Should We Be Eating Largemouth Bass? w/@OliverNgy | Outdoor Journal Radio ep. 158

Name: Should We Be Eating Largemouth Bass? w/@OliverNgy | Outdoor Journal Radio ep. 158
Uploaded: 2025-03-20T18:09:20+00:00
Duration: 1 h 26 min 19 s

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[Applause] this episode of Outdoor Journal radio is brought to you in part by the invasive
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species Center protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species Freedom
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Cruise Canada rent the boat own the memories jmbb cyc a marine your home for
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all things Power Sports boats and equipment and sail the ultimate
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destination for your Outdoor Adventures well hello everybody thank you for joining us once again Angelo
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Viola he is Peter Bowman the crew is the crew uh baa Nick and
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Dean wonderful episode before we get into today's stuff by the way we're going to be joined a little later on by
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a fascinating gentleman you do not want to miss this his name is Oliver NY Oliver Nye the fishing guy Oliver Nye
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the fishing guy that should be his moniker yeah he should I do founder of big bass dreams oh man is this guy got
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some stories we've uh been uh uh looking into uh before we do that you might be
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wondering to yourselves why is he wearing that protect onario we got lots
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of fish to protect yeah Wildlife fish trees also people yeah we're in throws
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of a provincial election in this part of the world and I thought I would uh uh
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throw my support out there for everybody not necessarily to vote for this
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although that would be the wise thing but hey that's getting into politics but
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uh the importance of voting period the importance of voting period because if
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we don't vote you know there should be a card after you vote there should be a
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card that everybody carries in their wallet do say and I'll tell you what that card should be it should you should
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be able to pull it out and say I voted and only people that have that card for
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the next four years or whatever that term is for the uh election that they voted for only those people should be
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allowed to dialogue about the government
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government good or bad only those people so otherwise they're Hypocrites right
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well it's I got a story later on I'm not going to take up before we close up I'm going to tell you about my encounter
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with one of those people and that's why I'm making this comment uh but only if
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you are a card carrying member of the voting Community should you be allowed
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to even discuss government issues I agree with that I AG you don't vote that's fine you
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don't want to vote that's cool it's not cool but it's your just take what you
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get there you go that's all all righty then having said that I
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did mention uh Oliver NY joining us here in a few moments founder of big bass
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dreams he's a brand influencer I guess about big bass fishing and angling
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lifestyle in general he's changed it a lot I I will say he has done a great job of changing the mentality and this and
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the style of what the style of fishing that he does going after big bass so interesting and yes we are interested in
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talking to him about uh his career in pursuit of trophy large mouth bass
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coming from the state of California I know I always think of it as sort of
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large moou bass country as far as trophy fish go yeah for sure uh but just his uh
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techniques and styles and whatnot in fishing in general I think it's going to be interesting to talk to him but that's
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not why we invited him here today uh he dropped the bomb on us recently uh
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announcing that uh he's contemplating uh telling all of us that we should maybe be consuming oh
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my large bass I knew that thank you so that's
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what we want to talk to him about um yeah interesting concept especially from a guy that is a Trophy Hunter that is
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strictly Catch and Release etc etc and now he's starting to change his ideas I think so it'll be interesting fishing
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canada.com or better yet shop. fishing canada.com is the place you need to be if you're looking for uh goodies that
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right there if you're looking for that right there not that you want that that for sale ah a couple of bucks probably
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get that your in your boat for the day uh the lovely swag uh that we have
4:38
there um go check it out always new stuff uh stuff going on sale new stuff coming in uh never hurts to go check it
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out that's the old walleye hoodie right that's the original original OG yeah the OG that's the OG come on now uh listener
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feedback Mr Bowman this week a wonderful uh yes listener feedback uh kind of
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from John hor via YouTube and this is I'll let you read it an but in response
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to Ang's comments on episode 56 that wearing life jackets should be mandated
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boom uh so John uh goes on to say if I
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have to legally wear a life jacket in my 23 M hour boat uh you meaning obviously
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he's pointing at me and very well done uh you should wear a full face helmet on your Harley uh so you won't have to uh
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we don't have pay so that we won't have to pay repairs uh uh to your pretty face very well put got a smiley face emoji
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after Al although although although now in in my defense to that comment I would
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like to say that I I don't think it's a good comparison the reason being is that
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in this jurisdiction most of Canada for that matter you have to wear a helmet right
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they don't mandate the type of helmet that you wear but you must wear a helmet obviously for reasons that are obvious or should
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be obvious and I equate the helmet to wearing a life jacket I don't think they
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can mandate or should mandate the type of life jacket that you wear for example
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you know we wear the little uh beautiful light ultr light little uh suspender
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type uh life jackets that uh self-inflate I don't think they should
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mandate that that's what everybody wears I think they should just when I say that
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it should be mandated I mean you have to have some form of flotation on your body
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not tucked away in the bowels of your boat that's all I'm saying and that to
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me is the same as saying You must wear a do or what other other uh approval marks
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on helmet uh in order to be on Highway with a motorcycle but you make a good point uh
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Point well taken appreciate the commentary uh does he get anything for that like how does that work Dean you
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you talked about him oh that's it he should be just uh happy that I talked him about him yeah Dean says he haven't
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seen this guy's name too much John H's name right so he's might be a new viewer whatever he just got on board just to
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give you a little uh 23 M hour so what he's trying to say is that my boat's slow I don't need a life jacket and and
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and and here's where that thinking John is not sound because I don't think that
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all uh water fatalities due to Drowning happen when a craft is in motion in fact
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if I recall back to the old Radio Days uh schury Sergeant schor who was our
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in-house safety expert um I remember him uh uh every Saturday morning he would
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tell the stories about fatalities that happened that particular weekend on a body of water Etc and a lot of them were
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uh people who had fallen into the water when the boat was stationary yes not moving I.E they found
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these bodies number one without a life jacket on and number two with their
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zipper open because they were taking a leak off the side of the boat and they fell in a lot of the fatality cold water
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hypothermia baboom you know what the the resty would said blatantly said had
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those people been wearing their like those guys in this case been wearing life jackets most of them wouldn't have
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uh wouldn't have drowned so yeah I I don't think speed or the movement of the boat should have no because then you're
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going to start getting into that debate well my boat does 23 mil hour the loss
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is 24 you know what I mean got her governed down and like who's going to determine
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the speed of the boat so John in as much as we appreciate uh this type of uh letter we
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do honestly cuz you know what if nothing else allows us to to to uh uh go on with
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this dialogue about Bo safety um I have to disagree with you though on
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this one in that uh I shouldn't have to wear a full face shield on my Harley I
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wear a helmet that's enough damn it it's enough in California where we're going
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to be going here in a few minutes they don't even have to wear helmets I believe really well I don't know I shouldn't say that maybe we can we can
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ask but there are some some States they're still doing that in the US where it is I think Florida is one of those
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states to be honest with you it's your choice if you want to or not entirely up to you and to this day when I see guys
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on the any motorcycle but I was going to say one of these big Harley and stuff cruising around with no helmet on like I
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get the heebie jeebies yeah it's just like whoo we can get to a whole thing here
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but the the the worst part about that is that you might be the best Harley driver in the world but some [ __ ] hits you
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and knocks you off and you get your head on something and you could have been saved by the helmet so yeah so anyways
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uh thank you John hor via YouTube now is this one of those special deals where they have to no next time are you uh are
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we bothering you no I I I I I feel like I'm interrupting
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him no I just don't want to to give John hopes that he had 100 bucks coming oh
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there you go all right we have a guy later who oh another you think John would buy a life jacket with that 100 bucks you think or no
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so right how does this differ from somebody who
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would qualif the punctuation no question mark so it's not a question see if he
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asked something ands do you want to wear a full-faced shield on your helmet maybe
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question mark but instead he put that pretty face emoji face so he gets penalized because of poor grammar is
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that what you're saying wow he didn't ask a question Dean said questions that wasn't my idea by the way John okay you
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heard it it was you see John might be might be oblivious to that idea and he just he just thought hey I heard that
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and I'm going to tell Angel what I think all right so
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uh that has a lot of stench to it and speaking of stench oh there you go thank
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you uh invasive species Center wants to talk to us about
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tench who know do you know what tches I'm a little T right now just tension I
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was thinking there was some tension but nice I I get you it's an invasive
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species uh it's invas species which fish has invaded almost every corner of the planet aside from
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Antarctica and caused notable damage in regions where it has become prolific the
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answer is the tench thank you tench is a
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medium-sized deep body fish with small scales rounded fins and a single barble on each side of the mouth um kind of
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looks maybe like a like a a fallfish I don't people probably don't
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have a fallfish or maybe a big sucker like a sucker type of look to them uh
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they um all allive color fish were brought into Canada illegally in 1986 go
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go figure way when uh and when they escaped they escaped and made their way into the St Lawrence River 40 years ago
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although not established in the Great Lakes they have been since spotted as far south is the bay quiny in Lake in
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Lake Ontario so this is again this is the same story that is on going with every invasive species SS great legs
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blah blah blah blah blah and once they get into that little deal it's get them out uh they're highly adaptable to new
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environments and compete with the native fish obviously that's the biggest problem like minnows Bullhead suckers
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and Waters where they've invaded by eating significant amounts of snails
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insects and other uh benthic invertebrates wow that's a big word I
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know why they they sneak these big words on me like that you know they should know better than that
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not only could they ow compete native species for food but it is predicted that tenens could decrease water quality
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and increase the transmission of different parasites and diseases between other fishes in the Great Lakes W uh
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that's why onario made them a prohibited species under the invasive species act
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meaning it's illegal to import possess transport and or release them anywhere
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in the province and that people I know a guy I I know a guy who knows a guy I
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know a guy who knows a guy is the other guy his brother the guy and he wants to catch a tench if he wants to catch a
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tench I got a good feeling that it's a prized thing for him and he'll release that tench well that guy guy guy's
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brother you better kill that fish if you catch it if you know what I'm saying now ten is big in Europe it's a popular game
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fish or something not game fish but they they angle for they call a game Fish I guess yeah they angle for him all the time those and those big multi-species
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tournaments like when they had you know those those uh big tournaments and the catch anything and everything goes in the Box in the net whatever tench is
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part of it wow yeah uh to learn more about tench including how to identify them which is the most important thing
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uh visit the invasive species Center website if you've seen a tench first of
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all in order to know that you've seen a tenen you have to know what a tench looks like there um or another invasive
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species in the wild report it to invading species hotline or online at Ed
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maps.com that's Ed maps.com help keep our waterways free of
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invasive species or Invaders yeah come on now there you go pinch uh
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story yeah very interesting uh news story um from uh Michigan so Michigan
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has Ence a lot of places has an actual sturgeon fishing season and where you
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can catch and keep and kill a sturgeon right obviously that one uh doesn't qualify for Catch and Release he already
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started gotten that baby he's looking for cavard in that soccer well this is interesting so this is from our friend
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Calvin pennel um Facebook fan page Calvin's still active and uh we love him
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he's but he brought the story to us uh Super Fan super yes Michigan's shortest fishing season was back in 2025 but it
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only lasted 17 minutes Oh my he fishing
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season last 17 minutes the2 Lake surgeon fishing season on Black Lake in
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chaban oh nice in presel counties began at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning and they
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ended at 8:17 and 17 minutes uh when there was a quota of six sturgeon
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reached so basically what they're saying for for whatever reason this lake has six sturgeon limit I don't know why you
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wouldn't just say No Limit or whatever per angler no no total the season the
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lake toal and what these guys do in a nutshell uh what they do is they all get on the same website with the DNR etc etc
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and they're all on this soon as you catch them you report the fish on your phone you report them so so and there's
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five gun and you get that 61 boom you get there I think they can spear them too but they catch them with the by
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hands or spear them soon as you get that one and boom okay got number six she closed and that goes out blankets out to
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everybody's phone pull up your lines buys pull your Spears because you're not going anymore so yeah that's crazy we've
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experienced something like that on a different scale if I'm not mistaken DFO out on the east coast of Canada has the
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same kind of setup although it doesn't take 17 minutes uh with their blue fin tune tuna fishery right because
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everybody has to report in immediately and they have a total allotment uh that
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is open and whatever amount of time it takes yeah and you have tags out there we had well we had at the time tags like
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Deer tags or whatever and exactly that and they say say once the tags are done shut her down boys and it goes
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over minutes they were s the alerts were sent at 805 807 808 814
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817 that was the the second the second to the sixth one so uh the largest stur
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sturgeon harvested was uh 64 in long and weighs 78.3 lb so I'm assuming they they
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eat these fish because sturgeon are good eating right good yeahoo there's an
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understatement yeah so it's kind of crazy but a 17-minute uh season so obviously it's like a shotgun start
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everybody's right ready okay go 8:00 go you know what I mean and try your best
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to get on the best spot because cuz if you're sitting there waiting for you know all there might be some coming by
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here in an hour or two you're done you got to be in Primo area like being a real hardcore sturgeon fisherman and
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you've been waiting waiting waiting for this moment and you you know you've got all the gear and you're all pre you
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haven't slept for 3 days or or better yet you're driving for like 12 hours to get to where you need to be and you want
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to be that one of those six fish you I got I'm got to get one of them this year I'm going to get one in uh 2023 the
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season lasted 65 minutes yeah it was a good one and the largest fish caught then was a 55 1/2 in female that weighed
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352 pound so much smaller fish in that sense and weight but 6 minutes in 22 so it's traditionally a short season
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obviously they know going in but I bet you they were surprised they they did the old do when that year what the hell
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that's awesome fascinating story it's on fishing canada.com as we speak if you want to read the whole thing obviously
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we just give and I'm just assuming that they're spearing on that because a lot of they do that in the US so I I might be wrong on that one but uh yeah maybe
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that guy that that I don't doesn't look like a spearm mark but it might be through right through it who knows I
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wonder if there's a probably not I was going to say there sizes too is there a slot limit size or that's a good
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question yeah probably not probably not if they're spearing they're not because you got out of no releasing that guy
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just kidding throw him back that's an under throw them shake them off retract those barbs uh F question of
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the week brought to you by the good people at fishfindermounts.com come on
19:17
now that's Fisher fishfindermounts.com come on now uh I had an interesting
19:24
comment about fishfindermounts.com from a good friend of ours uh kinger oh yeah
19:29
uh yeah he uh said that uh his him and his wife were watching the show last
19:34
weekend yes and uh his wife couldn't help but make comment on how Hightech
19:41
our boat looked with all of the gadgetry hanging off the side of it and stuff yes
19:46
looked like a scientific one of those big scientific ships that they sent out to and I and I was on that text feed and
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I said by the way K you can buy next year's boat the end of the year and I said Paul by that so and he probably
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stopped him his tracks right there she also said that Angelo has a very attractive or not attractive very nice
20:06
voice what did she say some I like attractive I that would would work extremely well for me you keep talking
20:12
I'll find out out right there uh but anyways uh she was referring to all of the gadgetry the Garen stuff especially
20:18
that we've got hanging off the boat uh because of fishfindermounts.com my God I
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got a lot of text crazy don't even start Fishfinder dos fishfindermounts.com
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brings you this segment this segment is the fan question of the week come on now
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come on now it's a good question by the way submitted by Curtis Roberts via YouTube now Curtis Roberts via YouTube I
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believe and I stand to be corrected Dean I'm sure you will correct me on this uh uh this was submitted via YouTube but uh
20:54
Curtis also subscribed if he wasn't already a subscribed how do they how do
20:59
they how do you know they they're subscribers by the way for me it pops up with a little symbol beside them that
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tells me if they're subscribed oh so so you know right off the bat they can't fool you they can't fool me they can't
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say yeah longtime subscriber I'm I'm in for the contest no so when you guys go into that YouTube studio and stuff like
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that that's where it is it's a like a little red dot beside okay y the boys got it all under control and you and I
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we just watch the stuff we don't so you two so he hasn't won yet we have to read this you like what he did yeah yeah
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we're going to determine that here in a moment but just to let other folks know uh just by submitting a question via
21:34
YouTube come on now and subscribing to the YouTube channel um and then you can
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send a question to us at info fishing canada.com I like that great nice well
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John and told me to redo the old one so I can J very nice see when you push them
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a little bit harder that snake he's got there I might want to photoshop in a little oh maybe it's a sturgeon
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maybe uh Curtis Roberts says Hey guys uh question for the show have you guys ever
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notice the change in Attitude Anglers have on the ice versus in the summer
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when it comes to catch and release fishing uh it's an interesting question
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already uh I get fish um can be harder I I assuming he says I
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guess fish fish I get fish can be harder to rele least but it seems that just about every angler in the winter is
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looking to keep a limit uh where the same guys in the summer would likely be
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releasing the majority of their fish and I agree with him 100% absolutely and I know people in my circle who wouldn't
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dream of killing a fish in open water but for some reason as soon as that yeah
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wow yeah I I can name you if I give you his name you'd like wow you're
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right make it hard water and they will kill everything they come in contact
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with I wonder so so we got to calculate this out in our heads number number one
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would they be thinking cold or water wow May the fish might taste a lot better because instead of this 36 degree water
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instead of 75 Dee water maybe if they're if they're thinking that way okay the
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other thing would be my my thought as to why they're even getting out there is these people there's a lot of people
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that aren't as fortunate as us and having these nice boats and they can't get out to the middle of a lake and anywhere they want on a lake in the
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summertime so they but they wouldn't be qualifying for this comment though because I think what what Curtis is
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saying is that that same person I was going to say that they'd go out there and yeah those I can understand like the
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hardcore ice Fisher that just goes out fishing you're right comparison a boat to Open Water yeah I don't know what
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else I would even if they're thinking it's easier to to catch tons of fish in this I don't know I don't know what but
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I do agree that there's definely a catch and keep mentality for hitting the ice
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maybe it's I'm going out there in the hardest conditions I need to bring something home to to quantify
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qualify I don't know I don't know but it is it's absolutely true and it's happening every day all around the
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people that we know I mean I noticed it I feel like I may keep more fish in the winter too I think it's almost like I
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was telling Pete earlier a bit of like a scarcity thing a little bit because I notice I'm not going to move as easily
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when I'm out like pulling a Hut by hand out into a lake where if I'm in a boat I can hop around I'm in a by the way
24:37
everybody Dean's Hut is 200 lb that he's pulling portable Hut is 200 it's literally 200 lb just to let you know
24:43
okay go ahead Dean it's not meant to be portable I've just been pulling it around but uh so I don't pull it around
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very often I I go to one spot and I wait but what's that got to do with keeping everything that you you catch because I
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find that so I tell pet all the time that when I catch say perch in the
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summer yes I'll throw them back and then at the end of the day be like oh I should have kept what kept those but at
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the time I was like well I'll catch more later it's not a big deal but when I set up on a spot and a fish comes in I'm
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like okay this could be my only chance of the whole day I'm keeping the Walle I'm keeping the perch that just came in but you go in in advance thinking that
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way already on the ice not necessarily all the time but I find once I do catch
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them I'm like wow it would be ashamed to throw this back this could be the only thing I catch all day oh that's kind of
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where my head's at cuz I definitely keep more in the winter I will say that yeah I think everybody's the same vote it's
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an interesting I think mentally I think it's it's a meat
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fishery I think on the ice I think that's the mentality we're going out to bring home the goods we're going if we
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catch some big ones that's awesome we'll take a picture and throw them back but boy I want to get my limit of 16 17
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I know who keep some monsters on the ice who would never do that in the
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summer oh yeah I know if you guys like that like 10 keep they keep some tanks bizar on
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the ice but throw them by wow it's bizarre it's bizarre is craziness cuz now they're they're full of eggs no
26:17
matter what you're killing a 10 pounder but when you're getting through the ice those are big hens that are just full of eggs and just getting ready to go in
26:23
there and drop those eggs right so yeah for sure there might be something to what you said about you know the
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mentality is that cold water better eating fish maybe maybe hot warmer
26:34
water the thought there's you know it's they going to be wormy there's not they're not
26:42
they're yeah it could be that too but man he's absolutely right Curtis uh
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makes a great point to the point where I think I think Curtis my opinion uh
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deserves something for that question me a hell yeah there is a question mark after catch him release fishing he
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didn't put a question mark in there now Al it wasn't really in the right area but you're going to you could just kind
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of divert that uh that well he's just sort of closing the loop at the end where he says I get it the fishing is
27:10
you know but I think that had all the ear marks of a winner and uh and uh so
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uh congratulations Curtis Roberts you give me a hell yeah does he have does he
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have to do love that Steve a was the best used to stun
27:27
Vince McMahon right in the middle of the Ring St the boss and then the boss's daughter oh does does Curtis have to do
27:35
anything more jump through hoops or stand on his head or spit out nickel or anything like that no I'll track him
27:40
down you'll track him down uh congratulations Curtis you get 100 buckaroos that's uh redeemable 100
27:46
buckaroos redeemable at fishing canada.com the store where you can uh
27:53
buy all kinds of goodies with that buy you some extra too let the folks there know how much you appreciate their
27:58
stuff excellent what do you think I think so he'll look good in a nice hoodie or something you know all right
28:04
the main feature today is up uh up to bat before we get toight want to mindful by the way it's brought to you by
28:09
sale special guest is brought to you by sale I've heard of those guys home of all good things outdoor especially this
28:16
time of year I know I know that that that could be argued and debated because
28:22
their summertime collection of of goods is just overwhelming but it seems like in the winter uh during the winter
28:28
season it just I don't know it's fun when you go to the fishing department there even in the winter the rice
28:34
fishing section is a very minuscule tiny little area compared to the rest of this Open Water stuff all over the walls
28:40
right so uh anything uh whether it's tackle uh clothing um anything to do with winter
28:48
activities incling including ice fishing and and and including winter camping
28:53
which is another whole different ball game right yep now guys winter camping
28:59
on the ice now when they're fishing what they're doing but I noticed they're starting to bring in some of the uh uh
29:06
warm weather stuff so it's a good time to be at sale if you don't have a sale store near you which you might not we do
29:12
fortunately for us there's one right over the hill here uh just go to sale.ca
29:17
and check out all the goodies there there's a ton of sales going on uh not the least of which is 60% off some key
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selected items so make sure you visit it today . CAA yeah all right now uh Our Guest
29:31
today we love what he does for a living don't get us wrong it's it's great
29:36
because he's an avid Avid bass uh Maniac like most of us are uh but we're going
29:44
to talk about uh another element that he adds to the mix which we're still having a little bit of
29:51
a difficult time the whole bass world will have you know and time and time again and that is the consumption of
29:57
bass bass in particular large mouth bass I have personally never tried it so
30:03
we're about to find out I have I've eaten them oh have y well there you go he just came out uh Oliver NY joins us
30:09
from California how are you doing Oliver doing all right gentlemen thank you guys for having me on pleas our
30:16
pleasure man is it winter down there too or is is it you guys are all summer all the time I mean you do not see the puffy
30:23
jacket here yeah what's up with that rigid that's cuz he's got air in his
30:28
office he going to take it off to go outside probably uh Oliver for those of you might not know him he's founder of
30:34
big bass dreams uh a brand that's focused on guess what uh big bass
30:40
fishing and uh that whole angling lifestyle and we're going to get into
30:45
that we're going to get into that but uh talk to us about uh this latest craze uh
30:52
or Trend or what it is that you're messaging that's a little bit different than the your previous whatever number
31:00
of years you've been invol many years of Catch and Release then all of a sudden Oliver had a little
31:05
change yeah absolutely uh you know it's taken decades to come to this enlightened
31:12
perspective nice and we've we've been exploring it in depth uh amongst my own
31:18
colleagues uh within my circle amongst my even big bass Dream Team spread
31:24
throughout the country and the audiences that tune in to the content that we put
31:30
out there for everybody body to digest and what the shift is is getting
31:35
people to consider the effect that 100% catcher
31:41
and release mentality may have on your Fisheries because it's had a drastic
31:47
effect on ours and I come from the former trophy Largemouth
31:54
Mecca Southern California and perimeter or radius from La had the
32:02
biggest bass in the world for a couple decades here Y and that pretty much has
32:07
ceased to exist and there's a culmination of factors and just like anything else that we're dealing with in
32:13
this modern world that we live in uh things and topics are complex the issues
32:19
are complex but there are definitely common um common attributes of what has
32:28
led to the demise of our trophy Largemouth fishing opportunities on our public lakes and one of them is under
32:36
Harvest and as a culture and I don't care where you you live if you have
32:42
Largemouth and Smallmouth baths around you there is a culture of passionate
32:48
Anglers that love these fish just like I still do and have since I started uh
32:54
with every fiber in my being and we have been cull by our heartstrings and in our
33:02
emotions and fed potentially some false
33:08
narratives uh in the hopes that it's going to continue to perpetuate fishing
33:14
opportunities uh and it's it's really resulting in a slew of stunted bass
33:21
populations throughout the country and even into Canada in some cases now there
33:28
you know I just just to to highlight what you just said uh most Bass Anglers that uh especially younger Bass Anglers
33:36
that just cut their teeth on bass when it comes to fishing uh it is almost to
33:41
the point where it's sacriligious to uh cause any harm to a largemouth bass
33:48
let's be perfectly honest about it we've lived that and we're teaching that to our kids and we we've done that because
33:54
we believed that good sound fish manager was the way to go as more and more
34:00
pressure is put on these animals the idea is uh we just can't take any of its
34:07
membership out if we want it to perpetuate but we have found out since
34:14
as you just pointed out not just in um the bass itself but also in fish in
34:19
general that some bodies of water now let me just say there are some bodies of
34:25
water where it needs a total toal total Catch and Release policy those are lakes
34:31
that uh uh are in danger or for whatever reason you know the population of that
34:36
particular species is on the Teeter Totter so handling that one in in a in a
34:42
total release uh method is probably still the way to go but bass in general
34:48
bass fishing in general I think it's I think messages like yours it's important
34:54
to get it out there because you're right even here by the way it's not just in California we know we know of lakes
35:00
where where it's a total release fishery that the fish are getting stunted a
35:06
little bit and we always we always question how is that possible these fish are still three and a half pounds and
35:12
it's been like that for 20 years why are we not seeing any six and seven Pounders so I think this is a perfect time to run
35:20
that notion up the flag pole and let people weigh in on on uh on the
35:26
discussions cuz there is not a lot of of study here by the way scientific study in Canada that is starting to lean
35:34
towards that uh there's a few individuals that are talking about it like yourself but we still don't have
35:39
anything sort of in stone yet saying okay here's the New Deal so it's important uh we love we joked at the
35:46
beginning but we love what you're doing I don't know about eating fish on a reg bass on a regular basis that is there
35:53
Oliver is there is there a type of Lake in California like you're your experiencing this is there something to
35:58
do with the Lakes the sizes the forage the the other species or what's the deal going on there yeah absolutely like I
36:05
said it it's a complex puzzle right and every body of water is its own unique
36:11
environment so to go out there with the blanket statement like you should be killing a limit of bath on every body of
36:17
water is as irresponsible as it was for us to utilize the opposite end of the
36:24
Spectrum in releasing 100% of our Bass out of curiosity what's the feedback
36:30
been down in your neck of the woods on this you know it's funny people have told me I've got some pretty big balls
36:35
for coming out in public to to voice this uh different perspective but really
36:41
for me it was an easy one because I've done my research uh and that's be about science is that you can duplicate these
36:50
experiments amongst different scientists and they will often if not always lead
36:56
to the same observations uh it's completely
37:01
objective and there are studies done by different state dnrs by independent
37:07
biologists by private um you know Watershed biologists that are actually
37:13
hired to grow bigger bass and you can extrapolate uh the science and the data
37:20
behind it at a very fundamental level like a system like a closed Pond that only has large mouth and bluegill pretty
37:27
simple right and you use that as a fundamental basis uh to understand that
37:34
that body of water has finite resources it has a carrying capacity of x amount of pounds of fish and it takes x amount
37:42
of pounds of food for that bass to put on one pound of weight and you start doing the math and start realizing
37:49
something as simple as harvesting smaller segments of that population
37:55
creates a lot more food and space available for the remaining bass to get big uh it's a pretty easy concept and
38:02
then you can scale it up and you start adding all these different factors like other species and the bigger the
38:08
Watershed the more complex it gets the more species that you have intertwin the more complex it gets I I'll tell you
38:15
where it might get a little dicey and I I can't speak about California and the
38:21
large Mo Bast population in California but I I I would like to speak to the
38:27
Ontario largemouth bass and in particular uh let's call it Canadian largemouth bass they have uh Predators
38:37
here that eat those babies every single minute of every single day so it's hard
38:43
depending on the body of water it's hard to kind of uh you know say okay should we be taking more should we be taking
38:49
less when we already know that these fish are struggling every day to stay alive because there's Pike there's musky
38:55
there's Walley there's all these other big toothy predators that that predate on them uh at some point in their life
39:02
cycle obviously once they get into that five six seven eight pound range that's not so much but but getting up to that
39:08
they're part of the food chain is that not the same in your lakes in California
39:13
there got to be stripers and stuff like that down there doesn't there yeah some of our Lakes do have landlock stripers
39:19
in them uh and then there's been a recent influx of flathead catfish which have become a huge management Pro uh
39:26
problem for for our bodies of water because right uh throughout California we're not really able to utilize live
39:33
bait like you can in other states in the US so uh you throw that on top of access
39:40
to the water because we can't really night fish unless you pull a special permit for a night tournament or
39:46
something uh you kind of got a double whammy of these growing Flathead populations that are decimating
39:52
everything wow and adding even more pressure to The Limited for base and you
39:58
know some of these Bass Anglers are barking up the wrong tree by complaining about uh the trout stocks and how their
40:05
pet bass aren't being fed anymore instead of complaining about the lack of trout fishing opportunities for their
40:12
kids or their neighbors or their friends um and that's really a
40:17
shortsighted uh take on that complex issue now we have no control really as
40:24
Anglers of how many trout are being put put in our Waters to offset that that
40:30
normal carrying capacity and adding to the forge base but we absolutely have one of the management tools uh that the
40:38
dnrs and the DFW here in California uh utilize to manage these fisheries and
40:44
that's harvesting uh you know your daily bag limit of bass which nobody does and
40:50
once again that data in the science is there you can go back uh Decades of their backlogs and see that
40:57
you know as recently as the 2000s which doesn't seem like it was that long ago
41:03
but apparently it was 20 plus years ago now uh you know the Harvest rates of
41:08
largemouth bass on our bodies of water were in the 30 to 40 percentile and
41:13
since then it's been hovering between 1 and 3% wow yeah you know but that makes
41:18
sense that's the same as as our old school mentality Fades off and Fades
41:23
away and you know like my grandfather would keep every fish going in the the large m b yeah they keep everything they
41:30
eat I got buddies in napan E that keep every large mouth still we go back back
41:35
North and get them a nice little clean water and there's a nice limit there probably good I but but now but our kids
41:42
and his kids and their kids and Oliver's kids and all that we're all getting this mentality as catch and releasees catch and release and it just built a whole
41:49
change there right a whole balance change some people might argue with you though Oliver you know um fishing means
41:58
a lot of different things to different folks right so so not everybody is in
42:04
search of that trophy every time they go out I mean some people just want to go out whether it's with their family the
42:10
kids friends or by themselves they just want to catch some fish and have fun and have that interaction with nature and so
42:18
you know I can see where you'd get some argument with the philosophy of uh a trophy fish being scarce now with with
42:26
who cares you know what I mean all we want to do is just go out wet a line get a couple of bass two Pounders two and a
42:31
half Pounders what's the big deal right that's kind of that's got to be floating out there as well that's that's a pretty
42:38
common response uh you know guys that are afraid that this is going to lead to the decimation of the bass
42:45
population and here's something that I want to remind everybody of a large mouth and a small mouth bass are just
42:52
overgrown Sunfish and Sunfish as a family of fishes are very prolific breeders uh
42:59
look at the attempts uh that an entire nation like Japan has attempted to eradicate them you cannot right uh it is
43:07
not possible and in the worst case scenario if you overh harvest a body of
43:14
water the ability of that population to bounce back to that one to three pound
43:20
class range is less than a year and a half to two years in Prime optimal
43:25
conditions which you may have created by over harvesting so they'll be right back
43:31
yeah so what's what's the tradeoff like it's interesting I I did a shocking
43:37
survey out of an electro shock boat with the DFW on one of my home lakes and this lake is a small Urban body of water 240
43:45
acres very much known to be an incred incredibly tough bass fishery like it is
43:52
an accomplishment if you can catch a a bass let alone a limit of bass
43:58
and if you're going to use the angling public as a surveying tool it's it's
44:06
disingenuous to the data because my ability with a fishing rod is not
44:12
necessarily representing what is actually living in that body of water we shocked like 300 bass in the span of six
44:20
hours and people would have been shocked to see how many bass and uh that we
44:27
shocked up and it was interesting because I could see a direct correlation over the lifetime of me fishing for these bass on this body of water and I
44:34
started calling out like oh you're probably not going to shock anything on this stretch you're probably going to shock some off of that point and maybe
44:40
this hump or along this rock wall but definitely probably not going to shock one off this Dam and it was pretty
44:47
fascinating to see how spoton those observations were over the years with
44:52
you know very primitive and poor sampling tool that is a fishing rod versus electricity in the water and
44:58
everything's coming up we've seen a couple examples of that
45:04
travels just because we can't catch them with the rod and reel and a hook doesn't mean there aren't a plethora of bass in
45:12
these waterers that's fishing pressure yeah what are you what are you hoping to
45:18
accomplish with this by the way are you are you looking uh for the DNR to jump
45:25
on board and say hey you know what I think we should start marketing uh
45:30
consumption of largemouth bass is that what you're kind of hoping for or you just sort of want to make it a trend and
45:37
maybe like-minded people like yourself starts doing it on their own I'm
45:43
selfishly hoping for an opportunity to catch another giant bass at one of my
45:49
local lakes instead of having a drag my bass boat from LA to Toronto again which
45:54
I might do this spring by the way good I've done I've done that several times now but it's because I've understood
46:02
that the grass has definitely become greener in other spaces and territories
46:10
uh and I was willing to drive away from this former Mecca of trophy Bas fishing because it frankly doesn't exist anymore
46:17
I would like to be able to drive to my lakes and actually make a cast and have the hope that I can tangle with another
46:24
double digigit Largemouth is this like a Statewide like like you're making it sound like Doom and Gloom here in the
46:31
whole state of California really yeah when's the last time you heard about a trout fisherman
46:37
that caught a 15 18 pounder on a piece of power be fishing for trout yeah that used to happen a couple times season
46:44
that's true yeah wow anybody just for for anybody listening here by the way you got to look up Oliver and Oliver ask
46:50
you I don't know the exact size but I discovered Oliver many years ago when it said it was the biggest larg M bass ever
46:56
caught on camera or whatever how big was that fish it was it was aound 7 o 177 and he's got it on his
47:04
he's got it on camera wow it is so the guy he's been after big basses I mean for a long time but he's and he's proven
47:10
he can catch him so but anybody wants to see what a 17lb larg mou looks like on camera check out his YouTube channel
47:16
it's pretty scary what what I equate to California bass uh years ago I I don't even know how far
47:24
back I'm going but I I had the retail operation at the time a company called Castaic yeah uh was trying to Market
47:31
their products into Canada their plastic baits into Canada and I remember seeing this line of great
47:38
big wonderful looking plastic yeah swim and I remember asking
47:45
the the rep because he was telling you know it's a company in California and I said what in the world would they be
47:51
fishing with these in California he said largemouth bass I just about [ __ ]
47:58
they were they were bigger than some of the large m b that I was catching look what he's going to show you here this is what these guys throw wow I'm kind of
48:05
mid reorganizing my bass boat for another cross continent uh you know
48:11
there there it is right there look at that wow targeting bigass any largemouth bass angler in let's call it Canada or
48:19
upper State even New York sees that and says you're not throwing that for large
48:24
am B but that's how big how big they are in or that's how big we think they are
48:30
obviously that's not the case anymore uh You' be surprised I caught a 13inch bass
48:35
on that very same bait I held up to the camera a few weeks ago my god really
48:40
yeah is that company still in business or they still producing baits yeah they've been sold uh several
48:46
times now probably so uh it's more of a big box kind of brand okay but you know
48:53
as far as uh the underground ground big bait trophy fishing culture it's
48:59
blossomed and bloomed all over the continent wow including in in Canada so
49:04
people are starting to see that it is absolutely a normal way to Target bass
49:11
and you know one of the interesting things that I took away from some of these biologists that I've become acquainted with is that a 16-inch large
49:18
mouth is fully capable of swallowing an 11 in large mouth oh holy [ __ ] they're
49:24
crazy oh we know that right from the T wow yeah they're crazy they're crazy I
49:30
mean that's a three three and a half pounder maybe yeah able to eat a pound and a quarter fish it's nuts w wow hey
49:38
hey Oliver that bait you just held up so if Oliver's out there throwing that big bait for large M bass no matter where he
49:44
is but let's say your favorite body of water what would you expect to uh be a normal day of fishing a catch I mean
49:50
like you're throwing a Ed rig a plastic a jig you could catch 20 or 30 fish in a day what what about that bait you know
49:55
what's your expectations an exceptional day would be in the double digits like 10 to 20 fish right
50:03
like that's an exceptional day right a good day uh could be five like you can
50:09
absolutely catch 20 to 30 pounds on that for five fish all throughout the country including Upstate New York where I'm
50:16
spending time including Vermont where I'm spending time this spring including Champlain uh and and we've done it in um
50:24
the Toronto area in the past as well and you know but realistically you need
50:29
to go out there with the mindset of getting one bite right right and
50:35
understanding that failure is a big part of the learning process with a big lure
50:41
targeting the biggest bass in your body of water and understanding that they typically represent a small portion of
50:47
the population so right off the bat your odds of connecting with one successfully
50:52
are much lower than any other traditional technique um but if if you're if you've reached that point in
50:58
your fishing Arc where you're wanting to challenge yourself and be able to find consistent success targeting larger than
51:05
average fish I mean there's so much information out there now versus when I
51:11
was coming up and we we had to learn the hard way and you guys are probably old enough to remember when the fishing
51:17
culture was very much a secretive culture oh yeah nobody shared anything
51:23
yeah anything yeah so true and now it's become the opposite of that as people
51:28
are trying to clamor for attention and leverage themselves into the dream of
51:33
fishing for a living somehow um but yeah there's plenty of can we though can we
51:40
just throw this out there too because I can just I can just hear people out there listening to this saying oh yeah
51:46
well that's a bunch of crap because I my biggest fish have come on you know little tiny Ned or or a little tiny tube
51:53
or a little tiny something or other I think what Oliver is saying though I think uh you should take the heart if if
52:01
you're targeting big fish and you want to up your chances tremendously for
52:08
those big fish then obviously big lures and that's that's a not just for bass I think that can go for pretty much any
52:14
species however uh never rule out and I'm sure you also on your boat when you
52:20
go out on your typical fishing day you've got some little stuff stashed around somewhere there you go there you
52:26
there it is that's it so in your op contrast that's awesome as a as a Trophy
52:32
Hunter in your opinion what would make and let's take let's say that a trophy
52:38
large mouth nationally is is I think six PB plus Fish can be categorized as
52:45
trophy what would make a six PB fish jump on that tiny little bait you just
52:51
held up versus uh that great big monstrosity you had up there a second ago
52:58
well once again you want to talk about uh sampling techniques right and in the vast majority of Anglers
53:06
utilizing a traditional bait traditional size uh that's going to skew the numbers
53:12
of trophy bass being caught versus the much smaller minority of dedicated
53:18
trophy Anglers that often don't even dabble with anything smaller than seven
53:23
or eight inches in length right now you're going to see a drastic
53:30
um just result as far as uh numbers of fish over whatever threshold you want to
53:37
create that six pound Mark is a great threshold versus the masses of of guys
53:44
throwing a wacky rig weightless worm um you're going to have people stumble upon
53:49
those fish but let's utilize each one of those examples as an opportunity to to
53:56
compare their body of work over even a lifetime versus one of the trophy bass hunters and I would be more than willing
54:03
to bet my money that the dedicated trophy bass guy has more fish under his belt than over six pounds than the
54:09
traditional guy that or even the tournament guy that stumbles on them occasionally yeah I mean that's gonna
54:15
happen but I've caught All of My Double Digit large mouth on a big bait all of
54:21
them and I mean I'm close I'm over 50 or so all you know prior to forward- facing
54:28
sonar as well which is another caveat now and you know a whole another wrinkle
54:34
into this trophy fishing Dynamic um and you're just not going to
54:40
see those kinds of numbers with someone throwing peanuts at those elephants yeah
54:45
well put well put do you have uh you must on your Northern us and Canadian
54:51
trips you must be encountering Pike and musky with these baits then I would think they must be a pain in your ass
54:57
oh you know what interesting as a Southern California kid in a state that
55:03
has no esox species and having to digest other regions fishing cultures through
55:09
TV as a kid uh you know INF fisherman was one of the most uh impactful
55:15
programs for a young hopefully scientifically minded angler and they
55:22
made Pike and Musky fishing look cool right so as I started to experience them
55:28
I actually really enjoyed it and I think it's an interesting phenomenon that we
55:34
we have as as regional fishing cultures that we uh you know spread this energy
55:41
whether it's excitement or disdain for a particular species of fish because that's what everybody else is doing and
55:48
I've even tried to shed a new light on local saltwater species that are underappreciated here in Southern
55:55
California it's like what are you guys bitching about a bar sandbass for that thing pulls harder than your stupid
56:01
Calico bass sitting in the kelp just because it's not as pretty uh you know this that and a third but like one man's
56:07
gold is another man's dream fit for example or badass oh yeah no
56:15
kidding yeah so when I hear guys you know bitching that their frog got destroyed by you know8 n 10 pound b and
56:22
I'm like where's that M at that dire I need to
56:28
know they will destroy your frogs there's no doubt about it it's funny he said and I'm good with
56:34
it really learned safe to say that you're not one-dimensional obviously
56:40
bass isn't the only thing that you like pulling on the end of your line you're just an anger at heart that has sort of
56:49
focused in a little bit on large month probably because of the geography that you're involved in uh but you're just an
56:56
Ang in general yeah absolutely I've always been multispecies and partly in in due to the
57:05
effect that guys like Al lner and the whole Doug stangy like INF fisherman crew had on me like every episode was
57:11
multi-species I'm like oh those walleye are cool like those Pike are cool you I love catching bluegill so if it swims uh
57:18
you know I love to Target him and and we we operate saltwater Charters here at home now showcasing our unique saltwater
57:25
fishing culture which nobody ever talks about right uh and you know when I swing
57:31
through the Northeast and into Canada I love to Target 40 inch plus Pike and
57:38
everybody likes that that's nobody and that's the thing like how how can you celebrate a 40 to 45 inch Pike you know
57:46
without um just [ __ ] on those little Hammer handles no nobody likes those
57:52
guys right exactly by the way those little Hammer handles or even you know say a six or eight up to eight no more
57:59
than that but certainly between four five and six you want to talk about a great fish to eat that baby is the best
58:09
so good the best I will say they are my favorite freshwater fish to eat uh a
58:15
black crappie is really close flathead catfish are delicious and you know you
58:21
made some jokes about the pability of these large mouth and you know part of that is
58:26
this whole re-education that I'm trying to help other people understand I just
58:32
came back from the Chicago land Expo and you know I I have my buddy Brandon penck
58:37
I don't know if you guys have heard of him but he's a pretty top level Bassmaster uh elite pro along with very
58:44
passionate members of my big bass dream team in the Chicago and Midwest area H
58:51
most of which have never eaten a bass and I took them out to a restaurant and
58:56
and lo and behold they had steam Largemouth as an option so I made I made
59:01
it a point to order it for both tables and I made everybody eat a piece nice uh
59:08
and it was interesting because you know all those reactions that you you're probably thinking your head were definitely happening at these tables
59:15
yeah and I got guys that are like oh man I I just can't do it like you know there
59:21
there's like a Superstition thing and I had to break it down to my buddy Cody it's like trust me buddy it's not gonna
59:26
hurt your fishing the way you've been going lately this was uh this was in Chicago
59:33
that they had it in restaurant this was a week ago yeah this is a week ago I got we posted it on our our social and
59:39
everything and but these are farm raised large mouth which are actually a very commonly uh farmed fish now um and could
59:49
I mean $449.99 a pound is what they are charging us in this restaurant [ __ ]
59:55
you're not oh yeah you're not getting those prices if it tastes like mud like
1:00:00
I've told people for decades so is it like uh what what what can you comp 50
1:00:06
bucks a pound it's it's not that different from bluegill okay really okay
1:00:12
you're G to get bigger flakes than the meat just because the fish are bigger uh but it's not a bad fish and one of the
1:00:18
things that we've learned a ton from The Saltwater side of of our Charter Business is uh have you guys heard of
1:00:24
the EK G technique no the Japanese technique utilized on
1:00:29
high grade Sushi species like blue fin tuna like some of these tuna that we're catching and the idea is you brain spike
1:00:38
it to create immediate death euthanize the fish and then you take a wire core
1:00:44
and you actually run it through that hole that you just created in the head into its H spinal cord to destroy the
1:00:51
the the spinal cord uh and that helps relax the meat and you bleed the fish
1:00:57
simultaneously and those three actions and putting that fish on Ice immediately
1:01:03
has made such an incredible difference in palatability of fish that we eat
1:01:09
already consider to be good eating but normally just kind of let them like suffocate to death yeah even just over
1:01:16
ice or in a gunny sack on a charter boat for example and we started doing it to
1:01:21
everything and seeing how much of a difference that's making on the on the fishing or the fish eating quality and
1:01:29
we're going to be doing it with yellow perch we're going to be doing it with every walleye that eats one of our bass Fates we're going to be doing it uh with
1:01:36
large mouth and small mouth where we're going to be harvesting them because it has proven to make a difference in the
1:01:42
flavor in the profile across the board so you know eating fish is very common in the Northeast in the Midwest and into
1:01:49
Canada try it on some of these other species you can even do a compare contrast and then utilizing that on your
1:01:57
black bath species might bring it to a level that you weren't even aware of and
1:02:02
when you realize some sucker just paid 50 bucks a pound to have that on a plate
1:02:08
as a novelty you're gonna be like holy crap man like crazy price of groceries
1:02:13
these days I might just keep a couple and potentially help grow trophy bass in
1:02:18
your bodies of water how long does it take to do your little system there spiking them in the head and pulling the spine and whatever is it pretty fast is
1:02:24
it yeah it takes just like anything else practice right like I actually have a couple like aluminum bats hanging on the
1:02:31
wall that we use for the saltwater fish clubber the old clubber right there yeah yeah yeah so you know if you want
1:02:38
ultimate shock factor in getting people to talk about this topic a great way to do it is to Club the large mouth you
1:02:45
know on video you're breaking my heart brother you're breaking my heart I got a
1:02:50
a 4 and a half 4 and 3/4 pound larg M last summer last fallish and then and
1:02:55
and I said ah I was by myself so I put him in the LI well I just got my camera ready and went to grab him and he was already turned up on his side and I
1:03:01
thought [ __ ] what am I going to do and then I thought I can't deep six it it's illegal to throw it back whatever and I
1:03:07
thought ah my father-in-law I called him up yeah bring that here he suck that thing down like
1:03:12
it was going out of style he loved it so but I you know I guess I'll have to I've tried one large Mo in my life I'll tell
1:03:18
everybody this and it was a long time ago and it was about a pound and a halfer and we thought let's try it just to fry it and it was good it tasted just
1:03:26
well like small we've had small before is outstanding are delicious yeah
1:03:31
so just the simple Act of even just bleeding them and then immediately transferring to ice will make a huge
1:03:38
difference I guarant agreed Oliver um tell us a little bit about this big bass
1:03:44
dream concept that you've had going tell us what uh what folks first of all tell
1:03:49
them where they can enjoy it and uh get a hold of you and all that stuff but tell us what it is and where come from
1:03:57
what was it yeah well we alluded to it a little bit I grew up here in Southern
1:04:02
California just east of LA here and surrounded by legendary trophy
1:04:09
Largemouth fishermen uh through the 90s into the 2000s and was seeing firsthand
1:04:15
that this was possible and people have a weird conception that man all they had to do is go to C to California and then
1:04:21
catch themselves a 10 pounder because we kicked out so many of them right um but the the interesting is that because of
1:04:28
our high fishing pressure and our limited bodies of water those fish were never easy to catch the big difference
1:04:35
now is that we just don't have them in the numbers that we had uh you know you're going to find an occasional fish
1:04:41
here and there uh breaking 10 pounds but you know there there's a local Lake that
1:04:46
we fish it's called Lake cetus you guys might have heard of this is one of those trophy historic um you know big bass
1:04:53
lakes and when I started f it was kind of on the downtrend of its Heyday in the
1:04:59
mid to late 2000s that you could come into a night tournament for five fish with 40 pounds
1:05:06
and be nervous because a lot of times that wasn't enough and for the past
1:05:12
decade or so those weights have dropped to like 14 17 pounds wow and uh because
1:05:19
of things like the drought that we've had in here in California that lake has dropped down to like I think 27% vacity
1:05:26
was its lowest point that's 100 vertical feet and it came up pretty much within 6
1:05:33
months two and a half years ago so now we're experiencing what's called new Lake Effect have you guys heard of that
1:05:39
Dynamic before really you the most prolific growing periods of a body of
1:05:46
water are when the lake is new you've got an influx of nutrients uh the
1:05:52
phytoplankton feeds on the nutrients the Z Plankton feeds on the phytoplankton now you got this incredible biomass at
1:06:00
the bottom of the food chain that now the forge species can grow up on you got all this room uh in the new bodies of
1:06:08
water typically a reservoir uh that allow these fish to grow uh to to
1:06:14
Monumental sizes it's pretty much what happened at Lake OH iy in Texas very similar Dynamic extreme drought a
1:06:20
hurricane dumped that Lake full of water had new Lake Effect and you've been
1:06:26
watching this boom of teens siiz Largemouth coming out of this one Lake out of central uh West
1:06:33
Texas and we're experiencing a little bit of that now but you've also got a community of guys including guides and
1:06:40
other passionate Anglers coming to me talking to me about how they've seen uh you know the the content and they
1:06:47
started harvesting some of these fish themselves well just recently last week they finally weighed A 12p pounder in
1:06:54
the tournament and a pounder and guys have caught some 11s and this is more
1:06:59
double digit activity than you've seen in over a decade on a historic body of
1:07:05
water that has the genetics but now we've got the the opportunity with these
1:07:10
factors coming together to create uh conditions that are growing truly big
1:07:16
bass and man big bass dreams was really uh it started off as a video series is a
1:07:25
documentary series honestly because most of my friends that I grew up fishing with uh very few of which actually went
1:07:32
down the the big blure rabbit hole chasing big bass or calling BS when I
1:07:37
started unlocking the puzzle and figuring out how to fool some of these bigger bass on our home bodies of water
1:07:43
which you know very few of us would catch one over seven pounds even being in California uh you know we would not
1:07:50
stumble on them with our peanuts on on the end of our hook you know one of us would get like a six seven or eight
1:07:56
maybe somebody got a nine or a 10 occasionally uh but we didn't know those
1:08:02
fish really existed until we threw something really big at them because it changed their behavior they're willing
1:08:07
to to swim out of whatever they were living on or hunting on to come show themselves and like oh my God look at
1:08:13
the size of these fish on a leak we fished our whole lives on and I actually
1:08:18
had to start video recording all of this because my own friends are calling BS on the things I was describing and then all
1:08:26
of a sudden you know years into it I've got a library of content and you know I'm showing my closest friends because
1:08:31
this is still the era where none of us shared info I'm not telling you what pound line I'm using or where in the
1:08:38
column I'm winding that bait or any little subtle Nuance that I figure to trigger a bite from one of these hard to
1:08:44
catch fish and like man you got to do something with it and this is you know the time when people used to buy DVDs
1:08:50
and this is how you know big bass dreams started and it was because I was was
1:08:56
living the dream of of most bass fishermen with the frequency and the
1:09:02
size of the bass I was able to fool I think in 2012 alone I had a seven week
1:09:07
span after taking two week or two full years off from bass fishing mind you I
1:09:12
hooked up to you know up to this point probably my second or third biggest bass I've ever hooked probably 14 to 15 pound
1:09:20
class twice on the same cast and lost her both times who
1:09:27
and that was a part of uh part of that was inadequate technology and gearing
1:09:33
and the reels I was using uh part of that was you know not as much experience so
1:09:38
inexperience um and that was like at the end of a six-year run of throwing
1:09:44
nothing but a big ass bait trying to catch a big a 15 plus pound bass and I had got my shot twice on one cast and
1:09:53
after I lost her the second time it just I I was done with it I I had to walk
1:09:58
away from bass fishing for a couple years but when I came back you know I I got laid off from the construction
1:10:05
management industry uh in 2011 for like the fourth or fifth time and they're my
1:10:11
my boss just told me he couldn't bring me back uh the final time because it had gotten that bad and I had this time on
1:10:17
my hand so like you know I'm GNA adjust off some of my big bait rods and and Chuck some big hunks of rubber and wood
1:10:24
at these fish just to do something and I struggled for the first month through January and then we kind of hit about
1:10:31
this time of year about a week from now uh where we hit this magical kind of pre-spawn phase uh around the first full
1:10:39
moon you get that first push of that population of big females that set up to
1:10:45
to get ready to spawn and I went on a tear uh first day I had a seven and an
1:10:51
11 the next day I had a 10 and a nine on a different body walk and then for the next seven weeks I
1:10:57
caught 17 that were at least 10bs or bigger
1:11:03
wow caught every day I I I caught him a different way in a different lure every
1:11:09
day uh you know I had some of my best friends in the boat with me throughout that whole deal were pretty much just
1:11:15
playing net [ __ ] because they were they were too far behind and trying to chase what they saw me do the day before or
1:11:22
even earlier in the day and having just the ability to to be fluid and adaptable
1:11:28
and just try different things all the time allowed me to keep fooling these fish I was
1:11:35
self-conditioning as a one man on a 2,000 acre body of water for example I
1:11:40
was conditioning a population of fish by myself um and then we we put together
1:11:47
the highlights of that run uh in our first DVD project in 2013 and you know
1:11:53
here we are uh what 13 years later almost um as we continue to stay fluid
1:12:00
and you know affect the culture hopefully in a positive manner and help
1:12:05
other people realize their own big bass streams and one of the ways that we're doing that this year is we're actually
1:12:12
um doing our first online big bass streams tournament now we have a
1:12:17
Northern Division but perhaps we can explore a Canadian division in
1:12:23
2026 nice and encourage people to fish uh you know amongst our community of big
1:12:30
bass dreamers uh in it's a three-month tournament five longest bass uh the
1:12:37
tournament is CPR right catch photograph release the release is now optional a
1:12:44
you were doing I was buying in I was all with you you you were lulling me there and and all of a sudden boom you hit me
1:12:50
right between the eyes again catch photograph relase or fry or
1:12:55
there you go and here's the thing right like we there's no blanket statement
1:13:01
here we should we're not saying we should keep every bass there's definitely a threshold uh and you want
1:13:07
to maintain the higher um you know the higher weight classes of these fish and
1:13:13
return those fish to a system for sure um but you know anything less than three pounds I don't care where you are like
1:13:19
that's on the chopping block yeah um he's easily replaced uh
1:13:25
you know even even here in California you know I talked about that shocking um survey and it's actually been mirrored
1:13:31
on several bodies of water out of those 300 fish 200 of them were over 15 inches
1:13:37
which sounds great uh you know these are three and a half to five and a half pound fish it's like oh man two-thirds
1:13:44
of the population were were that big uh you know to the Casual absorber that that seems like a good thing until you
1:13:50
realize only three out of the 300 were over six right wow that's the the
1:13:56
shocking part of it isn't it yeah um how how can folks uh get a hold of you and
1:14:02
follow you and enjoy uh the commentary and uh probably enjoy an awful lot of
1:14:07
good fish tips that you are eagerly uh waiting to share with people how can I
1:14:13
get a hold of you sure you can find big bass dreams on virtually every platform YouTube Facebook Instagram begrudgingly
1:14:21
Tik Tok uh I have my own personal page which is just my name on all those same
1:14:26
platforms uh apparently I'm now a writing contributor to wired to fish so
1:14:32
you'll be seeing some written articles throughout this season on uh multitude
1:14:37
of techniques everything from traditional techniques which have created the foundation of how I Target
1:14:43
them with a really big bait um and using finesse applications and mindsets even
1:14:50
with 30 lb line and a 10-inch hunk of rubber yeah you know size and finesse
1:14:55
are not mutually exclusive we we know somebody in our Circle that uh has been
1:15:00
preaching that message for years and we've been laughing at him but uh how true it is here here uh Oliver listen uh
1:15:09
we want to thank you for joining us today really appreciate you making some time out of your busy schedule uh it's
1:15:15
always nice to be the Pioneer the leader because there's only one first and in
1:15:20
this particular case uh advocating for the consumption of largemouth bass
1:15:27
especially out of a state like California that's known for trophies that's quite the statement you are probably the first I'm going to safely
1:15:34
say to start preaching that sort of messaging but uh it makes a whole lot of sense I do urge people to make sure that
1:15:40
you look into this and realize that it's not one size fits all uh there are
1:15:48
different regions different bodies of water different circumstances that will
1:15:53
call for something uh a a little more unique to that particular area so
1:15:58
absolutely uh but I love it love it man uh can't thank you enough for joining us I want to wish you the best of luck hey
1:16:03
when you're up uh this neck of the woods look us up man love to hook up we'll do sure yeah it's been too long since I've
1:16:10
actually got to cast at a Canadian large mouth or or small mouth so I'd love to share the definitely share the boat with
1:16:16
you guys perfect wonderful thank you Oliver appreciate it Oliver NY uh take
1:16:23
it for what you want that is quite a statement as he said at the beginning of the of his segment uh
1:16:30
you have to have quite a set of balls to come out with a stat like thaty like him
1:16:35
I was going to say especially when you're selling the whole notion of being a Trophy Hunter and and spending all
1:16:41
your life looking for large mouth bass to come out and also be probably the first one to say but we should be eating
1:16:48
some of them and his and his his mind frame his theory in in a sense you know when we were talking there I got
1:16:54
thinking about Sean's Lake yeah and uh not not large M Bass But musky I you
1:16:59
can't hardly catch a big musky in that lake anymore yet you can catch 20 little guys or 10 little guys in a weekend for
1:17:06
sure I mean if we didn't catch 10 small muskies in a weekend it wouldn't have
1:17:11
been a normal weekend that's what it's like now it's riddled with all these little muskies and that's not really the way you want I'm wondering if there's
1:17:17
all these little guys are just overpopulating and there's no room for getting bigger we've been on like that before one that comes to mind is uh is
1:17:24
that was underutilized was a calling Lake in Alberta remember those Walley unbelievable they there was a a billion
1:17:31
not a million a billion walleye to be caught but they were all just stunted
1:17:37
and SC and scw going in right they were just that was a and they had a zero
1:17:42
retention rate I think uh at that time the province of Alberta had a zero retention rate on that lake so you know
1:17:50
there's something to this it's not you know it's management right it's uh something we're not pros at but maybe
1:17:56
our m&r's and our scientists and biologists maybe they can you know give some science on it yes have we talked to
1:18:03
um have we talked to uh Dr Cook about this at all we talked to uh Paul romsky
1:18:09
Dr Paul romsky W I don't know if we've brought it up with cook actually that be a good
1:18:16
one yeah it's funny it's funny though cuz you look at Walley like you look at teds Lake he's got a zero catch and releas and it's all big and you're
1:18:22
getting you're hard to getting any small ones so I think it's all about the body of water too right I think you have to really look into the body of water the
1:18:28
carrying capacity technically right so maybe Hawk Lake just has a crazy carrying capacity with like with the
1:18:35
like the bait source and stuff in there don't know it's it's it's a oneof there's no doubt about it I I don't
1:18:41
think we've ever run across another situation like Hawk Lake there's just nothing like it uh and it would it' be
1:18:49
interesting to see how uh Ted would view this podcast would he uh Ted putam uh
1:18:55
would would look at this he'll have our last one he had he had some comments
1:19:00
about thei one oh yeah Ted's always got comments but I don't think you can compare the two because I mean let's be
1:19:06
honest about it where where Largemouth live there are usually a ton of them I
1:19:12
don't think there's any shortage now not necessarily big fish but a ton of bass
1:19:18
right right so you know I think for the most part we should be looking at
1:19:25
some level of consumption wonder about bigger legs though very quickly uh like like a Rice Lake or a bay aqu quiny
1:19:31
would it make a difference either way I mean yeah you can kill them and it's not going to hurt anything that's one thing but if you kill the smaller ones is
1:19:38
going to help that body of water there's so much forage food area weed beds etc
1:19:43
etc that I don't know if you'd affect it so it'd still be okay killing them and and eating them but I don't think you'd be hurting the population but I don't
1:19:50
know if you'd be helping the big fish population you know what I mean on a huge body of water like that so that's
1:19:55
it's all speculation I guess yeah it's you
1:20:00
know you can tip the scales one way the other by overdoing anything absolutely in moderation I think anything is doable
1:20:07
I think if if we have that uh attitude that moving forward maybe this summer
1:20:14
maybe we can kind of start thinking that way moving forward that uh on a body of
1:20:19
water that has uh bass and walleye and we traditionally take a limit of wall
1:20:24
out for food you know maybe maybe that's where the experiment starts and and you say well you know what maybe I'll take a
1:20:30
couple of bass instead and just slowly in moderation everything is is is safe
1:20:36
it's when you go over that that safe point that it becomes uh but anyways
1:20:42
it's an interesting topic I I definitely would like to talk to uh our fish doc stepen cook on that and see what he has
1:20:48
to say interesting um that are it what a great show uh very very inter something
1:20:55
for Peter to read over there well then why don't we have Peter read that right now would be this one here do sir large
1:21:02
there you go and it's a large mod wow well we're not interrupting the program but we will say we're interrupting this
1:21:07
program to bring you the much anticipated bonus code for the latest fishing Canada giveaways this week's
1:21:13
code is Largemouth no l a r g e m o u t
1:21:19
h all caps that's Largemouth you can get 10 free entries uh to our current
1:21:25
giveaways give her come on large mouth also want to remind folks the ongoing
1:21:30
fishing Canada contest where you can win a bevy of goodies at any given time all you have to do is go in and enter uh
1:21:38
brought to you by in a lot of cases not all brought to you by the good Folks at jnb cycle J&B cycle and Marine Ontario's
1:21:47
largest Princecraft and Mercury uh dealer if you have not been to their site and check them out it is uh a
1:21:53
breathtaking array of goodies that you will find indeed um J andb cycle they uh that's JB
1:22:00
cycle.com if you're looking for their website by the way but uh other than that I think we're good to go Bey I want
1:22:07
to remind folks once again for those of you in the province of Ontario uh there's a big election going
1:22:13
on if you're not aware of it you need to look into it because we need to get out and make a difference and stop belly
1:22:19
aing about I don't like that guy he doesn't make any sense he's always
1:22:25
taking money away from me and I can't make ends meet well you know that's the whole thing at election time uh I talked
1:22:32
to a guy just today it's funny because he's a businessman which really blows my
1:22:39
mind he's a little rough around the edges but nonetheless he's an entrepreneur let's call him an
1:22:44
entrepreneur I wouldn't call him a businessman but I would call him an entrepreneur oh boy I hope he doesn't listen to this podcast well I hope he
1:22:51
does and I would like to you know name him but I won't I won't but he's
1:22:57
lecturing me on uh you know the importance of having the right people at
1:23:03
in the right places pulling the right levers pushing the right buttons and how
1:23:09
he hates this guy and that guy's unqualified and that woman shouldn't even be in politics and he's going on
1:23:16
and he's like I'm thinking wow this guy is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to to you know politics and voting and
1:23:22
all that stuff you know I might want to hang out with him a little bit and maybe some of it'll rub off on me he sounds so
1:23:28
good so where's this going cuz he's a total [ __ ] that's where this is going
1:23:34
because so then I said to him well that's great you know this is uh you know this is the opportunity that we
1:23:39
wait for to see if we can make a difference and and pick the person that we think based on our
1:23:47
research and information gathering and make hopefully the right choice this time and we'll all be better off for it
1:23:54
he looks at me he say what do you mean I said get we got to get out and vote here in a few days oh I don't do any of that
1:24:01
crap it's all [ __ ] I wouldn't ever [ __ ] I'm not kidding I just about my God oh my
1:24:08
God crapped myself yeah this guy he's giv me a whole lecture on how important
1:24:14
it is and how the people in power they don't have they don't know this they're dumb like he's going on and on and then
1:24:19
he said yeah I don't vote wow oh God help us all and that's why
1:24:25
ladies and gentlemen that's why we are where we are today and we need to make a difference get out I don't care who you
1:24:32
will for just get out and do it you've got a couple of weeks left take advantage of the opportunity that's it
1:24:38
let's not get too political on behalf of the entire crew uh vva was patiently uh
1:24:43
sitting through this whole ordeal about massacring fish and and how didn't think
1:24:49
I was cringing on his I over at him during the whole spine thing I want to
1:24:54
do that right in front of vula with that head will you shut up uh vula Director of Photography at
1:25:02
fish in Canada and here on Outdoor Journal radio network podcast uh Nikki V
1:25:08
busy doing his Social Media stuff as he usually is and listening to us rambl on
1:25:14
um and over there we have Dean Taylor producer at large of this wonderful
1:25:19
program he's Peter Bowman I'm Angel Bola thanks for joining us catch you next time
1:25:29
[Music] [Applause] this episode of Outdoor Journal radio
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has been brought to you in part by the invasive species Center protecting Canada's land and water from invasive
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