Ep. 2 Bart Shortall

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Today we're joined by an Eastern Shore outdoorsman, Bart Shortle.
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From fishing the Chesapeake and shooting archery his whole life, Bart has built a life around the outdoors and traditions that come with it.
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We're talking fishing, archery, outdoor adventures, and a few other stories along the way.
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Welcome to the Sporting Society Podcast, Bart Shortle.
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From the marsh to the mountains, from the timber to the tide.
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Stories of the outdoors and the people who live the life.
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Traditions tomorrow every sportsman has a seat.
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Welcome to the Sporting Society.
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Feud by my list.
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Last week we took 36 minutes to get that done with Matt.
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He's not wrong.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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Technology.
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I get weird.
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Well, Bart.
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Man, thank you for coming in tonight.
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Nice to meet you.
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Yeah, you as well.
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And this is my first time ever in your presence, actually.
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We haven't uh run across each other, and probably in reasons because I don't know anything about snakehead fishing.
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Well, I hear that you're the snakehead Yoda.
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I appreciate you bringing me in because that's that's my favorite thing to talk about.
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Nice, man.
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So it's good to see you again.
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Bart and I go way back.
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That's from I mean years of shooting archery together.
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Bart actually coached me for a while there.
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That's wow.
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It helped help me fit.
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It's your fault.
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Yeah, exactly.
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All right.
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I had to smack him in the head every now and then to get him get him get him lined up.
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So I I think we've we've jumped into this so fast, we've actually never talked about the the the oddity that is Matt, right?
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I mean, I didn't even know that he shot competitive archery.
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Oh yeah.
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Didn't even know you know for a while that he was a competitive uh trap shooter.
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Or excuse me.
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Whoa.
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Sporting clay shooter, right?
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This is true.
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We're just finding out more and more about this guy.
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So anyway, where did you guys meet at?
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Matt's a good uh target shooter, 3D shooter.
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You flatter me.
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Of course, is he any good at shooting live things though?
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Oh yeah, oh god, yeah.
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He's he's even better shooting a lot of things.
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I don't know.
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There's people that would beg to disagree with that.
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So that's I'm I've always been jealous of guys like Matt and traditional archers.
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Ah, yes.
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As many deer, I mean, I'm 60, so there's been many, many opportunities to kill deer, so I've got a lot of them.
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But guys like Matt shooting traditional and watching these guys.
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I mean, it's amazing.
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That's pretty neat.
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I never got into it.
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I said I was gonna get into it, and then I waited too late.
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Now I can't pull a bow back.
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So I tried.
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I tried to get you in this tick ball.
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Then you realize you didn't have that kind of time in your life to be able to shoot traditional.
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I understand it.
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And it's you know, getting older, just yeah harder to pull it back.
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Well, Bart, let's tell everybody where you're from, man.
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I want to go let's start from the the very beginnings of where you came from.
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Are you from the Eastern Shore originally all the way through?
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Have you always lived here?
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Yep, grew up in Taupa County, went to Easton High School, graduated in '83.
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Started fishing when I was like most most guys on the Eastern Shore, you know, real small.
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And we'd dad would take my brother and I around, fish from the bank most of the time.
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Nice.
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And uh never missed a perch run for for years.
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And uh and that was it.
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Got into hunting later on in life.
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Okay.
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And got into archery later on in life, which I wish I'd gotten into it earlier, but it was still a good time.
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It was in early nineties.
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No, I'm sorry, late seven late eighties when I got into it.
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I was gonna say don't aid yourself that much part.
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Late late eighties.
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I was getting two things mixed up.
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But uh but once once I got into the the uh bow hunting part of hunting, yeah, that was that was it at that time.
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Took off, huh?
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Addiction.
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You know, that's uh getting addicted to it.
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So so what's your you you you obviously were from the Eastern Shore.
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Did you ever leave the Eastern Shore?
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Did you ever venture out and check out the rest of the world?
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I did not.
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I uh grew up in Queen Anne.
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Okay.
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Well, the town of Queen Anne, which is Taube County, it's split and I was on the Tauba County side.
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Uh but no, I've I worked across uh the Bay Bridge for a number of years.
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I was uh firefighter with Anna Rondo.
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Oh, okay.
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But I still lived here, and I think the furthest I got away from this area was I was in Graysonville for a while.
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The far land of Graysonville.
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Yeah.
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So but we've uh my wife and I have been in Denton now for 27 years.
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Okay.
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We built a house right on the Delaware line.
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Oh, perfect.
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So enjoying that.
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Yeah.
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How many years is a firefighter?
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Total uh was twenty-three.
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It got cut short with with a back injury.
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Yes, sir.
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Uh, but did twenty-three total between being a paramedic in Caroline County in the late eighties and then going to Anna Rundle in 1991.
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Wow.
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Okay.
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So I did twenty twenty-three total.
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Nice.
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Nineteen and then four years was ninety-one, I believe I was four.
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Matt, I don't where are you?
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I was one year old.
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There you go.
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Okay.
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One year old.
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You're a nineties kid.
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I'm a ninety barely.
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Right.
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Barely a nineties kid.
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Awesome.
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So no, let's let's go back to it.
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So obviously, spent that time.
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Um so fishing's been the passion, right?
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Yes.
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Obviously.
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Bow hunting, fishing was a passion for a long time.
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But then when I got into competition archery, I did really well at it.
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And then I got addicted to it.
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What did that transition look like from bow hunter to competitive archer?
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How long did that take?
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It was at the same time.
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It's a slippery slope, isn't it?
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The same exact time.
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Yep.
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Because I I couldn't kill a deer with a bow.
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Really?
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I was horrible.
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And I made up my mind that I'm gonna learn this, and I'm gonna learn it any way it takes to learn it.
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Okay.
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And I saw a brochure for a 3D shoot at Tucko Bowman.
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Okay.
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And I went and I was working hard at home trying to figure out you know the the pin gaps and form and so you were shooting uh traditional style, not or no, you were shooting uh conventional.
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Yeah, I was shooting compound archery, right?
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Compound with a release.
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With a release.
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And but shooting 3D, did you shoot paper at all?
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Or I did.
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I shot a little bit of indoors, but mainly outside 3D archery.
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Gotcha.
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Okay.
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Yep.
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Perfect.
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And I found out uh I found out that I was halfway decent at it.
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Okay.
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Even I mean, I did work at it, but I found out that the success came early.
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So I got hooked on it.
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And at that point, it was just, I mean, for what, 30, 35, 38 years, something like that.
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I I did it.
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Such small things as shooting for a you know, relatively well-known bow brand, you know, Matthews.
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Yeah.
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You were pro shooter for them for a while there.
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Yep, for several years.
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Um they were good to me.
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I love the bows, still do.
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Um can't shoot anymore because of a surgery.
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I lost my shoulder, it's a long story.
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But uh, but yeah, Matthews uh in 2005, when he came out with a switchback, my picture was on every switchback ever sold.
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No way.
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On the little trifold thing.
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Oh, that's awesome.
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And uh, because I had walked into a store one time and did you know that that was gonna happen, or did you just you walked in and seen it?
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I didn't even know.
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That's awesome.
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I was we were out at Matthews at Sparta, Wisconsin.
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Okay.
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And we walked into a shop that was, I don't know, 20 minutes from Sparta out in the country, and the salesman took us out there.
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And as I walked in the door, there was like a little foyer and then a bathroom.
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Well, on the bathroom, the bathroom door was his poster, and I could see my face on it.
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I was like, you know, you've made it when you when your face is on a poster on a bathroom door to Matthews deal.
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Well that would have been with what, you know, Jeff and Jack and all those boys.
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Yeah, all the all the legends, but I was just small little figure in the bottom.
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You were there with him.
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The switchback may be probably one of the most known Matthews bows of all time.
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It was a great bow.
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I knew everybody.
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I mean, I graduated high school in 2005, and as we were, you know, starting to work and everything else, and guys were starting to have a little bit of money, it was switchback.
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We had to buy a switchback, had to buy a switchback.
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So that's that's really cool.
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What what so actually going back to this snowshoe, obviously, you shot up there and worlds and all that stuff.
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Had a buddy of mine, I'm gonna throw a name at you, you might know him, maybe you don't, but uh Timmy Butts.
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That name ring a bell.
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He was a Matthew shooter for a while.
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Is he from Maryland?
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He's from yeah, he's from Frederick originally.
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Yeah, yeah.
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He yeah, he was a pin shooter for the longest time.
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Yeah.
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I shot with him uh at Tuscarora.
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There you go.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, yeah.
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That's the home stomping grounds for me.
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It's Frederick County.
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So I love that place.
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Yeah.
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We I watched somebody shoot a rattlesnake at us at a state championship.
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I believe it.
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At Tuscarora.
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Yeah.
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Not many people tell you that that uh Frederick County has rattlesnakes up in for pretty much uh Putman Road.
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That that area up in up in the mountains there, when you get to the bottom of the base of the hills, there's a bunch of them.
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So the group next to us, and it was a state championship, so we weren't, I mean, we were having fun, but we're focused.
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And the group next to us, everybody was at full draw aiming straight down.
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And we're like, really?
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They put a target at it, you are well as a rattlesnake.
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Yeah.
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And I don't know if it was I guess it's you're not allowed to kill.
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I don't know.
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You I wasn't involved in it, but I watched it.
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Well, the statute of limitations are definitely gone on this, but yes, you were not supposed to kill rattlesnakes.
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Well, they can keep we can leave her there.
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Yeah, these these guys uh harvested.
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Yeah, there you go.
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And they put it, oh, they went to cut his head off, and one guy got cut.
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Yeah.
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Oh.
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And he comes walking by us with a rattlesnake and a bloody hand.
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Oh no.
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I'm like, I'm a paramedic.
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I think there's something that we should we should be doing for this guy.
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That's awesome.
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But uh, but yeah, I love that that area.
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The people out there, they were great.
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Yeah, it was big too, man.
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I mean, that that's uh, you know, I I shot there a couple times.
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I grew up, you know, with a bunch of buddies that that shot 3D and stuff, and uh, you know, that was a place to be on Wednesdays and you know, pretty much any night of the week.
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There's some big names in competition.
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Archery came through that area too.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
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So so you got through the competition world.
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Did you ever did you ever work in the outdoor industry other than being sponsored by Matthews?
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I did.
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Um, I owned uh X-Fire Bowstrings for a number of years.
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No way.
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I did it as a hobby for the longest time, and then when I retired from the fire department, I was like, I'm gonna go ahead and do this full time.
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Awesome, man.
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So I had all the machines and we had 12 stretchers at one time.
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Really?
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I'd fill the stretchers up in the morning, go eat lunch, and then come back and serve them all and do a couple installs a day.
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Okay.
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Man, I was I was coming in here to talk about snakehead.
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We're gonna get to that, obviously.
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But now let's let's go.
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Like, yeah.
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So if if there's one thing about Bart, Bart doesn't do anything halfway.
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If he is gonna figure something out, he is going to get down to the minutia about it.
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That's something I love about him.
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And just getting to spend time with him in his bow shop and you know, have me we we joked about this earlier, and I said, Hey Bart, what's your draw length?
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Only 27 and 7-8.
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Okay, like and every now and then 15 sixteenths.
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So, I mean, we are talking the minutiae.
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Watching him figure out how to build a better bow string.
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Right.
00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.600
That's I've still got a bow that has your strings on it, and I don't shoot the thing anymore.
00:10:57.840 --> 00:10:58.159
Really?
00:10:58.320 --> 00:10:59.679
Because I don't want to wear the strings out.
00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:00.000
Okay.
00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:04.720
So that bow stays where it is, and it gets you know called up for the important stuff.
00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:05.600
Sounds like my bow.
00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:06.879
I don't shoot it very often either.
00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.159
But I got one sitting in a garage somewhere, I'm sure.
00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:13.840
But but no, so I I think that I want to stay on that topic a little bit.
00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:15.519
So you said you guys had met a long time ago.
00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:17.039
So how did how did you guys actually meet?
00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:18.240
Was it through competition, Archer?
00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:19.279
It was 3D, yeah.
00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:25.120
Yeah, at some point that's when I first got into it, I realized his name's at the top of the leaderboard all the dang time.
00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:30.080
Let me go bug him and say, hey, what do I need to do to uh do that?
00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:36.399
And he was kind enough to take me under his wing and say, Hey, dummy, like you know, do this, don't do that, do this.
00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:37.039
Nice, you know.
00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:38.799
Matt was the best student I've ever had.
00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:40.799
Man, you were just flatters me.
00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:44.799
We're gonna have to get triple doors out of the store to be able to fit that guy out of here, trust me.
00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:47.039
That's oh, you don't know how much I'm paying him to say this stuff.
00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:54.240
That's actually the truth, because I'd like to help people, but it took me a while to realize that people sometimes don't want to be helped.
00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:55.679
Understood, absolutely.
00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:58.159
Which never everybody's different.
00:11:58.320 --> 00:11:58.480
Yeah.
00:11:58.639 --> 00:11:59.919
It took me a while to figure that out.
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.679
I just why why aren't you like me?
00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:02.799
Why aren't you know right?
00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:05.279
Because I would I was like Matt.
00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:08.320
I would go to Jeff Hopkins.
00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:12.159
I'd go to um I've talked to both of them guys this this week.
00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:12.720
Nice.
00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.639
Um, you know, when I see them on TV winning events, I'll send them a text message.
00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:18.240
And Jeff is from the Eastern Shore.
00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:18.480
Yep.
00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:19.840
So him and I go way back.
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.759
But but no, people, you know, you tell them, hey, look, I know how to fix that.
00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:24.639
And it's simple.
00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:25.919
Can I help you?
00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:26.799
No.
00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:28.080
I'm good.
00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:29.840
My groups are fine, you know.
00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:30.159
Right.
00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:32.000
I've been shooting up over 30 years.
00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:32.799
Oh man.
00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:36.639
But but Matt was always asking, paying attention, trying.
00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:36.960
Yeah.
00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.720
So he was that's why Matt and I were tight because I guess we think alike.
00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:41.679
Which scares me.
00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:42.240
Scary.
00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:42.639
Yeah.
00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:45.360
That's good thing we don't good thing we don't look alike though.
00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:46.159
I mean, that's true.
00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:47.679
I understand.
00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:51.039
Well so so going back to it, you guys meet you kind of helped Matt along.
00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:52.720
There's other guys that you helped along the way as well.
00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:59.519
I mean, did you have kind of a uh underlings that that you shot with or I did was it hard to find as as as your career went on?
00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:02.559
Did you see the sport grow or did you see the decline of it?
00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:04.559
It it declined.
00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:05.039
Yeah.
00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:11.679
And I don't think it was the sport so much as just the new type of thinking.
00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:15.679
People would get into archery and go right to a crossbow.
00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.720
And there's not much that well, there is a competition side for crossbows.
00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:26.960
But a crossbow is pretty much as far as shooting goes, it's like rifle as the way you hold it.
00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:27.200
Right.
00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.559
But the compound bow to get it to hold steady, your full.
00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:32.320
How many different access points are on?
00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:34.480
A compound bow versus a lot of people.
00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:41.039
You've got push-pull, you've got 50-50, you've got it's it's a sport like golf or or anything else.
00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:42.960
Plus there's a metal game to it.
00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:50.559
So, you know, to be accurate and be good at competition, it takes a lot of work.
00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:53.200
And there's so many people that just want, oh, I just want to kill a deer.
00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:53.519
Yeah.
00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:54.159
And they grab it.
00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:54.960
It's good enough.
00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:56.240
Good enough to kill a deer, right?
00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:56.399
Yeah.
00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:04.080
Well, that's in the there's a massive difference between you know deer killing accuracy and what we're expecting out of our target setup.
00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:11.120
So in that, you know, if you miss a quarter-sized dot at 48 yards, you just gave it away right there.
00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:11.840
Exactly.
00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:16.480
Let's be real, a whitale has a yep, roughly eight-inch vital circle.
00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:17.120
Correct, yeah.
00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.039
You're pie plating versus a quarter.
00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:19.759
Exactly.
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:20.159
Absolutely.
00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:24.320
So now did you shoot uh tension or did you shoot finger release?
00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:27.759
I I shot well, I started out shooting uh finger release.
00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:28.960
And wrist rocket.
00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:31.600
Wrist rocket and yeah, index finger.
00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:35.759
Um but I met a guy who is now he was my mentor.
00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:36.159
Okay.
00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:37.200
He was in my wedding.
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:37.759
Nice.
00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:40.000
And he was uh Joe McGrogan.
00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:45.440
I went up to Joe one night at Liggs, Indoor Liggs, there in Denton.
00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:49.919
We were shooting at the Armory, and he had just shot 56 X's out of 60.
00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:54.639
Just like it was, I mean, just like he'd walked in the door and grabbed a bow and uh just that.
00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:55.360
Right.
00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:57.279
You know, just cutting cutting axes.
00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:03.360
And I knew Joe because he he lived in originally, I was in Queen Anne Hillsborough, and we we hung out a little bit.
00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:05.440
But anyway, I said I want to learn how to do that.
00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:10.639
So he picks out a back tent for leaning release and says, You need to have one.
00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:13.279
So my personality, I went out and got two.
00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:14.159
Nice, nice.
00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.840
And we're sawing the fingers off of them, we're grinding them and stuff.
00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:19.360
And I never look back.
00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:19.679
Really?
00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:27.600
I use a release, not that particular one, but you know, as it improved over the years, I used one for you know all 38 years of it.
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:28.080
Really?
00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:34.320
I've still that's the only thing I have left in my house archery related is a tungsten and a brass back tension release.
00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:36.080
And I've I've killed deer with those.
00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:36.480
Really?
00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:36.799
Yeah.
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:40.799
So I gotta ask the stupid question how many times have you busted your nose open?
00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:42.799
Not once.
00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:43.279
What?
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:45.039
On a back tension release.
00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:45.679
Oh man.
00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.360
But I bought one of those the regular tension releases that when you pull it back.
00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:52.559
I didn't read the directions.
00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:55.519
I didn't read the directions twice.
00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:56.480
I understand.
00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:03.759
I pulled it back, and next thing you know, I'm laying in the floor and my daughter's yelling to me, and I've got blood hanging running down my nose.
00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:06.960
And so that was when eBay first started.
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:09.440
I was like, I'm not even reading the directions on this thing.
00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:10.639
I'm just putting on eBay.
00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.519
I went and made a sandwich, and it was sold in five minutes.
00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:14.080
Nice.
00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:18.240
Well, so for people who don't know, and and that's it's not a typical hunting style release.
00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:30.080
So explain the back tension a little bit because I I explained it to myself by the back of my hand quite a few times, and I gave it up and just went back to I shot actually a thumb, Scott's thumb release, but um shot about a little bit.
00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:34.480
But I I just tell people what a back tension is in the world of of competition, Archer.
00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:39.279
A back tension release is um it's a handheld release that you hook.
00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:41.519
Oh, years ago we hook it right to a string.
00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.240
But now everybody hooks it to the D loop.
00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:50.480
And it doesn't have a trigger, it's got a double sear and a, or no, it's got a sear and a hook.
00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:51.360
And a half handle.
00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:52.159
Yeah.
00:16:52.559 --> 00:17:08.880
And when when the hook is attached to the D loop and you're holding it and you're at anchor, you're applying a back tension to keep the yeah, you have to apply back tension to keep the bow back so it doesn't you know collapse and hit you in the face.
00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:09.279
Right.
00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:22.240
So the proper back tension would be your your traps and your rhomboid muscles, which makes your shoulder blade go right to the spine.
00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:28.960
That's the proper way, but some people cheat it, but the the the overall beauty of it, it you never know when it's going off.
00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:30.559
For sure.
00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:33.599
You're aiming as made a test.
00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:36.480
As most of the time, it was at about half draw.
00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:37.920
So yeah, yeah.
00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:43.440
So when you come back to full draw and you're holding, it makes you aim.
00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:46.240
Now, you just don't pick it up the first time.
00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:48.960
You you have to roll it with your hand to make it go off.
00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:55.119
But as you're aiming, your subconscious mind doesn't know when that trigger's going off.
00:17:55.279 --> 00:18:04.720
But if if you're using anything punchy, punchy, your subconscious mind will anticipate when it's getting ready to go off.
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:10.079
And your subconscious mind, all of our subconscious minds are the strongest part of our minds is the subconscious.
00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:10.960
Scary.
00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:17.200
So if you train yourself to never know when it goes off, all you're doing is just letting your pen just sit there.
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:20.160
And all of a sudden, poof, nice, it goes off.
00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:30.319
When you because it is such a finite difference between hunting and competition shooting, one of the hardest things I was ever told is to not ever focus on a pen, right?
00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:39.759
So can you explain a little bit about target acquisition and and seeing your target and not seeing your pen and all that kind of, you know, kind of your process and setup?
00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:40.079
Sure.
00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:45.680
Because I know it was dialed in, because it had to be dialed in to be that good because you were repeating it millions of times over and over and over.
00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:46.319
So yep.
00:18:47.200 --> 00:19:01.039
So when you're looking at your pen and you center your scope with if you're using scope or whatever your aperture is, when you center your pen and then you look at the deer or the target or whatever.
00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:04.720
Let's let's say you're aiming at a dot for conversation purposes.
00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:10.000
You put your pen on the dot and then you stop looking at your pen.
00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:14.720
Believe it or not, your subconscious mind will look at that pen.
00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:17.359
You're just looking at the dot where you want to hit.
00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:17.920
Right.
00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:23.839
And you you just say, you know, just have something in your mind, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, push.
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.359
It goes off, and you never know it.
00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:29.839
I mean, you'll know it when the bow goes bow goes off.
00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:33.680
Well, that's and I think there's something important to touch on there is when we talk about like pin float.
00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:34.000
Yes.
00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:36.960
Because he held a bow as steady as I've ever seen anybody hold a bow.
00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:37.119
Right.
00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:41.039
And that his level of float tolerance was much tighter than mine.
00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:49.759
And that, you know, let's say it's a for again for conversational purpose, let's say it's a two-inch dot at 40 yards, he expects that pin to stay in that dot.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:50.720
Gotcha.
00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:53.440
It at no point could I ever have done that.
00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:54.160
Nah.
00:19:54.400 --> 00:20:00.559
So I you figure out what is an acceptable level of float, and you gotta understand that that pin's coming back to the middle.
00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.440
As long as you're looking at the middle, that's where that pin is going to come back to.
00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:05.839
So ideally you're floating in kind of a figure eight pattern.
00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:06.160
Okay.
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:14.240
And all the while you're just aiming and just waiting, and you're just going any minute now, and you're just slowly increasing tension until bang, she goes.
00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:14.960
Gotcha.
00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:16.799
Mine was more of a hexagon pattern.
00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:18.960
You know, jump in here, jump in there, jump in here.
00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:21.599
So and that's where target panic comes from.
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:23.759
You want that pin to sit there.
00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:24.079
Yeah.
00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:25.839
And you go, oh my god, it's in the middle.
00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:29.039
I better punch this trigger right now because it's in the middle right now.
00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:31.039
And that's going to work for the first couple times.
00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:31.359
Yeah.
00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:36.160
And then you're going to start finding stuff like, well, why is my pin locked at six o'clock on that target?
00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:39.519
And it feels like my bow weighs 400 pounds and I can't get it up.
00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:40.079
Oh, yeah.
00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:49.359
Or, you know, next thing you know, yo, you start doing the drive-by thing where you start like, well, that field, you come through, it gets in the middle, you punch the living heck out of it, you go, wow, that went way high.
00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:49.839
Weird.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:50.400
Right.
00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:52.799
And that's that's 100% accurate.
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:53.279
100%.
00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:58.720
And sometimes I forget when I'm talking to people or they ask me questions about it.
00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:05.119
I spent a lot of time learning the intricacies of how to hold that pen so steady.
00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:10.480
So I gotta remember that not everybody and like when you get older now, I'm watching some of these pros on TV.
00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:14.559
Yeah, I'm like, them boys are hitting 12s and 14s.
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:28.640
And you can watch their pen move because of what Matt just described, you know, you you just let it float and then it goes there, especially if you're shooting a subconscious release or a back tension release.
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:34.160
So I think one of the the the biggest transitions talking about hunting and and archery is Levi Morgan, right?
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:41.839
So Levi Morgan is a accomplished archer in the competition space, but now is obviously as TV shows, does the whole thing, right?
00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:42.240
Mm-hmm.
00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:48.319
When when you when you're how much time were you spending on competition archery?
00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:54.720
Honestly, 'cause it you know, I know for a lot of guys, like myself, I'd pick a bow up about August twenty eighth, right?
00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:55.759
And I'd go shoot.
00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:57.279
And that was kind of my day.
00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:02.319
And I'd I'd go and you know, hunt the first two months and then Once it was waterfowl season, it was over anyway.
00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.920
So for me, you know, how much time were you putting into uh the competition, Archer?
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:17.599
When I uh the early 2000s and like 2002 to 2005 when I was touring and shooting for Matthews, um it was about 40 hours a week.
00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:20.880
Oh now some of it was On top of a full-time job.
00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:21.200
Yeah.
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:24.319
Now I work for the fire department, so we were on 2448.
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:25.200
Gotcha.
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:31.599
And when I was in Crofton, I just told this on uh this story on Facebook the other day.
00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.759
Uh we had a target range behind Station 7 in Crofton.
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:36.559
Nice.
00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:47.279
And uh we had to move it back a little bit because somebody in Crofton rode by and saw a mountain line sticking its head out of the woods behind the firehouse.
00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.920
Of course, you know, everything goes right back to the fire cheese.
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:51.759
Oh, I'm sure what's what's going on there.
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:53.920
But um it's a pet.
00:22:54.400 --> 00:23:11.839
We would take we never shot at work, but we would take um time out to learn how to judge yardage, which with 3D archery, the best news is three that judging yardage it was the most difficult to learn, but once it once you learn it, you're like, oh yeah, okay, I see it now.
00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:12.480
I I get it.
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:15.279
You know, and it's but you still had to practice.
00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.960
And my I was addicted to being able to hold a bow steady.
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:20.640
I wanted to hold like Levi Morgan.
00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:29.359
Yeah, I got a cool story about I sat right with him one day and shot, and it was just I was just blown away for is he that good?
00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:30.240
It's incredible.
00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:31.039
Okay, he's that good.
00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:31.839
That's what I figured.
00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:39.359
I mean, I just you know his I watched him, it was West Virginia, they would corral all the pros to one range of the street.
00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:40.240
That's no shoe.
00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:42.400
Well, this was uh Pipestown?
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:43.119
Pipestown.
00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:43.599
Oh, okay.
00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:50.880
They would corral all the pros to one practice area in one part of the hills or the mountains or whatever.
00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:51.599
Nice.
00:23:52.400 --> 00:24:00.559
Not that we were better than anybody, but they wanted us to and I think some of the pros made of politics to have their own pro range.
00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:01.599
Separate out.
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:02.240
Yeah.
00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:05.920
Because there was you know, it's thousands of people at some of the IBOs.
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:09.920
So uh but I parked right next to Levi and we got to talking.
00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:11.680
I mean, we knew each other anyway.
00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:14.319
I'm a nobody and this young Levi?
00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:17.359
This was when he was at the height of his early.
00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:21.359
I remember when he was a kid, nice, but this is when he first started learning everything.
00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:23.279
Was it like any other sport in the world?
00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:24.319
Did you see it early on?
00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:26.720
It was like, eh, this kid's something special, right?
00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:32.720
You know, you see a young uh Tiger Woods or you see a young, you know, baseball wise, a million of them, but yeah.
00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:36.319
When he was a kid, he cleaned courses, he never missed.
00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:38.640
Now there were 30-yard courses, right?
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:41.200
But he's still shooting the bonus rings on him and not missing.
00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:44.400
It was and his form when he was a kid was impeccable.
00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:45.119
Really?
00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:50.000
But when I when I shot right next to him, we parked next to each other, we walked down the hill.
00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:59.279
He stood at the 45-yard bail, and the Morel outdoor targets, the rings that are painted on are that big.
00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:04.000
He took five arrows, not just once, but three times.
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:06.960
And see if the camera can see this.
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:11.680
He had five arrows inside that hole, and there was a border all the way around it.
00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:14.880
I'm sorry, it was 50 yards.
00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:21.599
It was he walked up and grabbed him just like that and pulled him out with one hand and turned around and did it two more times.
00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:29.279
And he would be at full draw, and somebody'd say something to him, and he would stop and okay, all right, yep.
00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:32.799
And he'd go right back and spAP, put it right back in the same hole again.
00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:33.519
That's crazy.
00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:38.799
And and there was a partial wind blowing from the right, right to the left.
00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:41.839
Now, my groups were tight.
00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:45.359
I was just checking like a 40-yard pin or a 35-yard pin.
00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:46.640
I was like, I just gotta check my pen.
00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:47.599
That's all I need to do.
00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:49.119
Just make sure my pin's good.
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:52.559
So I'm, you know, I'm doing it at 35 yards, right?
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:55.519
But to do it at 50 in the wind, it's like it's that's crazy.
00:25:55.599 --> 00:26:03.599
That's the most infuriating Levi Morgan thing I've ever seen is warming up next to him at pipe stem, worlds, whatever it was.
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:10.160
He is literally dumping a shot, giving it a click, dumping a shot, grabbing a lead pencil and marking his tape.
00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:11.839
And I'm like, I'm sorry, wait, what?
00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.880
He's about to go shoot worlds with lead pencil marked in tapes, and he goes, All right, I guess 50 is good enough.
00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:21.920
Click, click, click, click, click, dials it in for 55, erases his old mark and pencils it in.
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:25.599
I'm like, I've had my bow set up, I haven't tweaked anything for four months.
00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:26.640
Get ready for this.
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.799
And this guy's literally penciling in his marks to go win worlds, and he won it by I don't know how much that year.
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:33.920
Hey, when you're good, you're good.
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:35.440
And that's just one of those things.
00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:37.440
He's gifted, he's got the mind for it.
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:41.359
Hey everybody, Jesse Matt with the Sporting Society Podcast.
00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:49.680
If you are at the 4-H Park in Queen Anne's County for the Queen Anne's County Fair, head on over and check out our friends from Molly's for August the 10th to the 15th.
00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:51.519
They're gonna have a fair booth set up, Matt.
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:54.160
You think we can probably put Nick and Chick in a dunk tank or something?
00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:55.519
I would love to see that.
00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:57.519
All right, well, hey, if we can get it set up, we'll be there.
00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:00.799
Queen Anne's County Fairground August 10th through the 15th.
00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:03.680
Make sure to stop by and check out our friends at Molly's.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:05.759
All right.
00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:10.640
Well, Bart, I uh this time of year, man, how did you know how we're gonna start talking about fishing a little bit, right?
00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:16.880
Because the Yoda thing, I've heard a million times now, and we've heard like Archery Yoda, was it Archery Yoda's already started at?
00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:22.799
No, uh Steve Faulkner, a friend of mine in Archery, uh, gave me the nickname Yoda.
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:23.359
Ah, okay.
00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:24.880
He even brought me a Yoda doll.
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:26.960
How did you get that name, Bart?
00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:28.559
I am so curious.
00:27:28.960 --> 00:27:32.480
I've never watched Star Wars, so Me neither, Bart.
00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:33.759
Um I don't know anything about that stuff.
00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:37.519
I'm guessing Yoda was like the old man that like tried to help people, but I don't know.
00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:38.160
I don't know.
00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:39.839
He wasn't exactly tall either.
00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:41.039
Ah, understood.
00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:42.319
More of a stature thing.
00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:42.640
Yeah.
00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:43.599
I'm kidding.
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:45.759
And the the big ears, too.
00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:49.359
So it's well, you know, it's cool because you gave me the sticker.
00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:50.880
So Snakehead Yoda.
00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:51.920
Snakehead Yoda.
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:56.640
I this is probably gonna be the the most interesting 30 minutes of conversation for me.
00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:57.759
I don't get it.
00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:03.759
And this is why I was so pumped up that when Matt said you were gonna come over, and I said, you know, man, it was kind of like a who's Bart?
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:07.759
You know, like and he's like, Man, it's snakehead, it's fishing, it's everything else.
00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:09.039
I'm interested.
00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:09.519
Okay?
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.559
I haven't drank, I haven't been snake bit yet, right?
00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:14.880
I haven't been haven't drank the Kool-Aid yet.
00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:16.720
But where was was it?
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:21.279
I know you talked about having a little shoulder injury and everything else, but where did fishing come into play for you?
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:33.279
So one of my customers, uh, my archery bowstring customers, um told me in 2018 how they were going down catching snake heads down in Blackwater.
00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:42.319
Well, I knew going back in time when I was in Crofton in the fire department, that's when they shot that pond, the walking fish pond.
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.920
So being from Frederick, I know exactly what you're talking about.
00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:49.200
Because everybody in their mama had to put their cats away.
00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:52.960
We were talking about if your dog's not over 60 pounds, they're gonna eat them.
00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:56.720
Yeah, you you better watch out sending your kids to school because this thing's nasty.
00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:57.599
I'm not kidding.
00:28:57.680 --> 00:28:59.119
It was a it was a big deal.
00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:05.839
In Frederick, like for me, because it was not far in Montgomery County where like people said, Hey, we found this this fish.
00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:06.960
Right?
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:09.759
Whole minds blown, it walks on water.
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:12.240
It it it it it lives out of water.
00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:17.359
It'll it'll ride in the school bus with your kids, like it will do all this stuff, and we had no idea.
00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:26.960
Yeah, so you were ground zero then we're ground zero in Crosston, and uh so I worked at station seven, which is uh uh a Rundle volunteer.
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:31.759
Uh they put two uh paid drivers there, or driver and a firefighter.
00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:39.599
And I was the driver there, and uh they wanted us to go down to babysit the state as they were dumping chemicals in the pond that day.
00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:47.599
Well, I wasn't real happy about it, but and I told the chief called me, I said, Chief, I'll do what you want me to do.
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:52.480
But if something they're the state's checking off a box at the fire department's air.
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:53.200
Right.
00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:57.440
For contamination control or something like that, or somebody splashes something.
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:01.680
I said, if we really have a hazmat, I'm just a hazmat responder.
00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:04.640
I'm I'm calling the paramedics and a hazmat team.
00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:06.480
I could be like, Yep, that's a hazmat.
00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:11.519
Well, luckily one of the volunteers came in and covered the ambulance.
00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:12.000
Okay.
00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:19.440
But as soon as the ambulance, or as soon as the volunteer came in, the ambulance got a call for something very, very serious.
00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:20.559
I don't even want to talk about it.
00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:23.039
But luckily, yeah.
00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:24.319
Luckily it was fine.
00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:34.000
It was a child involved, and luckily the child was fine, but I was losing my mind going, we've got to go babysit this when there's people that need the fire department.
00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:37.920
So the child was fine, nobody got hurt at the pond.
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:41.680
I didn't get to witness it, which looking back now, I wish I was there now.
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:44.160
Did you know what they were there doing?
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:48.480
I did, and having a little bit of a fishing background, I had a little bit of an interest in it.
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:56.400
Yeah, but it it it kind of triggered something in me about these things, just like everybody else.
00:30:56.720 --> 00:30:58.720
We were scared, you know, man, bite your toes off.
00:30:59.039 --> 00:31:00.000
Put your grandma away, dude.
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:01.519
She's gonna they're gonna run her down.
00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:02.640
I'm telling you, it was a wild.
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:04.319
Yeah, and I don't like snakes to start with.
00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:07.519
So and then yeah, we're gonna get to the name thing in a little bit.
00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:13.200
But so so you were you're sitting there and and they're obviously going to try to eradicate what they have found, right?
00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:15.599
Number one, where'd they come from?
00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:20.319
And if anybody doesn't know, give us a little bit of a background on what a snakehead is and everything else.
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:24.000
There's there's a bunch of different types of snake heads.
00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:25.440
Um I didn't know that.
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:27.839
The one we have here is a northern snakehead.
00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:28.079
Okay.
00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:30.960
Down in Florida, there's a uh bullseye snakehead.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:32.880
I was gonna go southern, but I'd have been wrong.
00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:33.119
All right.
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:35.359
And um but the safe guess.
00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:40.400
Yeah, you would think the main ones uh where they like them.
00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:49.920
Well, there's a lot of us like them here, but uh the culture likes them in in Asia, some parts of Russia.
00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:50.559
Okay.
00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:53.200
Uh I'm not as well versed on that.
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:53.519
Yeah.
00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:57.119
So what I'm telling you is just from you know things I've heard and read and stuff.
00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:02.000
Um there was I can't remember the Asian.
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:09.680
There was a guy that used to fish with us from Asia that he would tell us all about.
00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:17.759
You know, they they would sit up in the trees and watch them go by and they would throw treble hooks at them and shoot them and do everything else.
00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:20.400
It was just it was a it was a meat fish for them.
00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:21.519
Yeah, and they loved it.
00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:24.160
Every you know, everywhere this fish has been, they loved it.
00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:42.960
So the way it got here was in a um now this came from a podcast years ago that they don't they're not doing anymore, but um there was six spawning pears that somebody at in Crofton at a um uh reptile store, fish store.
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:45.359
It was like an exotic reptile and fish store.
00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:46.319
Yeah, they come on.
00:32:46.720 --> 00:32:47.519
They had them.
00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:53.200
And there was several different ways this story went.
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:59.839
But the long and short of it was those fish left there, they were they got caught with them.
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:07.839
Ah and I don't remember the details in between them leaving there and them entering the pond, but they entered they entered the walking fish pond.
00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:09.359
Jeez and crackers.
00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:20.000
But then when they started reproducing in the Patuxin River, because that's you know right next to the Patuxin River, they they all of a sudden started showing up in the Potomac River.
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:29.279
Yeah, and then that's when all the word got out that hey, there's an underground thing going on here with these fish because people wanted to have them as a as food.
00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:29.759
Yeah.
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:36.400
And then once they hit the Potomac and the Patuxin, it was Katie Bar the door at that point because they were everywhere.
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:40.160
Now, they they only spawn twice a year.
00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:40.640
Okay.
00:33:40.880 --> 00:33:45.440
Everybody thought, myself included, you know, because you hear things and it's without knowing you believe it.
00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:47.200
How many per spawn roughly?
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:52.640
Is it one is it like a a you know, a crab that can lay a million eggs, or is it I don't remember the exact number.
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:52.960
Okay.
00:33:53.279 --> 00:33:54.240
But it wasn't a million.
00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:55.920
I think it I might be wrong.
00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:56.480
A lot.
00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:57.519
A lot can we say a lot?
00:33:57.599 --> 00:33:57.759
Yeah.
00:33:58.160 --> 00:33:58.720
It's a lot more than a lot.
00:33:58.880 --> 00:33:59.359
More than a couple.
00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:00.559
More than more than a yeah.
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:02.480
It's more than rockfish and more than bass.
00:34:02.720 --> 00:34:02.960
Gotcha.
00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:04.720
But they they spawn twice a year.
00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:05.119
Okay.
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:06.720
It's a long story how we knew that.
00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:10.079
But that's that's not scientific data.
00:34:10.239 --> 00:34:13.679
Because the scientific data s was saying that was five times a year.
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:15.599
We're like, this isn't happening here.
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:16.719
It's only twice a year.
00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:22.079
And now the scientific data is is saying what we're saying, they only spawn twice a year.
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:23.519
Are they just that resilient?
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:27.360
Is it because they it seems like they're they're I mean, we know it, they're everywhere, right?
00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:27.599
Yeah.
00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:34.239
Are are they specific to because they lived in the Potomac River with all the mercury and everything else that's up there, and then they thrive in the marsh.
00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:38.639
So we went from freshwater to salt water, br brackish water, right?
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:42.800
Are we gonna are we gonna see these things in you know Aswoman Bay soon?
00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:44.320
I don't think so.
00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:51.840
They I might be wrong, but I don't think so because when they go through the Chesapeake, and this is uh different watermen have told me this.
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:55.280
Okay, commercial crabbers, commercial uh commercial watermen.
00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:59.280
Uh they have seen them move in big pods.
00:34:59.519 --> 00:34:59.840
Really?
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:05.199
In the Chesapeake Bay and at the mouth of I can't remember the name up in Kent County.
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:07.599
Um Sass uh not the Sassfras.
00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:08.639
Chester?
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:10.800
No, there's between the Chester and the Sassfras.
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:12.880
Not Duco, but not Turner's Creek.
00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:21.440
Anyway, I was I was up there looking for snakehead spots one time, and I always talk to the commercial quartermen because those guys are there every day, they know what's going on.
00:35:21.599 --> 00:35:27.679
They're like, Man, they followed a school of these snakeheads followed a school of bait fish up into this creek.
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:30.960
He said, you know, you ought to try this creek next year.
00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:33.840
Because this this was this was late in the season.
00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:38.159
And I'm scouting for the the new year or the next year.
00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:49.119
Dedication or they they'll follow uh bait fish and they'll they've been caught in the main part of the Chesapeake in crab pots and such.
00:35:50.079 --> 00:36:02.480
But they like it, the pH is just right, the salt content is just or the lack of salt is just right to get up and push as far up in the waterways as they can get, like the spillway, Tucco.
00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:02.960
Right.
00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:06.000
I mean, that's as far as you can go into Tucky, you can't go any further.
00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:08.639
And they'll sit there and they'll go right to the end.
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:16.480
So you're so you're telling me that all the way in the Chester River, so they got through the salinity of the Chesapeake Bay, got up toward the Chester River.
00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:20.559
What do you think it was just location that blackwater was just such a relevant thing?
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:35.679
That's that's the theory that I'm hearing that they came out of the Potomac and shot right straight across and gotten into Blackwater, but then they did a DNA sample, and some of the fish that are in Blackwater actually came from Delaware.
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:36.559
Come on.
00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:37.519
How is that?
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:39.199
That's what left me scratch my head.
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:43.440
But I've got to tell you this, because I've seen it with my own eyes, I've heard about it.
00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:49.440
The bucket brigades, guys are guys are taking live fish.
00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:49.920
Yeah.
00:36:50.079 --> 00:36:54.480
And as much as I love snakeheads, let them do their own little ecological thing.
00:36:54.719 --> 00:36:55.199
Yeah, I can't.
00:36:55.519 --> 00:36:57.199
I can't I'm not for that.
00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:06.960
But my brother and I sat on a bank one day at a popular bank spot down to Blackwater a couple years ago, and we watched, we had to stand in line because there were so many people there.
00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:15.760
It was on the weekend, and these guys were catching snake heads, and they were like, hey, all right, put that one in the bucket, uh, we'll carry that to our pond.
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:18.079
All right, go ahead and kill that one, we'll we'll eat that one.
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:19.039
No way.
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:22.480
And my brother and I were like, We were on a main road in Dorchester County.
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:24.719
Literally, trying not to get hit by passing vehicles.
00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:29.199
Yeah, and here comes a natural resource cop coming by.
00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:29.519
Yeah.
00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:30.639
Now, is this at the time?
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:33.679
So let's go back just to corral this thing one time.
00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:40.719
Invasive species to the U.S., they get plopped down in the walking fish pond and you know, and they've exploded.
00:37:41.679 --> 00:37:46.480
How long was it still considered an invasive species to where you're killing on contact?
00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:50.400
They're still calling it their how are we still calling it that?
00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:52.079
It's a billion-dollar industry at this point.
00:37:53.199 --> 00:37:55.199
That's exactly what I say every day to myself.
00:37:55.760 --> 00:37:55.920
Really?
00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:57.519
Yeah, this is a conversation we've had.
00:37:57.760 --> 00:37:58.239
Oh boy.
00:37:58.320 --> 00:37:59.679
All right, now you got me dialed in here.
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:01.519
I I need to know.
00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:03.920
Yeah, you said you love them.
00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:04.320
Yes.
00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:09.519
What is it about this fish that that you find so endearing?
00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:13.679
I was gonna ask you why there's a line of people standing on the side of the road to catch these things, right?
00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:20.559
When you catch one, when you catch a bass, yep, let's say, let's say a bass gets a topwater frog.
00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:27.119
Pop, he he hits it, you you know, you wind down, count to two, you set the hook.
00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:28.559
Oh, okay, I got a bass.
00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:35.199
If he's big, yeah, yeah, he'll try to go deep, but you you lip him, throw him, throw him in the kayak or the boat.
00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:37.119
Snakehead grabs that.
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:37.760
Yeah.
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:39.440
Oh, it's a fight.
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:41.039
It's a steel cage match.
00:38:41.119 --> 00:38:42.159
So that's what that's what it is.
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:43.360
That's the allure to it, right?
00:38:43.440 --> 00:38:44.000
It's the fight.
00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:47.599
And then and then look, I got this is gonna be an unpopular opinion.
00:38:47.679 --> 00:38:48.480
I'm gonna tell you.
00:38:48.639 --> 00:38:51.119
When people are like, they taste so good.
00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:54.880
I gotta be honest, it's kind of a condiment carrier to me, right?
00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:56.800
Like it's just kind of another white fish.
00:38:57.039 --> 00:39:05.599
Well, that's that is a topic for a podcast, maybe, but because I've done a study on which which ones taste better.
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:06.079
Okay.
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:07.599
What was your comparison?
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:10.719
The female Oh, on on male and female?
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:11.679
Yeah, the female flick.
00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:13.760
Like I said, cheese spark doesn't do anything half.
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:14.880
Okay, hold on a second.
00:39:14.960 --> 00:39:17.119
So now you're studying you're studying the the Yes.
00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:21.119
We're gonna make it work, tasteology of the male and female.
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:22.400
Tastes delicious, yes.
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:22.880
Okay.
00:39:23.679 --> 00:39:24.079
Sorry, good.
00:39:26.079 --> 00:39:30.000
The first one that I caught, my dad and I caught Was it across the bay?
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:32.159
No, it was on uh It was already over here.
00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:34.000
Yeah, it was 2019 in Blackwater.
00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:34.639
Gotcha.
00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:38.239
I took my dad down there because dad took us as kids back in the 70s.
00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:40.239
We were catching crappie off the bridge and stuff.
00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:47.119
So I I had to take dad back because he was starting to we've lost him now, but um 2019, he was loving life, catching them off the bridge.
00:39:47.360 --> 00:39:49.360
We cooked them, and these things were awesome.
00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:51.840
They they had that sweet flavor like a crab would have.
00:39:51.920 --> 00:39:53.519
I'm like, this is unreal.
00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:57.519
Now I did get COVID uh in 2020.
00:39:57.920 --> 00:39:58.960
We've got taste.
00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:03.519
So that's that skewer my taste a little bit.
00:40:03.679 --> 00:40:08.800
But to go to go back to the taste, I was curious, I was like, why do they taste different?
00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:10.320
Yeah, and I knew that I had the COVID.
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:11.679
I knew you know everybody's heard.
00:40:12.079 --> 00:40:14.559
And and we were catching them long before COVID at this point, right?
00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:22.559
So it wasn't just like incidental, incidentally, we started catching this fish, and it was like they taste so good, but then everybody had COVID and couldn't taste them at all anyway.
00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:31.280
So it was just my my uh my little so and then I had one, I was like, this thing tastes sweet, like like I first remembered.
00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:38.239
So then I dove into it a little bit deeper and tried uh like I don't when I keep one, it's only twenty-five.
00:40:38.480 --> 00:40:40.960
I was gonna ask you, is there a is there a two sweet spot?
00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:45.280
Yeah, twenty-two and twenty-three, or if you catch them and they break their jaws.
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:47.199
27 and 516s.
00:40:49.840 --> 00:40:53.920
But uh if you if you catch them and they break their jaws, they won't survive.
00:40:54.079 --> 00:40:55.760
So I take them home anyway.
00:40:56.639 --> 00:40:57.440
They break jaws?
00:40:57.760 --> 00:40:59.440
They break their jaws trying to get away from you.
00:40:59.599 --> 00:40:59.920
Really?
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:01.360
It's crazy.
00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:03.360
That's another one.
00:41:03.679 --> 00:41:04.239
You've never caught one.
00:41:04.320 --> 00:41:05.039
Have you ever caught one?
00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:09.679
I mean, I've shot a couple walking on the side of the road or something, but never caught one.
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:10.239
That's it.
00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:13.519
I've never targeted, I've never said, hey, you know what?
00:41:13.679 --> 00:41:16.639
Let me go out and get my hands off slime of the day and catch some snakeheads.
00:41:16.800 --> 00:41:18.159
Like that's just never been a thing for me.
00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:24.000
And I just, you know, I don't get me wrong, I'd rather fish 80 miles offshore than I do two feet offshore in the bay, right?
00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:26.159
Like I just that it's not my it's not my jam.
00:41:26.239 --> 00:41:27.360
I just don't know anything about it.
00:41:27.519 --> 00:41:34.880
Ignorance is bliss when it comes to it, because one more thing that I could get into and find out that I've, you know, I'll be over here making baits and stuff for them, right?
00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:36.880
Because that's what that's the kind of person I am as well.
00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:38.159
I've got a kayak, sell you.
00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:39.840
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:41:40.159 --> 00:41:42.320
I have what you call never, Jesse.
00:41:42.559 --> 00:41:43.119
And I need to.
00:41:43.199 --> 00:41:44.639
So this is gonna be a super smooth.
00:41:44.960 --> 00:41:49.360
Is this what maybe we could find somebody to take us to go find a snake head, maybe somebody that's knowledgeable.
00:41:49.679 --> 00:41:50.960
We could probably even shoot a video about it.
00:41:51.119 --> 00:41:51.760
I bet we could.
00:41:51.840 --> 00:41:52.079
Hmm.
00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:54.400
I wonder if only knowing we knew somebody.
00:41:54.639 --> 00:41:56.639
I've got a bass boat that'll hold three of us.
00:41:56.880 --> 00:41:59.760
I know a guy who's got to go play and hold a bunch of us.
00:42:00.960 --> 00:42:01.840
We can do that.
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:03.679
So that aside, so we gotta do that.
00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:04.079
Yeah.
00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:11.440
So well, the the taste, the taste thing I found out for for my taste, and everybody's different.
00:42:11.599 --> 00:42:11.760
Okay.
00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:18.559
I go 20, 22 and below, or to about 18, because after that the flays are too small.
00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:24.559
And if they're female, and I don't like to keep the females because I'd rather them produce more offspring.
00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:27.360
Do we go back to the convert and this is a serious question?
00:42:27.440 --> 00:42:36.800
Do we go back to the conversation of are since they still are technically catch and kill because they're invasive, what does that look like for us, right?
00:42:37.039 --> 00:42:42.239
Does that look like, hey, one day we're gonna wake up and realize that we probably should have been killing them the whole time?
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:45.920
Or does it look like one day we're gonna wake up and they're just a part of our college and we're good?
00:42:46.159 --> 00:42:51.760
They're the the folks like myself who study them, I've got a notebook of notes on them.
00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:55.039
Yeah, there's a lot of people like me, thousands around the area.
00:42:55.280 --> 00:42:56.880
Yeah, there's some guys who are fired up about it.
00:42:56.960 --> 00:42:57.199
We know that.
00:42:57.360 --> 00:42:57.599
Yeah.
00:42:57.679 --> 00:42:57.840
Yeah.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:10.880
We've all and and I shouldn't say this publicly, but I know people in places in different departments that'll say, yeah, we we kind of overshot, we over, we kind of overshot this.
00:43:11.039 --> 00:43:11.199
Okay.
00:43:11.519 --> 00:43:17.840
But nothing is being done about taking the in invasive rubber stamp and making it a non-navy.
00:43:18.079 --> 00:43:19.039
It's a sport fish, right?
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:19.199
Yeah.
00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:20.880
Because we've I mean it's millions.
00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:25.039
It's millions of dollars that come into the economy.
00:43:25.360 --> 00:43:25.599
Right.
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:30.480
Well, tell us, so there, I mean, we obviously know there's a whole subsection of of fishing around here at least.
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:33.119
Now, are are we looking at other places in the US too?
00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:38.400
I mean, I you said Florida, but like, is anything caught on super heavy like it has here with sport fishing for Snakehead?
00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:41.280
Uh Florida has full time guides.
00:43:41.599 --> 00:43:41.840
Okay.
00:43:42.079 --> 00:43:43.760
They also got pythons, and I'm out, dude.
00:43:43.840 --> 00:43:44.559
I'm not gonna lie, too.
00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:45.679
I don't want to deal with Python.
00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:46.400
That's a different snake.
00:43:46.480 --> 00:43:48.800
You ain't gonna get me to go wrestle with Python, I'm just not doing it.
00:43:49.039 --> 00:43:49.840
That's a different snake, yeah.
00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:52.239
Okay.
00:43:52.719 --> 00:43:58.320
But um yeah, Florida's Florida's pretty big with their in invasive chase.
00:43:58.639 --> 00:43:59.840
I feel like they're just invasive with everything.
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:02.320
Shoot iguanas on the side of the roads.
00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:03.840
It's just nuts down there.
00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:08.880
Well yeah, because I mean Marl Maryland is you know ground zero for invasives as well.
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:12.800
We talk about snakeheads, we talk about sickadeer, we talk about blue cats.
00:44:13.039 --> 00:44:14.800
Blue cats, we talk about zebra mussels.
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:15.280
Right.
00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:18.559
But is the I mean is the narrative changing on the snakehead?
00:44:18.639 --> 00:44:24.719
Is it becoming kind of like you know, a Sika thing where it's becoming an attraction for Marylands?
00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:26.960
Yeah, it's been it's been that way for a long time now.
00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:31.519
The problem is there's too many people who fight it for no reason.
00:44:31.760 --> 00:44:37.840
I went to a boat ramp yesterday to do some scouting for a bass tournament I got coming up.
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:39.440
Guy comes walking right up to me.
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:48.159
He says, I posted this on social media, and this was like it just guy's like, You're not gonna catch any bass out here, we've got snake heads.
00:44:48.239 --> 00:44:52.639
I'm like, you know, I'm hearing the Charlie Brown teacher, you know, blah blah blah.
00:44:53.360 --> 00:44:54.079
I was like, okay.
00:44:54.239 --> 00:44:56.239
He said, Yeah, I can't catch any bass out of here.
00:44:56.320 --> 00:44:57.039
I was like, okay.
00:44:57.119 --> 00:45:01.360
I went out for four hours and got a did what you do, got a limited bass.
00:45:01.679 --> 00:45:01.840
Yeah.
00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:04.559
And it's like, it's just stop.
00:45:04.719 --> 00:45:06.000
Just stop with it.
00:45:06.159 --> 00:45:17.039
You know, it's I'm not saying I'm an expert, but when you study these things and you see things, you catch a bass, catch a snakehead off the same piece of cover in Delaware just a couple months ago.
00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:20.719
I threw up uh to a little drainage in a pad field.
00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:24.320
I was up there scouting for a bass tournament because I'm doing a lot more bass fishing and shit.
00:45:25.280 --> 00:45:27.199
We're talking like largemouth, smallmouth bass, right?
00:45:27.360 --> 00:45:27.599
Large mouth.
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:28.320
Okay, gotcha.
00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:31.840
And uh there was a drainage coming out of a pad field, the tide was going out.
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:32.960
I was like, oh, this is perfect.
00:45:33.039 --> 00:45:33.840
There's gotta be a fish here.
00:45:33.920 --> 00:45:35.360
And I skipped the jig up there.
00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:39.199
And I, you know, as soon as man, he smacked it.
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:43.039
Well, as soon as he smacked it, thinking it was a bass, I knew there were snakeheads up there.
00:45:44.320 --> 00:45:46.559
But the fizz bubbles come up.
00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:48.559
I'm like, oh, this is a snakehead.
00:45:48.800 --> 00:45:58.719
It's even better, you know, because I set the hook and bring a bass in, which which told me that the bass and the snakehead were going after that jig, but the bass got to it first.
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:01.679
And I've done the same thing in in reverse.
00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:08.880
I've caught a snakehead in Virginia before, yeah, off the end of a pier, and watched a bass come up to try to get the same bait.
00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:11.360
And I threw back in there later and caught that bass.
00:46:11.760 --> 00:46:12.960
They're cohabitating.
00:46:13.199 --> 00:46:15.679
Yeah, so they're coexisting together more than what we say.
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:17.360
Now look at the predation side.
00:46:17.440 --> 00:46:19.519
Is that something that are they that aggressive?
00:46:19.679 --> 00:46:24.639
Are they, hey man, they're gonna they're like you say, gonna chase your grandma down the street and bite her ankles, right?
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:28.239
They they the only time they get aggressive is when they get hooked.
00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:30.880
And they they know I'd be pretty aggressive.
00:46:31.039 --> 00:46:32.079
Yeah, I mean, yeah, understand.
00:46:32.239 --> 00:46:32.719
Understandable.
00:46:33.039 --> 00:46:35.920
They know quick when they're when they've been had.
00:46:36.159 --> 00:46:36.320
Okay.
00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:54.719
And they're but they're so smart and they're so aggressive that they would do anything, including taking uh uh taking a paddle tail or what whatever they've got in their mouth, they will head right straight down to the bottom and bounce their face off the bottom, off the surface, to try to bust it loose.
00:46:54.800 --> 00:46:56.320
And it and it works.
00:46:56.559 --> 00:46:57.199
Huh.
00:46:57.679 --> 00:47:09.199
I've caught one before where it it's I I've got it, it was about 35 inches, but my my personal best is 33, and this was 35, so I'm like shaking a little bit.
00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:16.880
And I'm trying to my left side is the weak side from my my botched spinal surgeries, and I'm trying to get this net.
00:47:16.960 --> 00:47:19.119
Well, I tapped him in his tail.
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:21.119
Well he sent him crazy.
00:47:21.280 --> 00:47:24.000
Oh, he hit the clutch and got it, grabbed another gear.
00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:26.239
He went into the pad field.
00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:33.679
I shook so bad when this happened from adrenaline that he went into say this is the pad stems.
00:47:33.760 --> 00:47:46.480
He went in, went around, he came out and stopped and looked at me, spun his body around and put his body in reverse and pulled I was that's what I was using, was a MEPS.
00:47:46.639 --> 00:47:50.800
He pulled that hook really out of his inside of his mouth.
00:47:51.039 --> 00:47:59.280
And when I went in the jungle to try to get all my stuff back, there was a piece of his jaw attached to the So they just don't they got a will to live.
00:47:59.440 --> 00:48:00.320
Oh, it's it's incredible.
00:48:00.400 --> 00:48:00.800
Yeah, it is.
00:48:00.960 --> 00:48:04.400
Well, you're talking about the about the lures you got here, because look, we've established it, right?
00:48:04.480 --> 00:48:05.519
They're here, they're here to stay.
00:48:05.599 --> 00:48:06.880
We're not doing anything about it.
00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:11.039
It's now an industry inside of of our area and other places in the country.
00:48:11.199 --> 00:48:13.519
Um I mean I had never seen this before.
00:48:13.599 --> 00:48:15.199
It is literally says sneck frog.
00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:16.639
Snake Snake Frog.
00:48:16.880 --> 00:48:19.119
Something tells me that is not geared towards striped bass.
00:48:19.599 --> 00:48:20.079
Yeah, right.
00:48:20.400 --> 00:48:26.639
So, yeah, so all this stuff, I mean, there's you know, sitting in here in the store, there's two full shelves of snake head stuff.
00:48:26.800 --> 00:48:29.199
First off, why why are we gonna mess with the name?
00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:33.039
I heard there's people like, well, we're gonna call it something else and we're gonna church it up a little bit.
00:48:33.360 --> 00:48:34.400
Why do we need to mess with the name?
00:48:34.639 --> 00:48:37.920
It's brand new and everybody's everybody's trying to be in charge.
00:48:38.239 --> 00:48:39.519
What are they trying to call it?
00:48:39.760 --> 00:48:42.880
Oh, ch now the state's calling it uh Chesspeak China.
00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:44.400
Chet's peak China.
00:48:44.559 --> 00:48:47.920
China is like the was it Latin term or scientific term?
00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:50.400
I don't know, but it ain't it ain't Frederick County term.
00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:50.880
I don't know that.
00:48:50.960 --> 00:48:52.480
So they're called snakeheads.
00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:53.599
There is something to that.
00:48:54.159 --> 00:48:54.639
It's branding.
00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:59.360
Hey man, go you know, go eat them and you see Chilean sea bass on a menu.
00:48:59.679 --> 00:48:59.760
No.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:02.639
It's not a chiley and sea bass, it's actually a Patagonian toothfish.
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:03.440
Toothfish, yeah.
00:49:03.599 --> 00:49:05.360
But nobody wants to order a Patagonian toothfish.
00:49:05.599 --> 00:49:05.920
Well, I do.
00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:07.440
I like a good Patagonian toothfish.
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:07.760
Right.
00:49:08.400 --> 00:49:10.639
Well, black cod is actually snake mackerel.
00:49:10.719 --> 00:49:14.000
You can't sell snake mackerel, but black cod, you'll buy black cod.
00:49:14.639 --> 00:49:22.719
So true story, because people still to this day, because of listening to the wrong people, yeah, think that it's a snake.
00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:24.000
And it's not, it's a fish.
00:49:24.239 --> 00:49:25.840
It's clean weight, flaky fish.
00:49:26.239 --> 00:49:27.199
Yeah, we're actually good.
00:49:27.440 --> 00:49:28.239
Real snake.
00:49:28.480 --> 00:49:28.800
No.
00:49:29.039 --> 00:49:30.400
I have ain't bad.
00:49:31.039 --> 00:49:32.000
It's gonna throw it out there.
00:49:32.159 --> 00:49:32.800
It's not bad.
00:49:33.039 --> 00:49:33.440
I would.
00:49:33.679 --> 00:49:35.039
Can't say where, Texas.
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:36.000
But they do it.
00:49:36.079 --> 00:49:43.039
I mean, it's I would if it was prepared correctly, but like in a barn somewhere with six beers, and hey, sounds about right.
00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:46.079
Yeah, I'm not a big snake guy personally, but I eat one.
00:49:46.239 --> 00:49:47.760
So all right, so go go over a little bit.
00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:49.280
So we got some time here.
00:49:49.519 --> 00:49:50.639
The addiction is there.
00:49:50.719 --> 00:49:53.119
We know that we've we've established all this stuff.
00:49:53.440 --> 00:49:55.199
Go through kind of your arsenal here.
00:49:55.440 --> 00:49:58.400
And if you're watching on video, we'll kind of go through a little bit.
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:05.280
But obviously, you design things, you get into them, so roll on with your snakehead adventures now.
00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:06.480
I'm gonna start with this one.
00:50:06.639 --> 00:50:15.280
This one's near and dear to my heart because the Maryland flag bowstrings, which was actually started by a guy out your way, Randy Hinkleman.
00:50:15.440 --> 00:50:15.840
You remember him?
00:50:16.079 --> 00:50:16.559
I do.
00:50:16.880 --> 00:50:18.800
And I always give Randy that credit.
00:50:18.960 --> 00:50:19.119
Yeah.
00:50:19.280 --> 00:50:22.079
And I I actually asked him, I said, hey, I'm starting to build bowstrings.
00:50:22.239 --> 00:50:23.119
Do you mind if I do this?
00:50:23.280 --> 00:50:23.440
Really?
00:50:23.679 --> 00:50:24.960
The you know, the Maryland flag thing.
00:50:25.199 --> 00:50:27.039
So I've known Randy for years.
00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:29.119
He's one of the top pros when he was shooting.
00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:38.800
But anyway, so the Maryland flag thing, uh, when Daryl Willie, who's got addiction baits and they're sold here at the store, he's in Northern Carolina County.
00:50:38.880 --> 00:50:40.320
He's a full-time bait builder.
00:50:40.480 --> 00:50:40.880
Really?
00:50:41.039 --> 00:50:41.599
Full-time.
00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:42.960
I mean, that's his full-time job.
00:50:43.119 --> 00:50:43.280
Okay.
00:50:43.920 --> 00:50:46.800
So this is a bladed jig, which he did not come up with.
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:50.639
Bladed jigs have been out for 20 something years now.
00:50:50.800 --> 00:50:58.559
But when we found out that they work really good with snake heads, I told Darrell, I said, man, why don't why don't we make one that's Maryland flag?
00:50:59.039 --> 00:51:01.519
The skirt itself gives it more of a just the skirt.
00:51:01.760 --> 00:51:08.000
It's got the the white, white, red, black, yellow, because I we did I did the bowstrings and everybody loves Maryland flag.
00:51:08.239 --> 00:51:12.960
So when he got the skirts, he sent me a picture.
00:51:13.199 --> 00:51:16.159
I drove right straight to his shop and picked up a few.
00:51:16.400 --> 00:51:21.519
Now he he gave some to all the guys that that help him out and test stuff and all.
00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:23.440
But then I got a little jealous.
00:51:23.519 --> 00:51:26.719
I was like, I want to catch the first snakehead on it.
00:51:27.119 --> 00:51:33.039
So I rode my happy rear end down to Dorchester County, and I didn't even take time to pack up my kayak.
00:51:33.119 --> 00:51:35.920
I went to a bank spot that I know.
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:42.320
And and Daryl was out in, I think he was out in his John boat that day, and a couple other guys were with him.
00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:42.719
Nice.
00:51:42.880 --> 00:51:45.360
I'm like, I gotta get the first one, I gotta get the first one.
00:51:45.519 --> 00:51:46.960
And I'm normally not like that.
00:51:47.039 --> 00:51:50.880
I'm a team player, but I so I thought he's normally not.
00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:52.480
We talked about his competitive background.
00:51:52.880 --> 00:51:53.199
Correct.
00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:57.840
I I I beg to think that you were trying to get a cake on this guy.
00:51:58.159 --> 00:51:59.119
Well, I got lucky.
00:51:59.519 --> 00:52:03.280
At the fifth cast, I caught like a little cookie cutter, 22, 23 inches.
00:52:03.440 --> 00:52:03.840
Nice.
00:52:04.079 --> 00:52:07.039
And of course, I'm like, I couldn't take a picture quick enough, you know.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:11.199
And I'm sending it Daryl and Daryl's like, oh, you're too late, we've already caught three on it, you know.
00:52:11.840 --> 00:52:14.159
I said, no, I'm gonna check the date stamp on it.
00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:14.880
You know, nice.
00:52:15.039 --> 00:52:17.920
But anyway, this it's still an effective bait.
00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:19.920
It's not just you know the Maryland flag thing.
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:27.280
It's effective because in that black water down there, as that skirt is going through water, it hides the black.
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:27.840
Okay.
00:52:28.079 --> 00:52:30.079
So it makes it look like a bunch of different colors to it.
00:52:30.320 --> 00:52:33.840
Yeah, it's just nothing like a it's just nothing but like a balloon of color.
00:52:33.920 --> 00:52:38.159
You'll see the the yellow, you'll see the white, you'll see the red, and then the black will disappear.
00:52:38.320 --> 00:52:46.320
And then like on this one, like the white will appear again and the red, and it just I think it messes the fish up and they're like, Yeah.
00:52:46.480 --> 00:52:47.119
What are you targeting?
00:52:48.159 --> 00:52:49.280
What's your area that you're targeting?
00:52:49.360 --> 00:52:50.960
On like, I mean, are we just pulling over?
00:52:51.039 --> 00:52:57.760
Look, I I've always joked about it because I'm just waiting to see the first like squatted truck roll through Dorchester counties like trolling in the ditches out the back.
00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:00.639
Because I know at some point somebody will do it if they haven't already.
00:53:00.960 --> 00:53:02.239
Like, what are you really focusing on?
00:53:02.320 --> 00:53:04.320
Say, hey, we're gonna go out and throw this today.
00:53:04.559 --> 00:53:07.920
What is your ideal habitat that's like, hey man, this is where we need to go?
00:53:08.079 --> 00:53:10.559
Well, I'm gonna stand on the side of the road because that's all I know, right?
00:53:10.639 --> 00:53:22.159
Yeah, but down to Dorchester County, and that the you know, the the series of lakes or lakes, uh, they're like a big lake because it's tidal, but it doesn't flow very good, so we call it the shallow lake.
00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:33.679
Um, you've got um fragmitus, grass shorelines, you've got uh lily pads, yep, and then you got the ditches and little canals.
00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:42.159
So if you're in, say little black water, that which is mostly except for the far end of it, which is lily pads, the rest of it's all phragmitis.
00:53:42.320 --> 00:53:42.559
Okay.
00:53:43.119 --> 00:53:48.320
So you would throw a bladed jig with a little paddle tail?
00:53:48.480 --> 00:53:52.000
Paddle tail or straight tail, whichever there's several different ones.
00:53:52.079 --> 00:53:53.519
I normally use the crushed city.
00:53:53.599 --> 00:53:58.400
Okay, either the mayor or um can't remember the name of the other one I got.
00:53:58.639 --> 00:54:02.960
But anyway, the crushed city, the crushed city rapple has got scent in it.
00:54:03.280 --> 00:54:07.440
So when they grab it, they taste it, and just like the Berkeley thing, you know.
00:54:07.679 --> 00:54:08.400
Golfs and all that stuff.
00:54:08.559 --> 00:54:08.880
Yeah, yeah.
00:54:09.119 --> 00:54:10.639
Fly it and hold on longer.
00:54:11.039 --> 00:54:21.360
But anyway, you throw this up to the edge of the grass lines, let it fall, pick it up, and and it'll the blade will thump.
00:54:21.519 --> 00:54:23.840
That's why he's through the frag mite and everything else.
00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:24.079
Okay.
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:29.280
Now this one he calls the weedless venom, but the regular ones uh are called the thumper.
00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:29.519
Okay.
00:54:29.679 --> 00:54:31.119
The addiction bait stumper.
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:37.280
So it'll it'll thump, and even if they're hungry, they'll grab anything.
00:54:37.519 --> 00:54:37.920
Right.
00:54:38.159 --> 00:54:40.800
But if they're not hungry, this pisses them off.
00:54:41.440 --> 00:54:43.280
So they're aggressive, it's an aggressive bite.
00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:43.599
Yeah.
00:54:43.840 --> 00:54:44.079
Gotcha.
00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:51.840
And so sneakheads are very um they're very territorial and they don't want to be bothered by any other fish.
00:54:52.079 --> 00:54:54.880
They want to be back in the corner, left alone.
00:54:54.960 --> 00:54:56.000
They don't want the carp near them.
00:54:56.079 --> 00:54:59.840
They don't now the bass and them get along, but they don't like the carp.
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:05.360
When they're resting and back underneath the undercut banks, they don't want anything around them.
00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:12.400
So if that comes by within six feet, they'll come out, and you can see them sharking, they'll come out and just nail it, really.
00:55:13.199 --> 00:55:33.039
But um the beauty of it is uh when I don't know if you guys know this or not, a lot of the anglers know it, but when a snakehead bites this or this or any any other bite, when they bite it, okay, they might grab it like a picker would and then swim off with it.
00:55:33.440 --> 00:55:33.760
Gotcha.
00:55:34.079 --> 00:55:36.719
And then they've got to get another bite to get the rest of it.
00:55:36.800 --> 00:55:42.079
And when they do, they will flare their gills and expel water.
00:55:42.880 --> 00:55:45.360
Their mouth will be on the bait, okay.
00:55:45.679 --> 00:55:50.480
They'll ex ex uh they'll flare flare their gills and expand air.
00:55:50.559 --> 00:55:53.119
I'm sorry, because they've got that long air bladder.
00:55:54.079 --> 00:55:59.760
So when the bubbles come up, it looks like you've reached in your sink and pulled the drain, and the bubbles come up.
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:01.519
But they're real, real fine bubbles.
00:56:01.760 --> 00:56:04.800
They're not like the turtle bubbles that you see or the crawfish.
00:56:04.880 --> 00:56:14.960
When the crawfish comes out of the mud, these bubbles are so small that it's it's easily distinguishable to see that it's a snakehead.
00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:19.599
So once you feel that smack, you lean forward and you wait for the bubbles.
00:56:19.840 --> 00:56:23.840
And as soon as you see the bubbles, you know that he's gone ahead and gotten well.
00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:27.280
I'd be slinging it back over my head in the first little tap.
00:56:27.360 --> 00:56:29.199
Well, I am setting her like Van Dam.
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:30.320
Everybody duck.
00:56:30.559 --> 00:56:30.719
Okay.
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:31.760
Yep, yep.
00:56:32.239 --> 00:56:32.559
Okay.
00:56:32.960 --> 00:56:42.079
So uh so that's how a subsurface bait that you're running across the subsurface, rather, it's the thumper or in this case the weedless venom.
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:42.639
Yep.
00:56:42.880 --> 00:56:48.480
This is one that I got to test out uh the day he made this, I was having a bad day.
00:56:48.719 --> 00:56:50.719
I was like, I'm gonna go hang out with Daryl today.
00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:52.960
I was things were going on, I was just having a bad day.
00:56:53.199 --> 00:56:55.039
I walked in the door and he handed me this.
00:56:55.199 --> 00:56:56.559
He said, Hey, try these out.
00:56:56.639 --> 00:57:02.559
I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna try to So it's like a weedless paddle tail with a inline spinner on the front.
00:57:02.719 --> 00:57:03.599
Inline spinner on the front.
00:57:03.760 --> 00:57:03.840
Okay.
00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:04.239
Yep.
00:57:04.320 --> 00:57:05.840
I can't remember what the weight is either.
00:57:05.920 --> 00:57:08.800
I should know this, but uh he didn't have it on those.
00:57:09.039 --> 00:57:14.800
But anyway, so I took it, I went to a pond down at Feetelsburg that's had snakeheads in it at the time.
00:57:15.119 --> 00:57:20.639
It got breached by the Martiope River during a storm, brought half dozen snakeheads in there.
00:57:21.039 --> 00:57:26.320
I went down there and made about three casts, and I caught the biggest snakehead that I'd ever caught at that time.
00:57:26.480 --> 00:57:30.239
Really, which was over it was the first time I got one over 30 inches.
00:57:30.800 --> 00:57:34.639
So I started using these in addition to the thumbers.
00:57:34.800 --> 00:57:35.119
Okay.
00:57:35.360 --> 00:57:42.159
And and they they make, I mean, you could put any color paddle tail or frog or rivet frog or anything.
00:57:42.639 --> 00:57:44.960
But he makes them in silver and the gold blade.
00:57:45.199 --> 00:57:45.440
Gotcha.
00:57:45.519 --> 00:57:47.039
And that's like a stamped gold blade.
00:57:47.199 --> 00:57:47.440
Yes.
00:57:47.599 --> 00:57:47.920
Okay.
00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:48.320
Yeah.
00:57:48.880 --> 00:57:49.519
On one side.
00:57:49.760 --> 00:57:50.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:57:50.800 --> 00:57:53.760
So um so that that's a good subsurface.
00:57:53.840 --> 00:57:55.199
This is a good subsurface.
00:57:55.440 --> 00:57:59.519
Um one so the sneakheads are like any other fish.
00:57:59.760 --> 00:58:02.079
When they're hungry, they're gonna eat.
00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:12.800
But you could lay, I've I've seen one where you could lay a minnow right on his nose and he just shakes it off and scoots away because he's not interested in eating.
00:58:12.880 --> 00:58:13.599
That's a live minnow.
00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:14.239
Really?
00:58:15.039 --> 00:58:24.159
So the way when they're feeding on the moon cycles, you know, low tide moon, high tide moon, and all that, every six hours they'll feed.
00:58:25.039 --> 00:58:32.239
But if you're in a tournament and it's between those times and you're trying to coax them into the biting, yeah.
00:58:32.559 --> 00:58:35.440
I won the the Virginia Snakehead Invitational.
00:58:35.760 --> 00:58:36.480
Of course you did.
00:58:36.719 --> 00:58:37.840
With with this baby.
00:58:38.159 --> 00:58:38.880
Remember, he's not competitive.
00:58:39.119 --> 00:58:40.320
Yeah, not at all, yeah, yeah.
00:58:40.559 --> 00:58:43.119
There was only two of us from Maryland that got invited.
00:58:43.599 --> 00:58:47.280
But I end up winning the thing because I'm I'm sitting there in my kayak one.
00:58:48.639 --> 00:58:50.000
You mainly fish him out of a kayak?
00:58:50.239 --> 00:58:50.880
That's another question.
00:58:51.360 --> 00:58:52.719
Uh most of the time, yes.
00:58:53.039 --> 00:58:57.280
But uh with my health and my back, I've got 10 balloon discs.
00:58:57.440 --> 00:58:57.599
Okay.
00:58:57.840 --> 00:58:58.639
And surgeries and all.
00:58:58.880 --> 00:59:00.960
Yeah, kayaks not fun to be gotcha.
00:59:01.119 --> 00:59:02.639
Not exactly conducive to good paddling.
00:59:02.880 --> 00:59:02.960
Yeah.
00:59:03.119 --> 00:59:05.679
I've got a bass boat now, but the bass boat can't reach some place.
00:59:06.159 --> 00:59:09.360
And I was gonna ask you, were you kayak fishing mainly because of access?
00:59:09.599 --> 00:59:09.840
Yeah.
00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:10.239
Okay, yeah.
00:59:10.480 --> 00:59:10.719
Gotcha.
00:59:10.960 --> 00:59:14.559
I didn't know if it was like, I really don't like boats, and you gotta I didn't know.
00:59:14.639 --> 00:59:16.559
Maybe I because I thought you probably had figured that out.
00:59:16.639 --> 00:59:19.280
So, but just out of necessity, you got it.
00:59:19.440 --> 00:59:23.519
And I've got three kayaks that are suited just for me and my back injuries.
00:59:23.599 --> 00:59:25.039
They're light, lightweight and stuff.
00:59:25.599 --> 00:59:25.920
Nice.
00:59:26.159 --> 00:59:33.840
But anyway, if you take a paddle tail and any kind of paddle tail, and and Daryl with addiction baits, he sells these things as well.
00:59:34.159 --> 00:59:35.760
They probably get them here at the store.
00:59:35.920 --> 00:59:38.639
Um, I think he calls them tail spinners.
00:59:38.800 --> 00:59:45.599
You can cut that paddle off and screw a tail spinner in, and it's a small version of that, but on the back end of this.
00:59:46.239 --> 00:59:51.119
So when it the snakeheads are dormant, they're laying in the mud, they got them little beady eyes and they're looking up.
00:59:51.199 --> 00:59:51.599
Yep.
00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:56.800
You can throw one of these guys in and just dredge I call it dredging.
00:59:56.960 --> 00:59:58.800
You can dredge it across the bottom.
00:59:58.960 --> 00:59:59.360
Really?
00:59:59.599 --> 01:00:06.960
And it will wait, it'll it's like you're sitting on your couch watching a football game and the dog's running back and forth.
01:00:07.119 --> 01:00:09.760
You're gonna grab him eventually as they get out of my way.
01:00:10.320 --> 01:00:12.480
That's what won me that tournament that day.
01:00:12.639 --> 01:00:13.119
No way.
01:00:13.280 --> 01:00:15.840
And ever since then, that's my backup plan.
01:00:15.920 --> 01:00:21.920
When this doesn't work, yeah, subsurface, then I've dragged dragged him on the bottom.
01:00:22.079 --> 01:00:23.360
Now I'm doing it with jigs.
01:00:23.519 --> 01:00:23.760
Okay.
01:00:24.000 --> 01:00:27.760
Actually, like bucktail jigs or like a like a fast jig.
01:00:28.159 --> 01:00:28.400
Gotcha.
01:00:28.559 --> 01:00:29.280
With without the blade.
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:30.559
Without a blade.
01:00:30.719 --> 01:00:30.880
Okay.
01:00:31.119 --> 01:00:34.719
And then you can't talk about snakeheads without talking about topwater frog.
01:00:34.960 --> 01:00:35.440
Snake frog.
01:00:35.599 --> 01:00:36.159
The snake frog.
01:00:36.239 --> 01:00:36.960
The old snake frog.
01:00:37.039 --> 01:00:37.760
Snake frog.
01:00:38.559 --> 01:00:39.760
Same name in high school, I think.
01:00:42.239 --> 01:00:46.320
This this is from American Snakehead Customs, which you have here in the store.
01:00:47.920 --> 01:00:50.400
We have a we have a we have this is what I'm getting to.
01:00:50.559 --> 01:00:53.039
This is such an industry now that there are companies built around.
01:00:53.360 --> 01:00:54.639
American Snakehead Customs.
01:00:54.880 --> 01:00:58.400
American Snakehead Customs available five short years ago.
01:00:58.639 --> 01:01:00.639
Invasive species, hide a kid, hide his wife.
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:03.360
Yeah, and now we got American Snakehead Customs.
01:01:03.519 --> 01:01:03.760
All right.
01:01:03.840 --> 01:01:04.400
That's crazy.
01:01:04.559 --> 01:01:05.519
This is a good frog.
01:01:05.599 --> 01:01:17.599
Uh, there's a bunch of bunch of guys local that will hire out frog companies from overseas, and then they bring them in, their tariffs and all that stuff, and then they repackage them, put their names on them.
01:01:17.840 --> 01:01:19.440
And they're they're good frogs too.
01:01:19.920 --> 01:01:23.679
And that's a whole topic is what frogs work the best.
01:01:23.920 --> 01:01:27.920
But the big thing with frogs is it's a bass like a big frog like this.
01:01:28.159 --> 01:01:31.119
That looks a little bit more narrow to me than normal, like largemouth.
01:01:31.280 --> 01:01:31.519
Yep.
01:01:31.679 --> 01:01:31.920
Okay.
01:01:32.079 --> 01:01:41.280
And the reason is snakeheads, even a 30-inch snakehead, which is dragon status, his mouth is gonna, or her mouth, whatever, is gonna be about that big around.
01:01:41.519 --> 01:01:43.119
Four or five inches, not much.
01:01:43.280 --> 01:01:43.519
Yeah.
01:01:43.679 --> 01:01:44.000
Okay.
01:01:44.239 --> 01:01:52.480
And a normal size snakehead, it's you know, I mean, okay it's like so if you you can catch them all day long on bass frogs.
01:01:52.800 --> 01:01:53.039
Gotcha.
01:01:53.199 --> 01:01:54.320
Any color you can catch them.
01:01:54.480 --> 01:01:55.440
We're dialing in now.
01:01:55.599 --> 01:02:10.000
But you're dialing in, you want something narrow because the small snakes, snakeheads, when they grab it off the top, and it's as it's the best sound in the world when you're yeah.
01:02:10.400 --> 01:02:10.639
Nice.
01:02:10.719 --> 01:02:13.920
I love I do as a as a as a pond fisherman, right?
01:02:14.239 --> 01:02:15.119
Growing up as a kid.
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:19.920
Yeah that that out of a lily pad is probably the coolest thing in the world.
01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:20.320
Yeah.
01:02:20.480 --> 01:02:26.079
And they also uh sometimes, depending on how they take it, it sounds like you drop a brick in the water.
01:02:26.239 --> 01:02:26.639
Really?
01:02:26.880 --> 01:02:29.360
And then sometimes it'll sound like a balloon popping.
01:02:30.159 --> 01:02:31.840
Like, like literally a pop.
01:02:32.320 --> 01:02:35.679
And when you hear it, it you know that it's game one at that time.
01:02:35.840 --> 01:02:39.599
But what'll happen is the little ones will grab it right about here.
01:02:39.920 --> 01:02:40.239
Okay.
01:02:40.880 --> 01:02:43.039
Because they're little, you know, most of the frogs are little.
01:02:43.280 --> 01:02:44.320
They're missing the hooks pretty much.
01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:45.119
They're missing the hooks.
01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:45.679
Gotcha.
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:46.960
So you have to wait.
01:02:47.119 --> 01:02:50.960
Once you see it or you hear it, you got to do a countdown.
01:02:52.079 --> 01:02:53.360
I don't have that patience, man.
01:02:53.440 --> 01:02:55.360
I'm I want to go.
01:02:55.440 --> 01:02:55.599
Yeah.
01:02:55.760 --> 01:02:56.159
It's crazy.
01:02:56.400 --> 01:02:56.559
Nice.
01:02:56.719 --> 01:02:58.960
And is that another thing we're waiting on bubbles at that point?
01:02:59.199 --> 01:02:59.440
Yeah.
01:02:59.519 --> 01:03:01.119
Well, okay, yes and no.
01:03:01.199 --> 01:03:04.320
Sometimes you can't see them because they might be back behind the the lily pads.
01:03:04.480 --> 01:03:04.719
Gotcha.
01:03:05.039 --> 01:03:05.760
Yes, gotcha.
01:03:06.000 --> 01:03:09.519
But if you can see them, you wait for the bubbles and then you cross his eyes.
01:03:09.760 --> 01:03:15.280
But if you don't see anything, you just hear the pop, you reel in a little bit, and you see if he's on there.
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:18.719
And then I've waited up to 10 seconds before.
01:03:18.960 --> 01:03:19.360
Really?
01:03:19.599 --> 01:03:23.920
Because the little guys, they'll grab it and just kind of do whatever.
01:03:24.639 --> 01:03:26.320
And if you pop it, then you've missed him.
01:03:26.400 --> 01:03:28.559
And but you don't know if it's a big one or a little one.
01:03:28.719 --> 01:03:33.199
But meanwhile, if you wait ten seconds on a big one, he's got it down in his crushers.
01:03:33.519 --> 01:03:33.920
Gotcha.
01:03:34.159 --> 01:03:42.000
And that's where the crap hits the fan because when you set the hook on him, his teeth are right there where your line is.
01:03:42.239 --> 01:03:42.480
Okay.
01:03:42.559 --> 01:03:44.159
So then you got it in the room.
01:03:44.559 --> 01:03:45.920
Question You just said that.
01:03:46.159 --> 01:03:48.559
Are you using like steel eaters or anything?
01:03:48.639 --> 01:03:49.840
I mean, do you it because of their teeth?
01:03:50.800 --> 01:03:52.400
Um they sell it here.
01:03:52.480 --> 01:03:56.639
It's uh PowerPro 30 30 pound braid.
01:03:56.960 --> 01:03:57.679
Okay, oh, okay.
01:03:57.840 --> 01:03:59.280
And it's a spectra braid.
01:03:59.360 --> 01:04:05.280
And coming from the bowstring industry, spectra is like the bulletproof vest material.
01:04:05.760 --> 01:04:08.880
Where Dynema is is the other textile.
01:04:09.119 --> 01:04:09.519
Gotcha.
01:04:09.920 --> 01:04:17.599
The Dynema braid has very good uh abrasion resistance and it's very good for bass.
01:04:17.840 --> 01:04:18.239
Yep.
01:04:18.480 --> 01:04:22.239
But for snakeheads, I like the braid that's got the spectra in it, which is the PowerPro.
01:04:22.639 --> 01:04:22.880
Gotcha.
01:04:23.039 --> 01:04:23.280
Okay.
01:04:23.519 --> 01:04:24.960
I use 30 pound.
01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:27.920
So you're going braid to lure.
01:04:28.159 --> 01:04:30.960
No liter, no nothing, no fluoro, no mono, straight.
01:04:31.440 --> 01:04:31.599
Okay.
01:04:31.840 --> 01:04:32.400
Straight braid.
01:04:32.559 --> 01:04:39.679
Now, if if you do have snakeheads that are line shy, you can put like a 20-pound uh fluoro leader on it.
01:04:39.840 --> 01:04:40.320
Gotcha, okay.
01:04:40.480 --> 01:04:42.079
And they work, they work just as good.
01:04:42.159 --> 01:04:45.280
But I've gotten I've gotten into just putting a leader on everything.
01:04:45.440 --> 01:04:45.599
Right?
01:04:45.679 --> 01:04:51.920
And and just because I've I've I've fished with enough guys, they're like, ah man, you know, I've this they don't like this, they don't like that.
01:04:52.079 --> 01:04:56.000
I spent also a lot of time catching them straight off parade, but however, we're gonna put leader on it.
01:04:56.159 --> 01:04:56.719
Makes me sleep better.
01:04:57.199 --> 01:04:57.599
Yeah, 100%.
01:04:57.840 --> 01:04:59.440
It's cooler and you can show you can tie it together.
01:05:00.480 --> 01:05:02.800
But so I can tie seven grainy knots in a row.
01:05:02.960 --> 01:05:03.519
Yeah, it's good.
01:05:03.760 --> 01:05:04.639
No, no, no, no, no.
01:05:04.719 --> 01:05:05.760
No, bad, bad deal there.
01:05:05.920 --> 01:05:13.119
Um, but yeah, so specializing obviously in in snakeheads at this point, where do you where do you see this thing in five, ten years?
01:05:13.199 --> 01:05:17.440
I mean, the fishery, you know, the equipment obviously is being so targeted into it.
01:05:17.599 --> 01:05:20.719
What do you you know, you've seen it grow from day one, so what's it look like to you?
01:05:20.960 --> 01:05:35.280
I don't want to cry, cry woof, but if it goes with the management style that they're doing now, it's gonna be hard to hard to catch a snakehead with ride and reel in ten years.
01:05:35.440 --> 01:05:35.679
Okay.
01:05:35.920 --> 01:05:37.679
If they continue really what they're doing now.
01:05:37.840 --> 01:05:45.599
Yeah, it's the over harvest is just you know, because that that rubber stamp invasive leaves it open to everything.
01:05:45.760 --> 01:05:47.519
They don't have to spend a dollar on management.
01:05:47.760 --> 01:05:48.000
Correct.
01:05:48.159 --> 01:05:53.440
Well, they're make they're making money even though even though it's millions of dollars that's coming into the state.
01:05:54.320 --> 01:05:59.760
Not just people coming into Molly's buying the snake frog, but the local.
01:06:00.400 --> 01:06:02.800
Manufacturers, they're paying a federal excise tax.
01:06:03.039 --> 01:06:03.599
Correct.
01:06:03.840 --> 01:06:07.360
Now this is what this is what really gets me.
01:06:07.679 --> 01:06:13.840
Especially with like when I was paying a federal excise tax on my bowstrings, that money comes back to Maryland.
01:06:14.079 --> 01:06:14.480
Correct.
01:06:15.119 --> 01:06:15.760
For what?
01:06:16.079 --> 01:06:16.480
Yeah.
01:06:17.760 --> 01:06:18.639
What's this coming back?
01:06:18.800 --> 01:06:19.760
Just kill snakeheads.
01:06:20.239 --> 01:06:21.599
To over harvest snakeheads.
01:06:21.920 --> 01:06:22.719
Same thing with deer.
01:06:22.880 --> 01:06:30.239
When deer get over harvested in certain situations, why am I paying a federal excise tax?
01:06:30.559 --> 01:06:37.920
It was warm and fuzzy back in the 50s when it started, but now there needs to be some updating of yeah.
01:06:38.320 --> 01:06:39.199
I completely agree with you.
01:06:39.440 --> 01:06:40.559
And I'm all for conservation.
01:06:40.639 --> 01:06:44.960
I'm all for the federal excise tax if it's used right, but it's not being used right.
01:06:45.119 --> 01:06:47.280
And look, I I'll give you a brief.
01:06:47.840 --> 01:06:48.800
I'm sorry, I don't want to.
01:06:49.440 --> 01:06:50.159
Oh come on with it.
01:06:50.239 --> 01:06:50.880
I love it.
01:06:51.760 --> 01:06:54.719
Blackwater Refuge is at the visitor center.
01:06:54.960 --> 01:06:55.760
Great people down there.
01:06:56.719 --> 01:06:57.280
I like them.
01:06:57.360 --> 01:06:58.400
The place is set up nice.
01:06:58.480 --> 01:07:00.159
It's a great place to take kids.
01:07:00.719 --> 01:07:07.360
I had one of my snake heads mounted that I the mount just didn't it just didn't set well.
01:07:07.519 --> 01:07:09.760
It just didn't turn out like I wanted it to.
01:07:10.159 --> 01:07:12.159
Well, I had a warm and fuzzy moment.
01:07:12.960 --> 01:07:15.360
The lady who runs it, nice lady.
01:07:15.599 --> 01:07:18.559
I'd work on her bow before years ago.
01:07:19.360 --> 01:07:24.800
So I called her on the phone and I said, Do you want this snakehead for your visitor center?
01:07:25.920 --> 01:07:26.719
She said, Sure.
01:07:26.800 --> 01:07:27.679
Yeah, bring it down here.
01:07:27.760 --> 01:07:29.119
We'll make a display up and everything.
01:07:29.280 --> 01:07:30.079
I said, Alright, cool.
01:07:30.159 --> 01:07:34.000
So I threw my happy behind down there and gave it, gave it to him.
01:07:34.639 --> 01:07:39.920
And a couple weeks later, she sends me a text message, here's the display.
01:07:40.239 --> 01:07:42.800
It's got my 30-inch snakehead on the wall.
01:07:43.199 --> 01:07:46.000
It's got a cicadere stag, full body mount.
01:07:46.079 --> 01:07:49.760
It's got the mute swans or the tongue of whatever the swan in there.
01:07:50.719 --> 01:07:52.480
And and the the nutrius.
01:07:52.800 --> 01:08:00.800
And a great big sign invasive that says um the refugees most unwanted.
01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:02.320
Oh, nice.
01:08:02.559 --> 01:08:03.039
Wow.
01:08:03.280 --> 01:08:03.679
Nice.
01:08:03.920 --> 01:08:10.559
I s I I showed it to Angie, my wife, who's she's freaking awesome, cool.
01:08:10.719 --> 01:08:14.480
But oh, if she'll she's 4'11 and she'll tell you about it.
01:08:14.719 --> 01:08:18.079
She's like, Are you going back down there to get that off the wall?
01:08:18.319 --> 01:08:22.079
I was like, Andy, Angie, I I want to, but at this point I can't.
01:08:22.319 --> 01:08:22.720
Yeah.
01:08:23.039 --> 01:08:30.479
But I wanted kids, you know, that was in the back of my mind, I wanted kids to be able to see that, say, oh, okay, it's just a fish, it's not going to chew my fingers off.
01:08:30.640 --> 01:08:30.880
Yeah, right.
01:08:31.199 --> 01:08:32.319
When I put my hand in the water.
01:08:32.399 --> 01:08:32.640
Yeah.
01:08:32.800 --> 01:08:35.920
But now they're going to think refuge is most unwanted.
01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:44.640
Well, what happens to Blackwater Refuge where the federal excise tax money goes to when we don't have cicadere and we don't have snakeheads?
01:08:44.800 --> 01:08:45.359
What's going to happen?
01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:47.600
You're going to go down there and take pictures of mosquitoes?
01:08:47.840 --> 01:08:49.600
Hey, there's plenty of them.
01:08:50.479 --> 01:08:51.039
I'm with you.
01:08:51.199 --> 01:08:51.520
I'm sorry.
01:08:51.680 --> 01:08:52.880
No, no, I mean, I appreciate it.
01:08:52.960 --> 01:08:54.560
And it's it shows the passion, number one, right?
01:08:54.640 --> 01:08:59.039
It also shows that every single thing that we do in the outdoor, this is why we started this podcast, right?
01:08:59.279 --> 01:09:02.239
Because it we're all a part of this together in all the different ways.
01:09:02.319 --> 01:09:04.560
If we come together, we can obviously make something happen.
01:09:04.720 --> 01:09:10.079
But there's there's little pockets of problems all over the outdoors, and hopefully we can spread a little bit of knowledge.
01:09:10.159 --> 01:09:11.680
And I think you did a great job of that today.
01:09:11.840 --> 01:09:18.800
Because like I said, man, chasing, you know, eating your cats and everything else from where it came from to where it is a thriving industry around here.
01:09:18.880 --> 01:09:20.479
So I appreciate it a ton.
01:09:20.560 --> 01:09:22.000
So we and thank you for that.
01:09:22.239 --> 01:09:24.000
Thank thank you guys for having me.
01:09:24.479 --> 01:09:35.359
Whether you're gearing up for deer season, chasing waterfowl, hitting the range, or spending a day on the water, Molly's has you covered with the brands and expertise, Serious Outdoorsman Trust.
01:09:35.439 --> 01:09:42.800
Visit their flagship location in Kennedyville, or stop by their new Easton store for an unmatched outdoor shopping experience.
01:09:43.039 --> 01:09:44.159
Can't make it in?
01:09:44.319 --> 01:09:49.439
Shop anytime at Molly's dot com and have the gear you need delivered right to your door.
01:09:49.760 --> 01:09:52.239
Molly's fuel your adventure.
01:09:53.760 --> 01:09:54.239
Well, Mr.
01:09:54.319 --> 01:09:56.479
Shortle, I I truly do appreciate all this.
01:09:56.560 --> 01:09:59.600
I mean, it's been it's it's eye-opening for me, and I hope it is for everybody else.
01:09:59.760 --> 01:10:16.399
And uh one thing that we that we're gonna do here is we're gonna have a little session of a rapid fire question, and we call it Molly's grab and go, brought to you by Molly's Mart in Kennedyville, Maryland, the home of the only Mossy Oak bottom land gas pumps uh available for all of your pre- and post-hunt needs.
01:10:16.640 --> 01:10:17.520
And fishing trips.
01:10:17.680 --> 01:10:18.720
And fishing trips, yeah.
01:10:18.800 --> 01:10:19.039
There you go.
01:10:19.359 --> 01:10:21.199
So Matt, go ahead and fire away.
01:10:21.600 --> 01:10:21.920
You ready?
01:10:22.159 --> 01:10:22.399
All right.
01:10:22.560 --> 01:10:25.520
You have to stop me though, because if it's a fast and go, you know how I'd like to do that.
01:10:25.840 --> 01:10:27.039
I don't like it.
01:10:28.159 --> 01:10:28.640
All right.
01:10:28.960 --> 01:10:30.800
Fixed blade or expandable?
01:10:31.439 --> 01:10:32.399
Fixed blade.
01:10:32.640 --> 01:10:33.039
Really?
01:10:33.199 --> 01:10:34.000
Did not expect that.
01:10:34.159 --> 01:10:35.920
All right, typical or non-typical.
01:10:37.359 --> 01:10:38.720
Uh non-typical.
01:10:38.880 --> 01:10:39.199
All right.
01:10:39.359 --> 01:10:41.680
Early morning or late evening bite.
01:10:42.800 --> 01:10:43.680
Early morning.
01:10:43.920 --> 01:10:44.640
Alrighty.
01:10:45.279 --> 01:10:50.000
Braider mono, we covered that, so I'm gonna pull that one aside and say baycaster spinning rig.
01:10:51.119 --> 01:10:51.760
Yes.
01:10:53.520 --> 01:10:54.159
Nice.
01:10:54.880 --> 01:10:56.800
Borderbait or soft plastic?
01:10:57.359 --> 01:10:58.960
Uh soft plastic.
01:10:59.199 --> 01:10:59.600
All right.
01:10:59.840 --> 01:11:01.520
Pre-spawn or post-spawn.
01:11:02.000 --> 01:11:03.039
Definitely post-spawn.
01:11:03.279 --> 01:11:04.000
Definitely post-spawn.
01:11:04.560 --> 01:11:05.279
Big feelings about this.
01:11:05.439 --> 01:11:07.760
Yeah, that was a that was a pre answer.
01:11:08.000 --> 01:11:09.680
Pre-spawn is horrible.
01:11:09.920 --> 01:11:10.079
Okay.
01:11:10.159 --> 01:11:10.239
Okay.
01:11:10.479 --> 01:11:11.119
For snake it.
01:11:11.279 --> 01:11:12.239
That's why I go bass fishing.
01:11:12.319 --> 01:11:12.640
Gotcha.
01:11:12.720 --> 01:11:12.800
Okay.
01:11:15.279 --> 01:11:15.920
I did not expect that.
01:11:16.159 --> 01:11:16.640
I'm short.
01:11:16.720 --> 01:11:18.720
I've got that 277-8.
01:11:20.079 --> 01:11:21.359
I need the kinetic energy.
01:11:22.319 --> 01:11:22.960
All right, last one.
01:11:23.119 --> 01:11:24.800
White perch or yellow perch?
01:11:25.199 --> 01:11:26.640
Uh yellow perch.
01:11:26.960 --> 01:11:27.600
Really?
01:11:28.079 --> 01:11:28.720
That's okay.
01:11:29.119 --> 01:11:30.000
You're a white perch guy?
01:11:31.119 --> 01:11:31.920
I like the Nats, man.
01:11:32.079 --> 01:11:33.199
I love a good white perch.
01:11:33.439 --> 01:11:34.800
Yellow perch, I think, tastes better.
01:11:34.880 --> 01:11:35.119
Really?
01:11:35.279 --> 01:11:35.520
Yeah.
01:11:35.760 --> 01:11:38.720
You did have COVID during that, so well, that's that's true.
01:11:38.960 --> 01:11:39.439
That's true.
01:11:39.600 --> 01:11:39.920
Well, Mr.
01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:41.279
Bart, we appreciate it a ton.
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:42.800
Thank you so much for coming to join us.
01:11:42.960 --> 01:11:44.880
Um, I I do want to take you up on that.
01:11:45.039 --> 01:11:47.039
If we get a chance, yeah, we'd love to come down.
01:11:47.199 --> 01:11:50.319
You would uh you I I would that would be my first snakehead experience.
01:11:50.479 --> 01:11:54.319
I got a 17.5 foot boat, so it's uh I'll take up the front half.
01:11:54.399 --> 01:11:55.680
You boys got the back, and we're good.
01:11:55.840 --> 01:11:58.399
There's room for yeah, it's there's room for three of us.
01:11:58.479 --> 01:11:59.520
So that's awesome, man.
01:11:59.680 --> 01:12:00.720
And uh thanks everybody.
01:12:00.960 --> 01:12:01.439
Thanks for having me.
01:12:01.520 --> 01:12:02.000
It's been fun.
01:12:02.159 --> 01:12:03.039
No, I appreciate you.
01:12:03.119 --> 01:12:03.600
Thank you so much.
01:12:03.680 --> 01:12:13.680
And uh I love getting the positive word on snakeheads because regardless of what you see, read, or hear, they are not terrible.
01:12:13.840 --> 01:12:15.680
They are just another fish.
01:12:16.159 --> 01:12:19.199
I have never opened one up that had a crab in its belly.
01:12:20.079 --> 01:12:23.279
I've had one perch of all the ones that I've harvested.
01:12:23.439 --> 01:12:26.800
I've had one perch, some minnows, some crawfish.
01:12:26.880 --> 01:12:27.039
Yeah.
01:12:27.279 --> 01:12:30.479
Just they're just another fish that breeds twice.
01:12:30.640 --> 01:12:31.119
That's it.
01:12:31.359 --> 01:12:31.680
Okay.
01:12:31.840 --> 01:12:32.159
Period.
01:12:32.399 --> 01:12:33.039
I love it, man.
01:12:33.600 --> 01:12:35.600
We're gonna leave it on that too, because that's a good way to leave it.
01:12:35.680 --> 01:12:36.000
So, Ms.
01:12:36.159 --> 01:12:37.600
Shortle, appreciate you a ton.
01:12:37.760 --> 01:12:41.840
Hope everybody uh enjoyed this because I sure did, and uh look forward to hearing from you next week.
01:12:42.079 --> 01:12:43.039
Matt, that's it.
01:12:43.199 --> 01:12:43.760
See you, buddy.
01:12:43.920 --> 01:12:44.479
Appreciate it.