot. I've never gotten to do an urban hunt.
I've lived in places out of at urban hunts that
I like haven't drawn the tag. That would be a
unique experience. Then I would also embrace if you're, you know,
forty yards off someone's back patio, boy, that'd be fun.
I don't want to. I don't want to spend the
rest of my life hunting golf courses.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, I guess for an experience, I would do it.
It just would seem that for me aesthetically, it wouldn't
be as pleasing as hunting in the woods.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
We're not disagreeing there. If you've got a golf course
that you can let me hunt you some golf courses
have a lot of woods that one that I worked on, Johnny,
is your line season over with?

Speaker 6 (08:12):
No?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I've got like there's like four days left in the season.
Season ends on the fourteenth, which is next Monday.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
But does it feel like it's over with when there's
four days left? Or is it like still good hunting conditions?

Speaker 7 (08:24):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's it's tough for hunting conditions. I don't mind them.
I think it's it's good for the dog. I'm gonna
definitely go out at least one more day this weekend,
and you know, there's probably a lot of people that
have given up by now, a lot.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Of folks, you know, because of snow, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Or just you know, it's like anything. It's like Turkey season.
If it's a six week long Turkey season, you know,
there's sure ninety percent of the people are out there
in the first week, and then the numbers just atrophy,
you know, from there on out. I imagine the same
thing happened. I mean, I know what happens with the
elk season. Imagine. I mean, our season is I don't know,
five months long. So yeah, but it's you know, obviously

(09:05):
the animals are still out there and you can still
catch them, and you don't necessarily need to have fresh snow.
Fresh snow makes it easier to find the original track.
But yeah, we had a tough hunt the other day
where Mingus just ran a lot of trash, which I
don't really like that term, but that basically means when
he's running anything besides what he's supposed to be running.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
And give me an example of fox.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Sure fox kyo deer and he was in with another
pack of dogs. And I'm not blaming that other pack,
but similar to humans, you get into a group and
the mentality changes about what individuals can do and what
the group can do. And yeah, he gets caught up

(09:51):
in that and does what they call a lot of
booger barking, which I was thinking about where that comes from,
and I was thinking, maybe they it's like a term
for being like, oh yeah, they're they're literally instead of
smelling the scent on the ground of a lion, he's
literally smelling his own boogers and barking at them. I
don't know where that came.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
When I hear that, I think of like a turkey
hont getting boogered, just like things went wrong.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Sure, so I would definitely like to go out and
finish on a little bit better note, because right now,
when I came upstairs this morning, I saw Mangus crawling
out of his bed looking at me, and I was like,
you're a piece of shit dog.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Oh wow. Okay, well, he's got four days to redeem himself.
And after that, Yannie, you give us a full recap
a lot of season here on media radio.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, I'll come back and tell you I had a
successful hunt a couple of weeks ago, but I imagine
we burned up our time for me to tell you
about that one.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
I have a fear that we have. All right, let's
get to our first caller. Joining us on the line
now is Stephanie Raymond, the program manager from the Orca Network.
Stephanie is here to educate us about one of the
world's most endangered animals, the Southern resident orcas. Stephanie, Welcome
to the show.

Speaker 8 (11:00):
Thanks so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
First. Thank Stephanie. Tell us about what makes southern resident
orcas different from the other fifty thousand killer whales that
live in our oceans.

Speaker 8 (11:10):
Well, so, yeah, Orcas are one of the most widely
distributed mammals on the planets. On the face of it,
it might seem like there are plenty of them out there,
but the different populations of orcas around the world have
very different characteristics. And we used to call these different ecotypes,
but now we're starting to regard them as separate species.
And just last fall, the Southern resident orcas were designated

(11:34):
as their own specific species. Oh interesting relative to the
wider population also the bigs orcas. So there's two different
orcas in the Saleor's Sea that share that ecosystem, but
they do not interact in any way, and both of
them have been designated their own specific species.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Now who Spencer and I are arguing about this earlier
and like I'm a lumper and obviously he's a splitter.
Like like how like who's deciding their different species? And
how has that decided? And like, you know a lot
of people would look at them, Yeah, as one species.

Speaker 8 (12:14):
There is some formal body and I don't know their
precise title who gets to decide this stuff? But the
reason it was the decision was made is that, you know,
for about twenty years now, there has been research about
the genetic differences between these groups and the the behavioral differences,

(12:35):
the vocalization differences. So these different populations of orcas around
the world have really different characteristics. Each group has unique
vocals and culture, They have behavior that's learned from their mothers.
Each has a specialized diet depending on what's available to
them in that that environment. And they're very like humans

(12:57):
in this, except that where human groups different cultures and
languages and dietary preferences tend to intermingle, the orchest don't
do that. So the Southern residents are a unique, genetically
distinct population of about seventy four animals who range from
Vancouver Island in British Columbia to Monterey Bay, California. They
are coastal animals. They don't tend to go far offshore.

(13:21):
They are made up of three large extended family groups
that we call JPod, K POD, and L POD. And
within this population, the young whales never leave their mothers.
They are always there, so it's a big group around
you know, some common female ancestor who may not no
longer be living, but these groups have all formed in

(13:41):
that way. They are primarily salmon eaters. Over eighty percent
of their diet is chinook or king salmon in particular.
They also will eat coho, and they've been known to
eat link cod and halibate on occasion. They have good
taste in fish, so they are fish eaters and that
is one of the things that this distinguishes them from
the other orca population that shares their territory because that

(14:04):
other population feeds exclusively on marine mammals.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Okay, so seventy four of them left in the wild.
What's caused that decline?

Speaker 8 (14:13):
Boy a lot of things. So these whales, primarily their
primary threat right now is lack of food. As salmon
fisheries have declined throughout the Pacific Northwest, you know, that's
been a big challenge for them. It takes a lot
of food to sustain a an eighteen month gestation and

(14:34):
have a healthy calf and then feed that healthy calf,
So being able to reproduce without enough food to supply
that has been a challenge. They also these animals have
a high toxic body burden. They're carrying a lot of
chemicals in their bodies, persistent chemicals like PCBs and PBDEs,
flame retardant chemicals because they're eating high on the food chain,

(14:55):
and the salmon that they're eating, in pretty much every
case are passing through estuaries that where there is this
historic contamination in the sediment that gets into these young
salmon and then stays with them. The reason that the
salmon are a preferred food is that they have a
high fat content, and that fat is where these persistent

(15:18):
chemicals store. So the animals themselves are accumulating that toxin
in their fat, the orc is themselves, and then if
they don't have enough food to eat, they start to
metabolize that fat. The blubber that there would normally be
there to keep them warm. They start to metabolize that
and that releases those chemicals into their different organ systems

(15:39):
and we see both reproductive effects, neurological effects, and immunological
effects as a result of that toxicity. So that's another challenge.
And then we have evidence that shows us that, first
of all, big freighter traffic, in particular when we have
the big container ships coming in and out of these
ports on the West coast, the sound of the bubbles

(16:01):
that are generated by their propellers as that as those
bubbles collapse, it's called cavitation, and the cavitation sound is
happening exactly at the same frequency that these whales used
to communicate and to echo locate to find their food. Finally,
if a vessel is within four hundred yards of a
female Southern resident, we see that she stops foraging. So

(16:22):
vessel disturbance is another issue that these whales are faced with.

Speaker 5 (16:27):
Stephanie, they're down to seventy four what was their historic high? Like,
how how far have they dropped? And then like, well
what amount of time?

Speaker 8 (16:38):
Yeah, so we don't know exactly how many were present
prior to the era when they were being captured from
marine parks because nobody had done a census, and there
was just sort of this assumption that there were whales
coming in from the ocean into Puget Sound and you know,
they were just they would just keep doing that. It
wasn't until the nineteen seventies that the initial census was taken,

(17:01):
and at that point the population was pretty close to
where it is now. The estimates are that maybe between
one hundred and fifty and two hundred would be like
the normal carrying capacity for the population. And we did
see some recovery following the end of the capture era,
the population rebounded to close to one hundred animals, But

(17:21):
then in the late nineteen eighties we saw salmon fisheries
crash and along with that came the corresponding decline in
the southern resident population. And there has been a lot
of effort made to restore salmon habitat and you know,
legislate different regulations around how vessels should behave around these animals,
but we're not seeing yet the recovery that we really

(17:42):
would like to see.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Talk about that capture era, Stephanie, and how differently these
whales were treated in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties.

Speaker 8 (17:51):
Yeah, these animals used to be feared very much. People
just assumed that if you found the water near one,
that was it. You know, it was kind of the
Great white Shark of its time. That they were just aggressive,
vicious animals, killer whales, right, you call them killer whales,
and people make assumptions. Also, fishers didn't want the competition

(18:11):
for salmon. My own grandfather was a commercial fisher, and
you know, when I was a little kid in the
seventies and was, you know, starting to get really turned
on about these whales, he would tell me about how
he had a permit to shoot him if they got
too close to his nets. So, you know, they were
not animals that were really well loved in the way

(18:31):
that they are now. There was a whale that was
that was nicknamed Moby Doll. She was one of the
or he was one of the first captive orcas. He
was shot multiple times because somebody wanted a model for
a sculpture to put at the Vancouver Aquarium when it
was first open. It opened, and the whale survived the

(18:51):
shooting and survived for a while in captivity, and this
was when we started to realize that they weren't aggress
toward humans, despite how the humans had been treating them.
And then we had Namu, who famously was caught in
a fisherman's net and sold to Ted Griffith in Seattle

(19:12):
and was on display in the Seattle waterfront for a while. Again,
you know, Ted really bonded with that whale and was
able to ride on his back and people, you know,
at that time, he would go on the water with
the whale and people would be like, oh my gosh,
it's an accident, and what's going to happen. And then
it turned out that was all part of the act,
that Namu was not a vicious creature. So in captivity,

(19:35):
the intelligence of these animals became apparent and there were
very few incidences of aggression against humans. You know, we
know since then there have been some notable exceptions, but
that also aligned with the observation that there's never been
a documented incidence of aggression against a human from killer
whales in the wild. So people began to see them
as friendly, which you know, that's a human value that

(19:59):
may or may not be true. But the population census
and the way the whales behaved around researchers in the
wild began to point to something really special about these
animals and how they seem to have a natural curiosity
about us, but also an uncanny ability to know our intentions.
You mentioned in the questions you sent me the Seymour
Narrows in British Columbia. They were going to place a

(20:21):
gun there to target practice do target practice on these
whales when they passed through, and they chose that location
because that was the spot the whales were known to frequent.
Well after they set the gun up, the whales never
went there, as though somehow they knew and we can't
explain that. But you know, there are many many stories
of situations like that where somehow the whales seem to

(20:43):
understand what the humans were up to in a way
that we don't understand what they're up to. So it's
they're very that by themselves is such a compelling thing.
I think that a lot of researchers and a lot
of the general public are really drawn to this population
in particular because we know we know them intimately, We
know them as individuals. They all have nicknames that the

(21:04):
public may know them by, and we know their stories.
So it really has been a one hundred and eighty
degree shift in attitudes and you know, just a little
bit more than fifty years.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah, I've seen a lot of headlines in the last
six months about the Southern resident orcas. So I want
to talk to you about some of that news. First thing,
tell us about the salmon hats and why people cared
about that last fall.

Speaker 8 (21:29):
So this was a really interesting human phenomenon as much
as an orca phenomenon. In the nineteen eighties, late nineteen eighties,
there was one summer when it seemed to be the
thing to do for the Southern resident orcas to carry
salmon around on their heads. And you know, if the
image we have of orcas is a whale in a tank,

(21:51):
that's a very sterile environment. They don't have a lot
of things to interact with. But in the wild, these
whales are very tactile, very interactive creatures. They like to
manipulate things in their environment. They're curious about them, they're
you know, they want to play or or do other things.
And they do have these social trends that happen, whether
it's a behavioral trend or in this case, maybe a

(22:13):
fashion trend. So we've also seen years where you know,
everybody's got a piece of help draped over their dorsal
fin or some eel grass or something like that. And
what happened last fall We had a just incredible salmon
run here in the Sales Sea, just record breaking across
the board, and one of our volunteers snapped a picture

(22:36):
that had a salmon sitting on the head of an orca. Well,
somebody grabbed that from one of our reports that we
put out and it went viral and everybody's like, oh,
they're reviving the trend. But the reality is that that
was part of a series of pictures in which, you know,
the picture before and the picture after did not show

(22:57):
a salmon on the orc's head, and so we don't
know exactly how that fish wound up on that whales
head for just a second, but it did not appear
to be actually carrying it. There was one other researcher
who witnessed a salmon on the head of an orca
for a second as well, but didn't get a picture
of it. And that was it. And the reality is

(23:18):
that when these whales come down into Puget Sound, which
is what they do in the fall, because that's when
the salmon are running into the sound. There are hundreds
of people on the shorelines with cameras documenting their presence,
getting their pictures. And if there had been a widespread
revival of that salmon hat trend, we definitely seen a
lot more evidence of that than we actually did. It

(23:40):
was just really interesting how compelling it was to humans. Again,
you know, here's this interesting behavior. Look what they're doing.
They're doing something like us. They have a fashion trend,
and it just really we were getting media requests from
as far away as Germany and New Zealand for people
asking about this particular situation.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Okay, and Stephanie is skeptical that the salmon hand are
back and fashionable.

Speaker 8 (24:02):
Yeah, we haven't. Haven't seen it since now.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Last year, the largest dam removal project in US history
took place when four dams were destroyed on the Klamath River.
Talk about what that means for these southern resident orcas.

Speaker 8 (24:15):
So what that means is that there's now more habitat
for these chinook salmon to spawn. And we know that
the further the chinook have to travel upriver, the bigger
those fish have to be. It also really you know,
has a big influence on the spring Chinook Run. These
were salmon that would enter the rivers in the spring,

(24:36):
but they didn't spawn until the fall because it took
them that long to get all the way up to
the upper watersheds. So when we open up this upper
watershed habitat, we are really improving the salmon supply for
the southern residents to eat. And that's true all up
and down the coast, of course, because as I said before,
they go down as far as Monterey Bay, all of

(24:56):
the salmon bearing streams on the Pacific Northwest coast potentially
can supply them with additional salmon to eat. What we've
seen as the fisheries have declined is that there are
not only fewer fish, but they tend to be smaller
because they have less range to spawn in, and that
means that the whales are working harder. They're spending more

(25:18):
energy to find smaller fish, so they have to spend
even more energy to get enough food to eat. So
bigger fish are great. More spawning habitat for those fish
is great. And you know, both the Klamath and the
Elwah Dam removal projects are potentially going to boost that
supply of salmon and Hopefully that's going to make a
big difference for these animals.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, let's send this interview on some more good news.
It's news, it's only a few days old. Tell us
about the newest member of the Southern Resident JPod.

Speaker 8 (25:49):
Yeah, this is really exciting. We just had a baby
J sixty three, so it won't be given a nickname
for at least another six months or so. There's not
a lot to say at this point. She appears to
be the first calf of a whale known as J
forty Subtles, and Subtles has a long history of being
kind of an anti or babysitter to other new calves,

(26:10):
but has never been seen with a calf of her own.
So so far, baby looks great and we're cautiously optimistic,
but of course we'll need to have a few more
sightings to confirm that Subtle's really is mom and that
things are continuing to go well. And the other piece
of good news is that baby J sixty two, who
was born in December, is also appears to be thriving.
That little one seems to be doing really really well

(26:32):
in recent observations.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
And lasting If people want to help Southern Resident orcas
and support their conservation efforts. What can they do.

Speaker 8 (26:42):
So it really goes back to, you know, a lot
of the stuff that we're told is good for the
environment is going to be helpful for these whales ultimately,
because we're all connected in that way. If you're in
the Pacific Northwest, being aware of your watershed and what
you're contributing to it is really important. Avoiding toxic products
for lawn garden or farm care, maintaining your vehicle so

(27:03):
you're not leaking oil, and making sure your tires are
properly inflated. It turns out the dusts that erodes off
of tires it's actually really toxic for some types of salmon.
So that's another piece that we're you know, as we're
uncovering the different ways that we can restore salmon habitat.
That's one of the things that's being looked at. Conservative
electricity is huge because again, you know, we're here in

(27:24):
the Northwest, we're so used to abundant, inexpensive hydropower, but
we know now what a devastating effect that has on
the salmon population and wherever you live, you know, because
we are power grid spreads all over the place, that's helpful,
Advocating against proposed dams or removing existing dams that we

(27:45):
don't necessarily need anymore, advocating for good conservation policies for
salmon and for orcas. All of those things are things
that people can do to support this population.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Okay, everyone listening is going to do their part. Thanks
for joining us, Stephanie in congrats on the J sixty
three news.

Speaker 8 (28:02):
Thank you, and thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
You bloys feel differently about or because now you all excited.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
I mean, they're super cool animals, you know. I'm glad
to hear they're they're potentially going to be doing better.
You see, I was to hear, I was expecting to
hear that there had been some precipitous decline in their population.
But the fact that their numbers have remained steady for
fifty years makes me think that, you know, maybe things

(28:33):
aren't as bad as the picture isn't as bad as
as people might be painting.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I don't think we fully got the scope of it
talking to Stephanie, but one piece of news I'd seen
is at like sixty or seventy percent of the calves
die in the first year, and I think That's the
thing they're really fighting right now is how can we
make sure that when a calf is born, which is
already a lot to ask for, that the thing survives
to adulthood. So I think that's that's what I mean.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
They have the unforse a fate of living in basically
an urban marine invitrally, which you know makes things tough.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
All right.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
Moving on, Our next segment is One Minute Fishing.

Speaker 9 (29:16):
Do I feel lucky?

Speaker 6 (29:18):
We'll do you dunk, go ahead.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
Make my cast.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
One Minute Fishing is where we go live to someone
who's fishing and they have one minute to catch a fish,
and if they're successful, we'll make a five hundred dollars
donation to a conservation group and for the whole month
of April, our friends at Trout Unlimited or joining us
for one Minute Fishing. This week, our wrangler is Dan Johnson,
the Desert Terminal Lakes Basin project coordinator at TU. Today

(29:46):
he's on Hot Creek in California and fishing for a
donation to Trout Unlimited. Dan, welcome to the show.

Speaker 9 (29:53):
Hey, thank you all so much for having us and
for highlighting to you this month and highlighting this this
beautiful stream bind.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
It is a beautiful place, also a windy place. Now,
first thing we ask Trout Unlimited to highlight some important
watersheds across the country for this segment, tell us about
Hot Creek and its greatest threats.

Speaker 9 (30:15):
Is a very very unique stream. It starts as Mammoth
Creek up in the eastern Sierras. There flows down. It's
really small, very narrow as it hits the valley, but
about a couple hundred yards upstream of where I am.
It has a number of geothermal inputs. This hot water

(30:37):
that comes out, it's actually perfectly in that sixty to
sixty seven degree range that is optimum for trout growth
and you know, longevity and reproduction. But we've been involved
in Hot Creek for a number of years because just
over the hill I can see it from here. There

(30:59):
is a project to start exploratory gold mining right on
just a ways over the banks there. In twenty twenty one,
the company Core Mining, they were awarded permits to drill.
After a huge amount of community backlash and litigation from
other NGOs in the area, those permits were revoked for

(31:22):
the time being. But you know, gold is near all
time highs and we are actually working on a protective
designation for Hot Creek and outstanding National Resource Water, which
we feel would you know, neutralize that mining threat once
and for all.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
And I mean at Trout Unlimited. We're realists, right.

Speaker 9 (31:44):
I drove a truck here today and it's built out
of things that were pulled out of the ground at
one point. You know, we need mining, we need to
work these landscapes, but also we need places.

Speaker 6 (31:56):
Like Hot Creek.

Speaker 9 (31:58):
You know, it's a part of our American tradition. I
actually wrote my father in law in he's my cameraman
today and I come out here with my daughter and yeah,
I try to Unlimited. We're just working to protect the places.

Speaker 6 (32:10):
We love to fish.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
We're grateful that TU is involved. Question, Yeah, what do
you got bro?

Speaker 6 (32:16):
Hey Dan?

Speaker 5 (32:18):
What what kind of land are you? Is Hot Creek
like a public primarily a public river? Are you standing on?

Speaker 6 (32:26):
Like?

Speaker 5 (32:26):
What land entity manages the land you're standing on right now?

Speaker 6 (32:31):
Yeah? So Hot Creek. You know, it's actually interesting.

Speaker 9 (32:34):
We're in the very valley stage of our portion of
Hot Creek and it ends up going in some pretty
dramatic canyons. It's a mixture of us for a service
mostly to the across the stream from me the LM
down below. There's also some private property and some some
tribal trust land as well, So.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
So the fair number of the gold the gold mining
would occur on is the proposal for the gold mining
to occur on public land.

Speaker 6 (33:06):
That's correct on for service like, gotcha?

Speaker 5 (33:09):
Gotcha?

Speaker 3 (33:09):
All right, Dan, let's talk about the fishing. What are
you targeting today? How are you doing it in? What
fly are you throwing?

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yeah, so we are.

Speaker 6 (33:17):
Hot Creek has and of course I just got stuck
on it.

Speaker 9 (33:21):
Hot Creek has wild populations of ground trout is kind
of the main quarry.

Speaker 6 (33:26):
There's also some rainbows.

Speaker 9 (33:29):
At this time of the year, none of the really
big stuff is hatching, so I am throwing size eighteen
blueing olive if you can see that, and then a
size twenty zebramage down below, so the real small stuff.
But we did have a hatch going off a bit earlier.

(33:50):
We've been watching fish rise here. I've been, you know,
whispering words reassurance to my tiny flies the last ten
minutes and feeling good about it.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Okay, have you made to cast yet? Today?

Speaker 6 (34:01):
Dan?

Speaker 9 (34:02):
I fished a little bit downstream, but we've been trying
to do our best to leave this hole intact and
not you know, not mess with them at all. I
don't think they I don't think they know that we're here.
So this is the one we've been reserving.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
Great, Well, your one minute of fishing starts when you
make that first cast.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Let's do it better. Get in there for someone high
holds your.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Walk to the edge of the creek. Yoanni, describe what
you're seeing there?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Oh, just a beautiful creek. I'd have to just stand
there and enjoy the view for a while before he
even wet a line.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Right, all right, he's making his first cast.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Snow capped mountains dropping into some like deserty up high
country sage.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
Uh huh. Looks like a place you'd find some some
Muley's or black tails and some some antelope.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
I like that he's kind of being a purist here,
because if I was going for the one minute, Neil,
I'd probably have a San Juan worm and an egg
on there.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Oh, did we have a hook set there?

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Then he thinks you did.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
We missed.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Okay, you're thirty seconds in.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
He got he bit the tiny little zebramidge.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Oh all right, feeling optimistic, burn a lot of time
on that false cast and get it back in the water.

Speaker 9 (35:23):
I know, twenty seconds, guys, I gotta I gotta dry
him out.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Twenty seconds ago, ten seconds left in eat it Uh
not gonna happen today, Dan, tell us what happened on
that that one fish that made an offering at your fly?

Speaker 9 (35:46):
Yeah, so I could see him. It's actually really clear
water here. So I saw him move for the zebra midge.

Speaker 6 (35:52):
And I mean, I hope you all my mind. If
I keep fishing all the time, I know it doesn't count.

Speaker 9 (35:56):
But yeah, he went for he went for the zebra
midge and he just didn't commit to the bite.

Speaker 6 (36:04):
And yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 9 (36:06):
We're gonna hang out here the rest of the day too,
so maybe i'll maybe I'll text you all the picture too.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Okay, good work day for you, Dan.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
That's the line. That's the line my clients used to
always use, like, oh he missed it, like they never
missed the fish.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
That's right.

Speaker 9 (36:23):
And if I may real quick, if you're looking to
get involved with Tu's work on public lands, just go
to tu dot org. And we have a little bar
at the top that says take action. We're likely working
in your neck of the woods right now.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Okay, good message, Dan, thank you for joining us, Good
luck with fishing the rest of the day, and thanks
to Trot Unlimited for doing what they do.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Thanks Dan.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
All Right, we're halfway through the show. Let's take a
break for some listener feedback. Phil, what do you got?

Speaker 7 (36:50):
We've got a question from our producer Corey Colkins. He
asks who's the better golfer, Spencer, Giannis or Brody.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Ain't me?

Speaker 3 (36:58):
I imagine it's me just because I play the most, But
I am not a good golfer at all. If Yanni
wanted to go golfing five times this year, he might
be better than me after those five times. I'm I
just enjoy the camaraderie of it.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Maybe we don't. We don't need to spend any more
time on this.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
Corey asked that question because he's the best golfer in
the office or or top two. So so good for you, man.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
I used to like.

Speaker 5 (37:22):
Corey and then I found out he was a golfer.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Well, you'll like him even more when I tell you
this though, he's a phenomenal golfer who doesn't golf. He'll
go like once a year, and that's good enough for him.
But if I had Corey, if I had Corey's skills,
I'd be out there even more. But it'd be Corey
and Colin is the best golfers. What else you got?

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Phil?

Speaker 7 (37:40):
Question for Yiannis from Derman? What are you feeding a
top level hunting hound like.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Mingus scrap hunting hound you described him as earlier.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
I just feed him dog food. Buddy.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
If you used to remember your old dog Mud, didn't
you used to feed her meat?

Speaker 9 (37:58):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, I mean we feed Mingus eat too, some scraps.
You know. I'll save my trimmings and feed it to them.
But yeah, for the most part, we just I varied up.
I don't feed him the same stuff all the time.
We're actually gonna switch over to whatever Costco is selling.
That's what I'm buying next for Mingus, you.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Know, makes it for Costco. I imagine that.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I don't image. A couple of people tell me that
they thought it was good and it was cheap, so
that works for us. Okay, Yeah, I'm not buying into
the whole thing that my dog needs to eat the
same diet that I Rashan asks.

Speaker 7 (38:29):
And this is for Giannis as well. I'm assuming you
know the answer to this. When's the next meat Eater
roast coming out? I love the first one?

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Oh well, I'm glad you liked the first one. Shot.
The next one is coming out early May. I don't
think there is an actual drop date yet, but I
look for in early May. It's a good one. We
got Carrine Schneider, Meet your podcast producer and Maggie Hudlow,
director of website content, squaring off with each other.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
I heard they put on an exceptional show. Oh buddy
made some dooking delicious food coming out in early May.

Speaker 7 (39:04):
From Peter, question for Brody and Yanny, what cartridge are
you going to use for your kids when they go
from hunting deer and antelope to elk man?

Speaker 5 (39:12):
I started my older son on a two forty three
and he hunted with that for three, no, four seasons.
Three it was last year, four, last year was four.
This year he's going to a six y five creed
More and I would be completely comfortable having him shooting
elk with that cartridge. And he killed nelk with a

(39:35):
thirty hot six last fall.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
So yeah, we've been shooting the six to five creed
More and I imagine we'll stay shooting the six y
five creed More and just not shoot it too far.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Let's do one more, Phil oh Man.

Speaker 7 (39:50):
Okay from Eric, how do you guys balance family vacations
and hunting trips? If you have limited time.

Speaker 5 (39:59):
Off, you take family vacations that are hunting trips fishing.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Trip You two boys are pretty good at that.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Oh for sure. Yeah. I'd say there's very few hunting
trips that if they're not work that are you know,
that are hunting trips or hunting trips without my family.
So the only one I can think of off the top
of my head is like, I'm gonna go to Wisconsin
hunting my dad for a few days for turkeys. But otherwise,

(40:29):
if it's not a work trip, I'm hunting with my family,
and otherwise I'm hunting with a camera.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
Yeah, I mean, I'd definitely do some solo hunting, but
like you know, most of our family vacations involved hunting
or a lot of fishing too, So.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
You're kind of asking the wrong guys because we get
to hunt for work sometimes, so we don't actually have
to balance family vacations and hunting trips because yeah, we
get to hunt for work sometimes, But yeah, I hope
that helps Eric.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Sorry, probably doesn't.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
All right?

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Moving on, our next segment is top threes.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yore, trouble over here?

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Such a beautiful boy.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Sure it's so beautiful, Phil. Does the computer have to
help you hit that high note?

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Or is that all that was? Natural?

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Wonderful?

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Natural?

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Now this week we are ranking the three biggest fish
we've ever caught. And to be clear, it's not literally
the biggest. It's the biggest relative to other fish of
that species. So you know, for today's show, it would
be more relevant if you caught a two and a
half pound blue gill than if you caught a thirty
pound tarpin. Is the three biggest fish we've caught relative

(42:02):
to other fish of that species? Bro, do you go first?
What's the third biggest fish you've ever caught?

Speaker 5 (42:10):
We need the picture because I can't remember at what
order I put him in?

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Okay, Oh, big old trout.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
That that's a big old whopper. That's the third biggest fish.
Spencer wants me to say, that's the third biggest fish
I've ever caught. Huh, Then I can talk about it,
that's right, Yeah, talk about it. Tell us about it. Well,
it's a big ass rainbow trout. Look how young you were?
How old were you?

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Man?

Speaker 5 (42:35):
That was probably like twenty ish now, well maybe maybe
like seventeen years ago, let's say.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
Okay, so how old?

Speaker 5 (42:48):
I don't know you like late or mid mid thirties.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
I didn't know you were ever in your mid thirties.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
Yeah, man, I wasn't born fifty three years old.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Now is that pellet hitter that or is that not?

Speaker 1 (43:00):
That's not well, I mean.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
Not on the river. I don't think it was on
the river that it was caught on.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
How big was that fish? For people who aren't watching.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
This again, Spencer and I were talking about this earlier.
I don't generally don't carry a tape measure around with
me or a scale, but that fish was over thirty like,
I'm guessing thirty two ish, And it was caught this
time year in the spring. So it's a female full
of egg, so I'm guessing twelve.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
She's got a big old belly on twelve pound dish. Yeah,
what were you doing when you caught that fish?

Speaker 5 (43:36):
What do you mean?

Speaker 2 (43:36):
What was I?

Speaker 4 (43:37):
Like?

Speaker 3 (43:37):
What fly were you throwing?

Speaker 5 (43:38):
I caught it on an egg? Big old egg? Pattern.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
Was that a good day for you fishing?

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Mm hmm, yeah, can you tell us the river? Is that?

Speaker 4 (43:47):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (43:47):
It was the Roaring Fort.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Oh, it kind of tailed off at the end. Then
it felt like you were regretting telling us that's.

Speaker 6 (43:53):
Not a secret.

Speaker 8 (43:53):
Man.

Speaker 5 (43:54):
There's probably twenty boats on the Roaring Fort today.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Oh yeah, you ever going to top that trout? Or
is that a once in a life time fish?

Speaker 6 (44:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
I don't I don't have a crystal ball for trout.
That may be it because I just don't do that
kind of fishing as nearly as much as I used to.
But who knows. Anything could happen.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
All right, Yanna, you're next.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Well, the third biggest fish I ever caught was say
it is? You want me to say this fish?

Speaker 6 (44:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Yes, whatever fish is on the screen that you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
I labeled them wrong. I was gonna finish with this one.
Oh see, I think you you you labeled it number three.
Probably be that you wanted to be shown.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
But I can't believe how hard this segment is.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
All right, so we told you you had problems before
we started. This is a sailfish that I caught recently
down in Guatemala, but tape measure out for that one. No, no, no,
I pulled one out of the water sailfish. I showed
you guys a picture of that on an earlier episode,
and uh, a couple of folks remind me that you

(44:57):
shouldn't take those fish out of the water, really increase mortality.
So uh, yeah it was. Uh, I've only caught a
few sailfish. They were all roughly the same size to me.

Speaker 5 (45:09):
And uh, you caught that one on a flypole though, well.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
I don't know if it was exactly that one that
I caught on the fly rod, but uh, yeah it was.
It was a great trip. We had three anglers. We
all caught quite a few of those sailfish and uh,
beautiful place, beautiful water, rough seas though rough.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
Seas, did you yeah, you were you getting a.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Little No, I was wearing the patch. Yeah I was good.
But those guys you can see, they're the guy on
the left is Zan and my brother in law. They
decided on day three that they were all good with
the patch and they didn't wear one on day three
and it caught them.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
How did they take that picture?

Speaker 2 (45:49):
GoPro on a stick?

Speaker 3 (45:51):
Good looking photo? Good looking fish.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Oh yeah, they know what they're doing. We're fishing with
the selfish lodge of quite a mala. I don't know.
Dm me on Instagram if you want to know more
about them. A great outfit, all right.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
The third biggest fish I ever caught is this perch?
Now that that I got a tape measure under it,
Like Brody was saying, I did have a tape measure
with me. I was fourteen and a quarter inches. It
was two pounds exactly. I was south, it was in
South Dakota. It was twenty twelve. I was fishing by
myself that day. I was pulling plugs for Walleye. Did

(46:25):
not expect to find that fish in that place. There's
not a lot of perch in that lake where I
caught that.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
Oh it gets me excited. Spencer, that's my favorite fish.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
And he hit a number five rupaula shad rap. And
when perch get to that size, everything just looks wrong,
Like they developed shoulders that they don't normally have that
hump on their back. Yep, their their fins look too small.
You start to they like they look so lethargic. The
You're like, how is that thing staying well? Fed enough
to grow to that size. But then you're reminded when

(46:55):
you're pulling plugs for walleye and it smashes a shad
rap that you'd expect, you know, only larger fish to
be keeping up with. And then I got another picture.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
Did you eat him?

Speaker 4 (47:05):
No?

Speaker 3 (47:05):
I threw that one back. Two years later I caught
another fourteen inch or that one also weighed two pounds
through that fish back as well. It was it was
almost the same place, same time of year, same like,
doing the same thing, pulling plugs for walleyes hooked into
a big old perch. You can see pictures of these
fish on our meat eater.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
You let those spencer.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
That's okay. You know what I've like since I've gotten older.
If I were to catch that fish today, it's probably
more likely I would keep it. But then I felt
like I was I was really doing the Lord's work
letting a fourteen inch perch go. But now I realized
that like that thing probably had a year life left
on it, that there was no harm in me keeping
that big old perch in the middle of the good

(47:46):
fish sandwich right there, all right, bro To, you're up next, Okay,
I don't remember, oh, the second biggest fish I've ever caught.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
Now that this is a link cod, Oh, I'm supposed
to wait for that.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
So this is a whole segment is a mess. Do
whatever you like.

Speaker 5 (48:08):
That well, link cod get can get quite a bit
bigger than this. The reason I put this one in
here is because at the time I caught that up
around Steve Shack, that was as big of a link
cod as you could keep legally. Oh, that's why it's there.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
And how big is it?

Speaker 5 (48:31):
The slot that year was thirty to forty five inches,
so it was it was like forty three forty four.
It's hard to get an exact measurement in the bottom
one of those skiffs. You can hang them and measure them,
but it was it was just under the slot. So
that's that's a good one. And now like that slot
has gotten progressively smaller every year, so you wouldn't be

(48:53):
able to keep that thing anymore.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
So how much bigger are the bigger ones that you've
caught than this one.

Speaker 5 (48:58):
There's actually a second slot in that part of Alaska,
and it's fifty five and over, and no fish ever
seen one of those. They got to be down there somewhere,
but they can get they can get five feet long
fifty pounds. But that's a pretty good one beautiful fish.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
There, y your next, well, Spencer. The second biggest fish
I've ever caught is that big old red fish is
a big red fish also known as a bull drum
that was caught off the coast of North Carolina with
my wife's cousin, Captain rob Or also had my brother

(49:34):
in law and his son with him. Was a great eat.
We went out for like the night bite, so it
didn't start fishing until it pretty much got dark, and
we were fishing a shoal with just some cut bait,
pretty simple, and we basically made three casts and we
each got to catch a redfish roughly that size, and
it was quite the tussle.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
The head on that thing.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Oh, it's amazing, Yeah, the head and shoulders. And you know,
that's why I love these days being a freshwater angler
for so many years and then doing more salt water
in the latter part of my life. These fish just
they fight, yeah, you know, they actually pulled back, which
is what I enjoy so much. Where you know, the trout,

(50:17):
you know, it's more of a finesse game. To get
them to the net. But like that joker, you just
don't know if you're going to actually win the win
the battle there. But that one we did release.

Speaker 5 (50:26):
Yeah, are even allowed to keep them that big in
North Carolina?

Speaker 2 (50:29):
You know that fish is probably that fish is definitely
out of the slot. So yeah, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Fish, thank you again. Like the proportions when fish get
this big for their species, the head, yeah is just unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah, you can imagine that thing doesn't run away for much.
It's things. Most of most things are running away from
it in that giant mouth.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
All right.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
The second biggest fish I ever caught is this northern
pike that Phil is showing us a photo of. Now,
that was in twenty fourteen. I was senior in college
at that point. That was the biggest pike I had
ever caught. I was by myself pulling plugs for walleye.
He was just under forty inches. And then three years later,
in twenty seventeen, I caught a bigger one that then

(51:13):
became my biggest fitter.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
I thought that the three biggest fish, the sixth biggest.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Well, so I'm just giving you some context this This
pike then was forty two inches. He weighed just over
twenty pounds. He ate a number seven rapaula bleeding olive
minto wrap, which is a plug they don't even make anymore.
They have they have minnow body crank baits, but they
don't make that specific one anymore. And I was again

(51:40):
pulling plugs by myself. This was twenty seventeen. I was
in the same light doing the same thing when I
when I caught that other pike. Let both of those
fish go that that.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
Got a big old gouge and it's back from another
pike or something.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Yeah, yeah, it was. That was fun that. You know,
we were just talking about actually getting the fight a fish,
getting to fight a twenty pound pike that doesn't even compare, dude,
like you know the walleye that I was actually targeting
that day. So that was my second biggest fish ever,
forty two inch pike, just over twenty pounds. All right,

(52:15):
we're at our biggest fish brody for the.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
Biggest one ever. Now, when do I wait for this
noise to come in?

Speaker 3 (52:22):
Phil, here's what you do? What kind of fish is that?

Speaker 5 (52:25):
Tell me, well, that's the biggest fish I've ever caught,
and it's a cocony.

Speaker 9 (52:30):
Sam.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
So here's what you do. You say, the biggest fish
I ever caught is this cocony salmon, and then Phil
plays the buoy.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
Gotcha?

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Yep, okay, great, great job. Now tell us about it.

Speaker 5 (52:42):
That's a cocony salmon, which is a landlocked version of
a sake salmon, or they call him red salmon Alaska.
In most places where there's cocony fisheries freshwater cocony lake
fisheries in the mostly in the Western United States, those
things are like twelve inches long. People love fishing for

(53:02):
them because they're good to eat. That that thing's is
like a monster for a cocaonee, And it's like maybe
pushing five pounds or so. I didn't measure it, but
you know, it's like, yeah, I kept it. I think
it was somewhere twenty two to twenty four inches. I
don't know exactly, but that's like for the species, that's

(53:28):
an extremely large cocaine.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
See what were you doing when you caught that perch
fishing buddy? Oh? Was that the only cocony you caught?

Speaker 5 (53:34):
That the only one we caught that?

Speaker 3 (53:36):
Wow, it just happened to get I never.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Caught a cocone. You ever caught a cocaine?

Speaker 3 (53:40):
No? Never, Although I don't know how many times I've
even been in a lake that had coconine. It's been
pretty rare in my fishing days. That's that's a special fish.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
Yeah, it was like it was. It was good eating too,
It's very good eating.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
All right, Yanna, you're.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Up, all right? The biggest fish I've ever caught, which
was just supposed to be my third biggest fish, but
it doesn't matter. And I actually didn't even personally catch
this fish. My girl Lindsey, Yeah. Do you remember Lindsay's
last name?

Speaker 5 (54:12):
Meyer?

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Meyer? Yeah, Lindsay. And what was your husband try.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
To steal one of my clients for a little while?

Speaker 3 (54:17):
No, successfully did or not?

Speaker 2 (54:20):
I don't know. They fished with me for a while.
I don't remember. I left town, so Brody got him back,
I guess. But Lindsay and Jim, they were the classic
example of I.

Speaker 7 (54:31):
Still don't think we said the kind of fish.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Oh, it's a rainbow trout, very similar to Brody's third
biggest fish.

Speaker 9 (54:39):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
And classic example these two. She always was in the
back and was like, Oh, I'm really not that into fishing.
I'm just here for the views and the good time,
and Jim would be fairly serious about it, but really
she wasn't serious.

Speaker 5 (54:56):
Man, She got real serious with me after a while.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
U must have been a better I put her on
a bunch of fish like this. She got serious, but
she would listen to what the guide was saying. Jim
would well, not that Jim wouldn't, but she did a
much better job of listening, and so she would always
outfish Jim from the back of the boat. But it
was interesting about this particular deal. Is this on the

(55:20):
Colorado River, and it was early season, water was still
on the high side, and we'd had a particularly big
runoff year, and fish like that weren't normal ever on
this section of the Colorado River. And all of a sudden,
I think it was I think I was with another boat, actually,

(55:42):
and I want to say, we floated through this pretty slow,
deep hole and both boats hook up with these giant fish,
you know, and it as a guide, You're like, oh
my gosh, you know, what is that thing coming up
underneath the boat? So Leviathan, so you kind of do
anything and everything you can to land of fish like that.
Lots of pictures and those fish hung out in that

(56:04):
hole and in that area for quite some time. And
whoever I was with, I remember being like, dude, we
cannot tell anybody else because everybody's going to want to
float through this section just to hit this one hole.
Uh huh. The best we could figure is that there
was a tributary near there. The best we could figure
that there was probably a stocked pond upstream on that

(56:25):
tributary and it probably got blown out and then these
fishes swam down the tributary and got dumped into the river.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
So this was a short lived experience.

Speaker 6 (56:34):
The pigs.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Oh yeah, yeah, in my experience, I don't know. Again,
I didn't have a tape on me. I can't remember.
I don't think it was quite thirty inches, but you
know it's probably close. But yeah, just in I mean,
that fish is like more than double the size of
the average travel we would catch that when you.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Hooked into it, was there any question as to what
it could be like? Did you know this is a
big old rainbow?

Speaker 10 (56:57):
Ummm?

Speaker 2 (56:59):
I mean, I guess you could look into a big
mountain white fish that would but it wouldn't be that big.
But eventually you get a look at it. You know,
but when the rods is bent over a double and
it's sitting down deep, yeah, you don't know what it is.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
And usually if your float fishing, especially with a client
that hasn't fought a lot of big trout like that,
you got to follow him around in the boat for
a while.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Yeah, that's the cool thing. Like as the guide in
rowing a boat, you're almost doing as much fighting as
the angler is because you're flipping the boat around, positioning
it and then obviously fighting the current and you know,
trying to stay in that slow water because nothing worse
When you got a tank like that on and then
you got to like row through a riffle or a
small rapid, you know, shit can go wrong real quick.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
I can tell you that that Jannis did a very
good job of releasing that fish in good shape, because
our buddy Alvin Dedo had a client catch.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
It like a week later. I do you know the
same one and picture?

Speaker 5 (57:57):
Yeah, I mean it had to be.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
But there was a couple of fish. I think we're
in that hole beautiful trout all right.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Biggest fish I've ever caught is this paddlefish. Now, this
is sort of cheating because I was working for the
US Fish and Wildlife Service. That's a picture of my
boss that I took of him. This was right after
I graduated college. I worked at this fish hatchery and
we raised a lot of things, but primarily pallid sturgeon
and paddlefish.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
And we raised that dude is not you, that's not me,
that he has a remarkable resemblance to you.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
He's not me. That was.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
That was my old boss, Craig. So this was this
was twenty fifteen. We we would provide all of the
paddlefish that were stocked in South Dakota's reservoirs, and so
to do that, we'd have to go out and net
adult paddlefish, bring them back to our hatchery, take their eggs,
take their melt, raise the young, and then at the
end of the summer early fall, we would release these
twelve inch posing To get those things, this big old

(58:56):
drift nets, just like one hundred foot long drift nets
had had holes in them or if it was big
enough for a paddlefish to swim in and get stuck
like bill net stuck or because that would kill him,
wouldn't they Well you're grabbing them asat Yeah, So this
day it was just me and Craig on the boat.
He was running the boat, I was running the nets.
That paddlefish was just short of seven feet long in

(59:19):
a weigh one hundred and twenty nine pounds, which would
have broken the state record at the time, and she
gave us hundreds of thousands of eggs. We released her
about a month later. None of these people in this
picture or me either, but this shows us taking her
eggs after we gave her a hormone shot. And that
took three adult men just to handle this one fish,

(59:40):
and then another person to capture the eggs.

Speaker 5 (59:44):
How old is that fish?

Speaker 3 (59:46):
So that fish, it came from Lake Francis Case, which
is a reservoir, and any adults that we were catching
in that time that big were born before the dams
were put in. That dam was put in in nineteen
fifty two. That fish was sixty five plus years old
when we caught it. I'll never see another fish of
that size, and my boss and I were absolutely thrilled.

(01:00:09):
I remember feeling like such a badass that day when
we got back to the boat dock that the two
of us had did that, and I remember backing the
boat down the boat dock and turn on the radio
and Tom Petties won't back down his playing, and I
cranked that up and we were so thrilled. We went
into Chamberlaine that night drank our faces off.

Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
We were excited. That was a once in a lifetime fish.
I caught it using nets that didn't catch it on
a rodden reel. But I'll never forget that, old girl.
There we go. Those are the three biggest fish we've
ever caught. We're gonna figure out that segment someday. Six
months into this show where we're still working out some kinks.

Speaker 7 (01:00:46):
Yea, let's give it nine.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Okay, moving on, This is our last segment of the day.
Joining us on the line last is James Kane and
Barbie Augustini. They are magnet fishermen from New York City
who had a life changing catch last year. James, Welcome
to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Guys?

Speaker 10 (01:01:08):
Thank you so much for having Barbie is actually away
at the moment where a little stomach issue.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
Okay, he'll be back, all right. How I broke here?
How you doing?

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Bro?

Speaker 4 (01:01:15):
All right?

Speaker 6 (01:01:16):
First day?

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
For those not familiar, explain what magnet.

Speaker 10 (01:01:20):
Fishing is so magnet fishing where you take a giant
magnet this size, you know what I mean, You put
on a string and you throw it in the water
that's lit and you and you're waiting for the fight,
like you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
The click, the click.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
Okay, you can feel it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Now hold on.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
I got more questions about that this part, because you're
gonna move on. Go ahead. Are you dragging it? Are
you moving it? Are you changing cast locations? Like how
power click? If there's a piece of metal it's five
feet away from that magnet, will it pull it over
to it? Or do you need to land it right
on top of it?

Speaker 10 (01:02:00):
The fairest connection point to uh, to these giant magnets
you think would be that big, but actually it's more
like especially when you're on the water, I think the
pull the pull this is maybe five to six inches
at max. So you do have to change location. You
have to throw like you're still high school softball, So
you got to.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
Throw it as far as you can. That's that's the secret.
No one's gonna tell you.

Speaker 11 (01:02:19):
Let's one rip, Let's see your throat. We're getting to
that at the end. He said, no, no, no, yeah, James
hold on. At the end of the call, he's gonna
show us how it's done. We're gonna learn more about
magnet fishing. First though, what got you into magnet fishing?

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
So, believe it or not. Uh, my family and I
were very bored uh during COVID and we started watching videos.

Speaker 10 (01:02:37):
I always wanted to do treasure hunting as a little kid,
but never had the background education, never had the financials
to go on a boat and the gear and this
and that. And then I saw someone putting a magnet
on the water on a string on on YouTube.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
There are other channels down south that actually do it
quite often. Uh, And I said, you know what, let's
try this. My kids were like, you're not gonna do it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
You don't do nothing.

Speaker 10 (01:02:59):
So I actual we took the challenge and we went
to our local pond and uh, yeah, it's all all
goes from there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
How much does the gear cost to get going and
magnet fishing?

Speaker 10 (01:03:09):
So the rope is twenty bucks for like one hundred
feet twenty thirty bucks.

Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
The magnets we're the level we're at now is a
lot more powerful.

Speaker 10 (01:03:20):
So we have magnets that range from two to three
hundred dollars when you when you first want to start,
you can go on Amazon and spend thirty forty bucks
just to see what it's like.

Speaker 4 (01:03:29):
So you don't have to, you know, to drop three
hund's on a freaking giant powerful magnet.

Speaker 10 (01:03:34):
You can still get stuff with the low powered magnets,
but when you become obsessed, you want.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
You want the good stuff. Hull fall. Yeah, and what kind.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Of areas do you typically target when you're magnet fishing?

Speaker 10 (01:03:45):
So when we first started, we were just going to
any bodies of water. Now I tend to look for
so we're obviously we're in the middle of New York City,
so anybody of water that there's a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Of foot traffic and houses and roads nearby.

Speaker 10 (01:03:58):
That's when people toss this stuf right out the right
out the cars, and that's the best spot to go.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
Sometimes dangerous neighborhoods is the best spots.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
To love that. Now, normally when we're talking about fishing,
we want to go where people are not but not
not magnet fishermen.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Do you use any sort of mapping apps like on
x too, maybe scalot areas.

Speaker 10 (01:04:18):
Google maps, Google Maps, and then I sometimes you can
find Google historical maps. I like to do research on
the locations that we're in, and there's sometimes historical items
you can find by using the older maps as well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
That's good. Now, what are some of the most common maps.
What are the most common things that you hook while
magnet fishing?

Speaker 10 (01:04:36):
Bottle caps, rebar, rebar and nails, tons of rebar.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 10 (01:04:41):
I guess when they're constructing or whatever they do, and
the guys are to the people are done.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
They uh huh.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
And do you ever get skunked or you're always catching something?

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
We have gotten stumped, scumped, skunked a couple of times. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 10 (01:04:57):
In high salty areas like on we have our Bay
areas which mix into the East River over here in
New York City. Something about the tides, which you know,
I don't I don't fish. Maybe you guys can even
explain that a little more. But when the tides are
moving fast, the stuff is taken out into the ocean.
So you don't get nothing on the island in Brooklyn,
off the piers, you're not going to get nothing unless
it's really heavy.

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
The salt eating it up and the tides taking it out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
Now, besides the safe that we'll get to in a
little bit. What are some of the most unusual catches
that you've had?

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
What I can say on here, I don't know. I
usually believe or not. I tell people when they're when
they're watching.

Speaker 10 (01:05:34):
I used to say, oh, you never imagine what you
can get, But now I tell them, you ce crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:05:37):
What you can't imagine is going to be to be
on that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Okay, So guns, how many guns have you caught in
the two years?

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
We're almost on two years. We found about thirty five
my goods, Yeah, crazy, thirty five guns.

Speaker 5 (01:05:50):
What are you doing with those when you find What
are you doing with those when you find them? Are
you contacting law enforcement or throwing them back in or what?

Speaker 6 (01:05:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (01:05:57):
Dude, yeah, I used to think to call nine were one,
nine to one one right away. Now we actually I
try to call precincts. Yeah, and then the precincts precints.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
I'll tell you know. You got to call nine one one, And.

Speaker 10 (01:06:09):
I was like, it's not too much in an emergency,
I have we have all the guns we have at
the pump times we find grenades, do you have to call?

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
I'm a New Yorker and my brother's a new Arker. Yeah,
it's impossible.

Speaker 10 (01:06:19):
It's nearly impossible to get up any kind of firearm
license and you want to get called one not in
New York City?

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
Yeah nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:06:26):
Have you ever?

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Have you ever learned about the history of one of
those guns, like what crime it was used in, or
who owned it or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
In the beginning, I was believe or not I was.
I was actually scared, you know, I was nervous, Like
I wasn't brought up around firearms. I'm not don't have
a military background. Uh So I was nervous at first, like, oh,
real gun, what am I gonna do?

Speaker 10 (01:06:46):
And then I find out in the future that there
is Like you said, there are stories with them, and
we have found some that are so fresh that were
used only a week ago. And then your research and
you find out wout this person passed away, this young
person passed away, And sometimes detectives will actually call us
with possible subpoenis to.

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
Go to court. Yeah, I could get a little I
think it's weird.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
I got a little weird.

Speaker 4 (01:07:10):
I choose sort of not to follow them.

Speaker 10 (01:07:12):
But there are other magnificiers that want to know the
history and actually who's going to jail and who's what
crime you think gets all from it?

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
But I'm sure we helped out a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
A lot so other weird things that you've caught, Anything
really historic, anything really old.

Speaker 10 (01:07:28):
Yeah, yeah, we got we got a World War two
grenade confirmed by the bomb the bomb squad. And she said,
baby Brooklyn, Yeah, we have two grape shot canniballs Inci
Park and City. Before the park was made, there was
a garrison's there for the War of eighteen twelve. You know,
it didn't happen over too much over there, but they

(01:07:49):
would practice over there.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
So we got those and some.

Speaker 10 (01:07:52):
Really really old horseshoes on the valley stream. We must
have like a three three hundred year old horseshoe. The coins,
a lot of coins. You know, other countries coins are
all magnetic. So in America the only magnetic coin is
the forty three penny. So I haven't got one yet.

Speaker 4 (01:08:10):
It's a goal.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Okay, let's let's talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
About hold on. What happens when you latch onto something
that is too big to yank out, Like you know
it's there because you you've got the click, but it
ain't budget. What do you do?

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
Uh? What I like to call it is you gotta
jerk it off. You just gotta you gotta take it
right off the back. You gotta really hard, yeah, go
of it. Yeah yeah, because when it's because these things
are grab right hard. It didn't work out to a
big safe. Actually a lot of stafs in New York
City as well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
All right, let's talk about what happened last year on
May thirty. First, tell us where you were at and
what you caught.

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
So we were actually in.

Speaker 10 (01:08:50):
A park called Flushing, Flushing Queens of Corona Park, and
we were throwing over there. This is like my second
time over there, and we do have we have found safe.
It's just like this one you're watching.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
Clicked onto it and I was like, oh, it's just
gonna be another safe.

Speaker 10 (01:09:04):
And I stick my fingers in the hole and I
feel something mushy.

Speaker 4 (01:09:09):
Which really sounds weird, but it was sacks of bills.

Speaker 10 (01:09:13):
And in my mind, I'm scared right away at this point,
Like when I feel the money, I'm nervous because it's
no way.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
We're gonna keep it, you know what I mean. And
I was like, Babe, I just want to get some knee.
We're gonna go for pizza. We're gonna grab something you
know good. But the money is so bad. The money
is so mush and slush.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
Yeah, yeah you can.

Speaker 4 (01:09:30):
And I'm just going crazy right now my mind.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
You can see this video of James catching this safe
and going through it on our YouTube channel right now.
So after you reel in the safe, the police had
to get involved. What was that process, like.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
Believe it or not?

Speaker 10 (01:09:45):
To this day we get ranked on like why we
actually contacted the NYPD and aosle in New York City
that anything over one hundred dollars are supposed to call
in and uh, we're trying to, you know, get.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
Our channel out there. I'm trying to do whatever I can.

Speaker 10 (01:09:59):
Maybe some and lost it and if they can get
their money back, I would, yo, do here's your money,
let me get like a hundred bucks. But the police
were in shock as well. They didn't believe any of it.
They didn't believe it. Then a whole squad comes down
if you watch.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
Jors the other of our video, and they actually gave us.

Speaker 10 (01:10:14):
The money and and FBI got involved in the same
thing as well and did their investigation. Took a few hours,
and we walked off with all the money in a
zip u bag.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
Amazing, So it is determined, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
I was just gonna say, I'm surprised it was only
a couple hours and then you literally walked away that
day with that mundy money.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Yeah. Yeah, I was in shock as well. We had
to go to Washington, DC.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Yeah, so we got to keep the money. And for
those who aren't watching on YouTube, those stacks of bills
were covered in a black sludge from being underwater so long.
So how do you go about turning those filthy bills
into usable currency?

Speaker 10 (01:10:55):
So the process is done in Bureau of Engraving and
Printing Printing in Washington, DC. We did some research, they
found out what happened. They we went right on the bus.
Times Square took a megabus right to DC and went
to the Engraving and Printing and them the money. They
explained to us the process. We didn't get to see
too much of the lab and how they do that.

(01:11:16):
But it's all going to be put back together.

Speaker 4 (01:11:18):
Piece by piece. Even the money we didn't it didn't
bring because there was more in the safe that was
just tiny obliterated pieces. They said we should have brought
it because they can put it all they wanted to
scoop out. Then they can put it all back together.
It's going to take about two and a half years.
We have zero sense at all. Then we have one
group of people that do it.

Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
Yeah, but it was.

Speaker 10 (01:11:36):
Only like seven people that do it for the entire
America put all the money.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
It's ridiculous. Takes a long time.

Speaker 10 (01:11:41):
And how much How much money was it? They estimated
between fifty to eighty thousand.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
Only okay only only only now during this process with
the police and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, have
you learned anything about the origins of the safe, like
how old it is or is that still a mystery?

Speaker 10 (01:12:00):
I can only go on by, honestly, by the bills
that were in there. We had some as far back
as two thousand and seven and two thousand and nine.

Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
They had the magnetic strip in so I think the
oldest bill is like two thousand and nine.

Speaker 3 (01:12:11):
Honestly, Oh no, not that old.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
It looks like it's been at for barnacle throwing the crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Okay, so you're you're still like two years away from
getting this cash back though, give or take.

Speaker 10 (01:12:23):
They said it could take up to two and a
half years, so it could be any day now, all right,
you know, well James, Barbie.

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
Now James is standing at the pond where he caught
the safe and he's got his Magbie on here. Now,
Oh what's up Barbie? So James is standing at the pond,
he's got his magnet. Can you show us how it's done.
See if there's any treasure left in that bit of water?

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
They got the we're gonna take.

Speaker 10 (01:12:47):
I'm gonna take a big toss with the ten nine
pound magnet here.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
I like to throw like I'm still in high school
playing playing baseball. Uh huh.

Speaker 10 (01:12:56):
Basically you just some people could swing however they want.
I like to swing like we're playing baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
So, okay, have you gotten better at this James over
the years, dude.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
Yes, challenge me. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 10 (01:13:08):
As far as I and I'm actually known for that,
I actually want a belt title, actually leather championship belt
for the longest toss in so far.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
Okay, what a tree we're gonna see the world champion
magnet thrower. Give it a toss.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
Do your thing, James.

Speaker 10 (01:13:23):
I'm not gonna throw that car because I don't have
that much, bro.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Johann, he could throw farther than that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
Oh I can.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
I don't have my phone, okay, okay, so what do
you what do you think you might grab in there?
Maybe some nails, like you talked about.

Speaker 10 (01:13:40):
We're in the New York are in the middle of New
York City, so it's probably gonna be a weapon.

Speaker 4 (01:13:44):
Could be it could be a fire arm, it could
be a tone clipper.

Speaker 9 (01:13:47):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
Now, if you were really a good guest, James, you'd
have planted a handgun in the water for us or something.

Speaker 6 (01:13:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:53):
Right, we don't do any of that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
Okay, So you've got the magnet back to shore.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
Usually something.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
Okay, see what we got is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
That a car park?

Speaker 10 (01:14:07):
It is looks like it's one of the New York
City fire light posts.

Speaker 6 (01:14:11):
Light bulb.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Okay, so.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
Got some ice breakers. I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Something in there?

Speaker 4 (01:14:20):
Uh huh. Let's see what's in the ice breakers?

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
And then yeah, that that went so fast, James, can
you give it another toss for us? Let's see what
else we can catch.

Speaker 7 (01:14:30):
Okay, I can clear the rest of our schedule.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Yeah, what do you guys got going on today's Okay,
what do you do with when it's just straight garbage
that you catch.

Speaker 10 (01:14:42):
Uh, we collect all the garbage and a bucket, and
then we disposed with all the receptor.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
Hell yeah, all right, James is gonna give a.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
Second toss, really.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
Really, uh, put your body into this one. I want
to see how far you can throw that thing. Okay,
he's he's given himself more line. He's confident that this
thing is going to touch the other shoreline.

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
They want to you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
Got any other questions for James.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
I want to return back to the giant safs that
you left, like, I don't know how you could ever,
the guy told you that he's like hooked on the
giant safe and then you just moved on. Like what
happens with the giant It was stuck.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
And we couldn't move. But it's still there, still there. Yeah,
I'll take a bigger throw.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
But yeah, bigger throw.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
Yeah, it's a good throw. We're gonna get something really nice.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
It's ten pounds, you know what I mean. That's ten pounds.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
Okay, Yanni is stuck on the safe.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
He's stuck on the big safe. So you know where
it is. You can't get it out, but there's a.

Speaker 10 (01:15:48):
Underwater you're into They chopped into the safe so it
was empty.

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
We could see that was empty and there try and
get it up to the land. We couldn't get into it.

Speaker 8 (01:15:57):
Yeah, you have to be at least like six inches.

Speaker 4 (01:16:00):
Was huge.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
That's the biggest sake.

Speaker 4 (01:16:01):
We had a little spin handle on it. The one
we left was a vault vault.

Speaker 3 (01:16:05):
Yeah, okay, now it looks like you got snagged on
something there, James. Was that something magnetic or were you
just dragging it over a log?

Speaker 10 (01:16:13):
It could be logs, It could be uh, rocks sometimes
the stones that people throw in the water.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
Uh huh.

Speaker 10 (01:16:19):
You know, it could be bikes that are too deep
that we sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
Okay, the James is bringing the magnet to shore again.
Let's see what we got this toss. You can go
see the World Champion Magnet Toss or on our YouTube
channel watch James do his handywork.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
We got a paper clip. Oh, look at that treasure.

Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
And actual So.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
Think about magnet fishing. Sometimes you're gonna get a paper clip.
Sometimes you're gonna get a hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
You don't know, that's right, all right, James. If people
want to see more of your magnet fishing. How do
they go watch it?

Speaker 4 (01:16:53):
You could literally just.

Speaker 10 (01:16:54):
Go on online and typing let's get magnetic. We're on
all social media platforms, but mainly too if you want
to give me kay and say what's up?

Speaker 8 (01:17:03):
Okay, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook page.

Speaker 10 (01:17:08):
And one of the one of the interesting thing is
we get a lot of lures and I always wanted
to know if these things have value or not.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
I have we have like a box of all you
text me some photo, James, We'll get to the bottom.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
Then.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
Well, thank you for joining us, Thanks for teaching us
about magnet fishing. Thanks for cleaning up our waterways, and
good luck getting that cash refurbished.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
Guys, thank you so much for having us on.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
Everyone has fun, everybody, thank you. That was fun. That
was great.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
Yeah, it was fun for last you know.

Speaker 5 (01:17:38):
The one bummer about it is just shows you what
kind of dirt bags people are. Yeah, for those guys,
know the people are cleaning up.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
I mean that's what you want representing the great city
of New York right there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
Totally.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
I mean he's like, yeah, someone else can say that
it's there. Hundred k. Just give me a hundred bucks.
That is for Pete. That guy's great.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
We'll check in with the James again.

Speaker 7 (01:18:04):
But yeah, there, I want to just plug their their page.
I've got an Instagram page. Two here, it's just let's
get magnetic. It's all no, no apostrophe, all one word.
He's on YouTube and Instagram.

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
So yeah, doing uh, doing something fun. And they're cleaning
up or water while they're Yeah, Brodie, you said your
son had a magnet, but he gave up all.

Speaker 5 (01:18:24):
The centers pretty quick.

Speaker 6 (01:18:25):
Yeah, he needs to.

Speaker 3 (01:18:26):
Live in a place like New York City to really
appreciate magnet.

Speaker 5 (01:18:29):
Yeah, maybe it's a good thing that he never really
found anything cool and he went right back to regular
fishing after after like an hour doing the magnet fishing.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:18:38):
That brings us to the end of the show. Phil,
let's get some final listener feedback.

Speaker 7 (01:18:42):
Yes, sure thing, let's see here. I'll just grab this
one because I'm it's that's the first one I saw.
It is Phil hunter fish. The answer is kind of sort.

Speaker 3 (01:18:50):
Of what's the biggest fish you ever caught? Phil?

Speaker 7 (01:18:54):
I couldn't even tell you. Yeah, I mean people, a
lot of people know this. I was not a hunter
where I started working here and I still probably wouldn't
consider myself a hunter, but I've gone out several times.
The only person who really invites me out is col
So thanks to Cal and no thanks to anybody in
this room.

Speaker 6 (01:19:10):
Oh no, but yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
Mostly I've just.

Speaker 7 (01:19:13):
Say, you know, an upland ducks, turkey, just pretty much
just birds so far, that's kind of all I'm really
interested in. I'm not really chomping out the bit to
get out in the woods, but I wouldn't say no.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
Okay, that's what I'm saying. Would you take some meat
if we hadn't meat for you?

Speaker 7 (01:19:26):
Oh yeah, well totally we can do that. Let's see
you complete the fifth on this one. But maybe it'll
just kind of show you your true colors.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
Here.

Speaker 7 (01:19:35):
Our good buddy Leland asks if you had to join
just one conservation organization, which one would it be.

Speaker 3 (01:19:44):
That's a tough I think we've talked about this before.
But if I was just joining one and my membership
always ran out, I'd join a different one the next
year then, so I'd spread my memberships around. But for
the rest of my life. I don't know what the
answer would be. What do you boys think?

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:20:01):
Yeah, it's a tough question. Maybe tr tr CP doesn't
you don't really have a membership there. Yeah, you can
still support like some like I like them because they're
like in DC, like hopefully like affecting policy that you know.
That's that's a good choice there.

Speaker 4 (01:20:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
I think any of the groups that are non species
specific that really work across the entire country and for
all you know, outdoors people, So maybe tr CP or
the Sportsman's Alliance or howell you know that are really
involved across the board.

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Yeah, the ones that I benefit the most from probably
National Dear Association and Pheasants Forever because in my home
state of South Dakota they do a lot of great
habitat work and that same habitat work is good for
deer as well. But I'd probably go with something that's
oriented towards access like b h A, because uh, if
I have places to go hunt fish wouldn't matter.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
But man, it look, have you got like a critter
you like the most, turkeys or mule deer or whatever. Like,
It's not like you're not making a bad choice by
supporting those groups either, That's right?

Speaker 3 (01:21:13):
What else you got?

Speaker 7 (01:21:13):
Phil Caleb asks, as a beginner to turkey hunting. What
would be the cruise go to call or a Phelps
family here. But if you guys have any sort of
specific Phelps calls that are beginner friendly.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Well, for me, it's answer is easy. It's always just
a basic slate call, pot calling. Yeah, basic slate pot call,
very easy to use, can make all kinds of sounds, loud, quiet,
that's it right.

Speaker 7 (01:21:38):
Colin asks what's your favorite fish dish, whether to prepare
it or eat it?

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
Beer battered fish. Can't beat it, That's it's my favor.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
You're a beer batter.

Speaker 5 (01:21:48):
I can't do the beer batter man when not, I
just I like, I like when I eat in restaurants,
I'm like, this is way too much shit around the fish,
and that when I've tried at home, I haven't been
able to like do it to the point where I'm like,
this is better than bread and fried breaded fish.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
Sure, I'd like to see you or I'd like to
try your version and see how you pull it off,
because yeah, I know other people that are big beer
batter folks, but yeah, I'm kind of with Brody. I'm like, Eh,
it's good for the first couple of pieces, and then
I'm like Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
We'll have a fish fry sometime.

Speaker 5 (01:22:23):
But it's like, this is a tough one to pick
one fish dish because there's like very different kinds of fish, right,
Like there's fish like perch and walleye that are awesome fried,
but then there's like salmon, which is like awesome grilled.
So that's what I go with fried fish grilled fish,

(01:22:45):
depending on what kind of fish it is.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
Honest, Yeah, it's not the dish so much. I'd say
that more of just the species itself. And one of
the fish I was going to possibly use for my
the our top three fish segment was a yellow eye
rock fish I caught years ago at Steve's fish Shack.
And uh, you know that thing is like a It's
like a grouper and a scallop had a baby, you know,

(01:23:11):
That's what their flesh is like. Like you literally just
don't need to add anything to it, you know, besides
a little bit of salt and and again just cooked
very plain and simple.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
If I wasn't picking beer banded fish, I do like
a very Midwestern chowder that would be very creamy, have
some corn in it. You can put about any fish
in there besides a salmon.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
I do like a good we do it.

Speaker 5 (01:23:34):
We do a salmon chowder is great, it's popular in Northwest.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
Yeah, put any fish in there. Tell what else you got,
Let's do a few more.

Speaker 7 (01:23:41):
Okay, this is the by far the question we've been
getting the most. But there's a lot of misinformation about
it out there, but we should probably just say a
few words about it. What does the crew think about
the dire Wolf de extinction?

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
They're not dire Wolves number one. The branding is all wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:23:58):
Cover of Times, Look magazine, look up our body. Jim
helflefingers post on it. He's got a good Instagram post
on it. I think it's like a giant marketing campaign.
I don't think it's conservation as they're proposing it is.
And then like I'll leave it at that.

Speaker 7 (01:24:18):
Yeah, and you can if you want more information Straight
from the Horse's Mouth, episode five sixty four of the
Media podcast. We had Matt James of Colossal by Biosciences
on the show. Joannis and Brodie were in the room
for that time. So yeah, you can check that out
for more info.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
And if we if we had the ability to actually
bring things back from extinction. Let's focus on the things
that we cause to go extinct, not some critter that
died during the ice age. How about the dodo or
passenger pigeon? Is it the white rhino that we're got
like one left of in the world. Let's let's de
extinct those. But yeah, the or keep ship from going

(01:24:56):
extend about that? That's right. We got a lot of
efforts that we could focus on that area.

Speaker 7 (01:25:02):
Uh, yeah, we'll do one more kind of running out
of him here. But Chris asked, does the crew have
aversion to hunt the Pacific Northwest temperate rainforest obviously prove
a serious challenge of fine game, but could definitely make
for some awesome content. Cheers from the Olympic Peninsula. I
have noticed that it's a bit light on Pacific Northwest content.

(01:25:22):
Is there a reason for that?

Speaker 4 (01:25:23):
Specific?

Speaker 5 (01:25:24):
I mean Southeast Alaska is oh, yeah, sure, climate was
very similar, very similar, So I don't think. I think
that's probably like Steve owns a place up there, so
that's why they're going there. I don't think there's an
aversion to it, is there? You honest?

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
No, I've been looking at you know, maybe going hunting
blacktail deer in that neck of the woods. But for
a lot of the other species there or those states
just generally aren't very friendly to non residents. It's not
easy to get tags in Oregon and Washington. So I
know there's some out there. I'd love to go hunting
Roosevelt at some point.

Speaker 5 (01:25:58):
Yeah, I mean Phelps and those guys they hunt.

Speaker 7 (01:26:00):
Ye, yeah, that's that's Phelps home turf over there. He's
he's in the in the forest deep.

Speaker 3 (01:26:05):
Yeah, is it organ? I don't think they do preference points.

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
No organ does. I think that's one reason why it's
real tough to get.

Speaker 7 (01:26:13):
And it's very different climate wise. But Cal's done several
things in eastern Oregon that you can see on on YouTube.

Speaker 5 (01:26:18):
Yeah, and Washington's a tough state for non residents too,
all right, is that it?

Speaker 2 (01:26:23):
Phil? Oh? I like Matt's question about once in a
Lifetime tags?

Speaker 6 (01:26:27):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
Yeah, okay, last question?

Speaker 7 (01:26:33):
Am I blind here?

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:26:37):
Matt asks what are the room's thoughts on quote once
in a lifetime tag drawings?

Speaker 6 (01:26:42):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (01:26:42):
The PA Game Commission is pushing to change the bowelt
tag till once in a lifetime format.

Speaker 5 (01:26:47):
I mean my thought is is a lot of those
a lot of tags that aren't once in a lifetime
tags like that aren't done that way, like sheep or
mountain goat or and a lot of cases moose in
the lower forty eight, they were once in a lifetime
tags anyway, really, right, So I don't have a problem

(01:27:07):
with like if I draw a big horn sheep tag
and kill a big horn sheep in Montana, say, I'd
be fine if it was once in a lifetime.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
Yeah, I think it should be that way. I prefer
it that way because, yeah, it is such a limited
resource and if I was to get so lucky to
draw it too, right, and there's hundreds of the other
people that are, you know, waiting and waiting and want
that experience, Like, yeah, I don't think I should get
a second opportunity. I think someone else should get there first.

Speaker 5 (01:27:36):
And for I mean we're talking specifically lower forty eight here, right,
Like if you did, if you drew them out and
goat tag in wherever Colorado and it was once in
a lifetime and you really wanted to go hunt one again,
you could, you know, go hunt them in Alaska or
somewhere like that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:53):
If that's right, You know that's right?

Speaker 3 (01:27:55):
Agree? With what you boys said, all right. That brings
this to the end of the show. See everyone back
in the new week. Thanks for watching, Thanks for listening.

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Steven Rinella

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