The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 710: MeatEater Radio Live! Noodle the Morel Dog and Kayak Bassing

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Hosts Spencer Neuharth, Ryan Callaghan, and Brody Henderson, talk with Ellen and her mushroom-hunting dog, Noodle, find out how much Cal and Brody know about their fellow outdoorsmen with a game of Meat Poll, play a round of 1-Minute Fishing with Kristine Fischer in Oklahoma, chat with Brock Wahl about the newly formed North American Pronghorn Foundation, and review listener hot tips about parenting in the outdoors with a special guest judge Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. long lost treasure chest while you cook the lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen, discover bestselling adventure stories on audible. Steve Rinella here. The American West with Dan Flores is a new podcast production on the meat eater podcast network. It's hosted by author and historian, Dan Flores, who happens to be mine and our own Dr.

Randall's former professor by focusing on deep time, wild animals, native peoples in the West unique environments. Flores will challenge your understanding of the American West and he will help to explain why it is the way it is today. I count Dan Flores as a friend. We do not agree on everything, but he has had a massive impact on my understanding of American history and I invite you to get challenged by him in the same way that I have. Catch the premiere of the American West with Dan Flores on Tuesday May 6th on

the MeatEater Podcast Network. Subscribe to the American West with Dan Flores on Apple, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcast listen to Dan and it will stretch your brain all out and I mean that in a very good way Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live! It's 11am Mountain Time. It's 1pm for our friends in Simpsonville, Kentucky on Thursday, May 29th. And we're live from Meteor HQ in Bozeman. I'm your host Spencer, joined today by Cal and Brody. On today's show, we'll talk to Ellen and her mushroom hunting dog Noodle.

Then we'll find out how much Cal and Brody know about their fellow outdoorsmen with a game of meat pole. After that, we've got One Minute Fishing with Christine Fisher in Oklahoma, followed by an interview with Brock Wall about the newly formed North American Pronghorn Foundation. And finally, we've got a hot tip off with a special guest judge about parenting in the outdoors. First Cal Brody, I don't want a hunting update,

I don't want a fishing update from you guys, I want a garden update. How the garden's looking? Garden's in, I mean it's early days, right? What's gonna be different this year, Brody? Oh, we do something different every year. I let the boys pick. We're doing some corn this year,

which will be new for us. Okay, that was of interest to them? Yeah, that's what they wanted. So what'd you leave behind to get them? I just like buying the six for $3 pack a corn at the grocery store. Okay Yes, standard stuff tomatoes cucumbers strawberries pole beans lots of herbs just Standard stuff you feel an optimistic this year. Oh, yeah, man. I grow an awesome garden

Oh, it doesn't like it's ass go to hell when you leave for a week to go fishing at Fort Peck or something No, no, no I just water the shit out of it and then put malts down and it's good like as long as it's later if you did That this time of year you'd be trouble but in August it's okay Cal give us a garden update. How are things looking? We had a real serious talk the lady and I and and came to the conclusion that We had a real serious talk, the lady and I, and came to the conclusion that it's just not worth

doing a garden this year. Oh, okay. Because of lots of overlapping travel. Like nobody, and you know, it's just not a high producer anyway with our setup. So we have garlic and onions. Okay. You think that'll work out?

Yeah. But my mom is, if anybody needs a sweet little farm outside of the Billings, Montana area, the folks are selling out 90 acres irrigated right outside of Shepherd. It's a sweet spot. Kill geese there all the time. How many trees are on this property? Trees? Yeah.

For tree stands? Well, a bunch of cottonwoods. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Would a tree stand fit in one of them? Oh yeah. Okay.

Yeah. And you would attract wildlife because it is like zero habitat anywhere around there. Okay. Because it is just is just wall to wall farming. Good salesman. Uh, but yeah, great spot. And, um, if it wasn't just weren't so many people, I'd be buying that thing. Anyway, um, she's got a tremendous garden always has and comes with the farm, comes with the farm.

And now it's, it's pretty funny cuz it's just like all the volunteer stuff that's coming up and so we picked cilantro and and lettuce and Hit the asparagus patch and this is where the conflict comes in. Oh, we're pulling asparagus, right? Because I'm like, yeah, you guys aren't Places gonna sell okay and pulling asparagus and my mom's like what the hell are you doing you got to cut that off beneath the soil line hmm or it won't grow back okay and I was kind of like well you guys are leaving what's the anyway but then hop on a plane go to Wisconsin see bubbly Doug and out there

at the Durin farm they have a tremendous asparagus patch. Oh. And I notice that Doug's lovely wife Trish aka Trish the Dish as I like to call her. Who else calls her that? Nobody. I'm trying to establish it though. Okay. And I mean she is such a sweet person that I just try to make sure that that Doug knows that as well mmm, and he does okay, but amazing asparagus patch and None of them are cut off low. Oh, and so I said Trish man. What's the what's the deal?

Aren't you supposed to and she's like, yep, you are I just never do and look at the results I just saw a Facebook argument about this like last week about the same thing someone was mad at their neighbor for Stealing from their ditch asparagus patch and doing it the wrong way Well, not only were they thiefing it but also those MFers were doing it the wrong way by not taking it down to the soil I seem like in the comments folks were We're doing it the wrong way by not taking it down to the soil. It seemed like in the comments folks were Mostly on their side saying you have to take it off below the soil and then there were other people saying it doesn't matter I never noticed a difference. Yeah, I mean there's foraging etiquette rules, right sure that we should all live by mm-hmm because

If done properly, it's gonna be there year after year after year You hear the same thing said with morale mushrooms. Yeah, like you're supposed to cut instead of pull that one is totally false Yeah, leave the stumps in the ground you can pull those things right out of the ground That's like plucking an apple off of a tree You're not you're just taking the apple even if you pull the whole thing out. You're not taking the whole tree away They're all that mycelium underneath. It's still gonna produce a mushroom if it wants to the next year that little stuff Is it gonna help or hurt anything. Yeah, but they'll grow in clumps, right?

So I've gone back and picked the same spot during that same week-long period of real fruit harvest, right? And have seen plenty of mushrooms growing up next to stumps. But I know you're right Yeah, it's just hard to break that yeah It's also a little cleaner if you if you take the whole thing off like if you if you pull it out of the ground

You're gonna get you're getting yeah like five to ten percent more mushroom, but you might trim that off at home anyway Yeah, and then in the bag that dirty stumps rolling around sure and it's getting in the gills of the mushrooms And it's just more clean and plus you can look at it two ways either You are letting other folks know because I'll come across someone else's morale stumps. Oh, damn it. They beat me here It's like coming across a giant surface poop with tons of white flagging all over the place or a big gut pile Yeah, yeah Fresh boot tracks that come in from some uh-huh. You're the only truck at the trailhead Tons of white flagging all over the place. Or a big gut pile. Yeah, exactly. Fresh boot tracks that come in from some,

you're the only truck at the trailhead. Fresh snow on the ground to set the scene. Hell of a blizzard the night before. The time, like everything's right. You're the first person there. One set of tracks and you're like, that whole spot's blown. And for whatever reason,

somebody hiked over the hill from a different angle and he cut boot tracks about a mile in Yeah, then you're just like yeah, so when I find those stumps someone else has bested me They've like got me there, but now I know there were morales there. Yeah, so they're leaving me a little bit of information Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like people who have to put a trail camera up everywhere Speaking of foraging let's get to our first interview. Joining us on the line now is Ellen and her mushroom hunting dog, Noodle. Ellen and Noodle, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having us.

First thing, Ellen, tell us about Noodle. How old is she? What kind of dog is she? Where'd you get her? So Noodle is four and a half years old. I got her actually, it was a long story of kind of fate how I ended up with her but I ultimately picked her up at a children's rodeo in Northern California. She's a lab half border collie, as far as I know from an unwanted litter. Okay, and we can see noodle noodle is with Ellen right now for the interview. You should go watch this episode, you'll get to see the dog we're talking about

plus Phil has some photos of noodle foraging. Now, have you ever met another mushroom hunting dog in your life? You know, I've spoken to a couple people online who are maybe training or trying to and I actually used to live in Italy where a lot of people use truffle dogs. So I was inspired by that.

Oh, you want your ball, huh? And so that did inspire me, but I haven't met anybody in person yet. I'd love to meet up with somebody else who has a mushroom dog though. Okay, and how long has Noodle had this special talent? So I taught her about three years ago. She was a little over a year old when I first taught her our first morale season.

And tell us about the training process for teaching Noodle to find mushrooms. Yeah, so there's a lot of info out there on kind of proper scent training protocol. I'll just say I didn't do any of that. I just kind of winged it out in the woods one day. I pointed to a morel and I just said, where's the mushroom? She sniffed it. I immediately threw a stick for her

because she is a dog. She's just absolutely fetch crazy. She will die trying to get that ball. So I threw a stick for her. I called her back to the same morel, pointed at it trying to get that ball. So I threw a stick for her. I called her back to the same morale, pointed at it, threw the stick again. Then I went to a third morale and she really within 15 minutes had just cracked the code. And she was off running 200 feet away, just waiting for me to throw the ball for her.

That's that Labrador brain right there. Now what was the most challenging part of teaching Noodle to find mushrooms? You know Honestly was surprisingly easy, but I'd say at the beginning it was a little hard to get her to differentiate Okay, which mushrooms are good which which mushrooms are bad, but she did. I mean she figured it out quickly It's like if she sniffed the wrong kind of mushroom. I'm like, no, that's not a mushroom. You don't get a stick. So she figured it out fast. Now, in most videos, I see Noodle finding morel mushrooms. What are the other good mushrooms that she'll help you find?

So she has about seven varieties. We do morels. We taught her chanterelles afterwards. Then Matsutake, we do porcini, um, handicapped. She taught herself, which was pretty annoying. Uh, because she saw me collecting them, and then she was like, I want to get in on this, and started trampling them. But, um, we also do black trumpets. I didn't say that one.

Okay. Sounds like Noodle has taught herself this skill for the most part. Now, how does she alert you when she finds a good mushroom? You know that position that dogs get in when they're waiting for you to throw the ball and they're kind of crouched down, just add attention. She just crouches by the mushroom and gets that alert look on her face. And if I don't see it, I'll often say show me. And then she taps it with her nose. And if I really, she thinks I'm being a total idiot

and I really can't see it, she smacks it with her paw. Occasionally she knocks them out of the ground completely. That's awesome. Extra helpful. Now you said the reward is throwing a stick or a ball. That's what you do every time she finds a good mushroom? Yeah, if it's a good one. If it's a little nasty, I say, oh, that's nasty, find another.

Or if she's really found a cluster and she's going from mushroom to mushroom, I say, all right, you have to just lay down and wait for me to collect all of these and then you'll get your reward. That's great. Now, morels are not toxic for dogs. Does Noodle ever get to eat them or express any interest in eating them? Well, I will actually clarify that a bit because while morels are not toxic, they're actually toxic raw. And there was even a poisoning that included some deaths in the last few years,

I believe in Montana that's kind of highly debated in the mushroom world, but they are toxic raw for both humans and dogs. So always cook your morels super thoroughly. You basically can't overcook them, but don't eat them raw. I, you know, she'll occasionally bite them or lick them. Really not much of a bite. She's not enough to eat anything, but I have her pretty well trained on not eating food that I don't want her to eat.

So I haven't actually given her any mushrooms before. I don't really want to give her much of a taste for it. I've heard with truffle pigs, one of the risks because they're not quite as trainable, they will bite the owner's hands or the trainer's hands while the trainer's harvesting the truffle. So I want to avoid that more or less. Yeah. What has been Noodle's best ever day of foraging? Gosh, I mean, that's a tough one. Every time she finds, every time I train her in a new species. So I would say the second, second species I taught her in was Chantrell's and

it actually took her a lot longer than the Morels. We went up to Mendocino and there's just, it's such a rich diversity of fungal activity. There were so many mushrooms everywhere. So she was getting distracted, but when she finally pinpointed like, okay, these are the ones that she wants, doesn't want any of these other ones.

We found over 50 pounds in like, you know, an an hour or two and I sold some to a restaurant. It was great. So that was a highlight for sure. That is great. How has the Morale season been for you so far this year in Northern California? Yeah, it's been pretty hit or miss. I'd say we got hot. We didn't have great snowpack in the Sierra this season.

It dried up a little quickly. So my lower elevation spots, like 3,000, that range, the mid-range really dried up fast. And then now we're having some, I'm not having a bad season in the higher elevation. Okay. Good, good for you guys. Good for Noodle. If folks want to follow along with you and Noodle's mushroom hunting adventures, how can they do so?

We've got an Instagram page, it's really goodnoodle, and I've got a lot of videos of her running around in the woods, getting up to adventures together, and we do have TikTok as well, same name, not as active there though. One of my favorite follows on social media is Ellen in Noodle. Thank you guys for joining us.

Please tell Noodle she's a good girl and we're very impressed with her foraging skills. Thanks so much for having us. Thank you. That's sweet. Cal, I love Snort. Snort's a great dog. I'd rather have a mushroom hunting dog.

I think good hunting dog can hunt anything. That's right, okay. I'd like to see you teach snort. It sounds like if the dog is into it, there's not a lot to do. Yep. And I mean, yeah, it's the prey drive plus the praise drive. What kind of praise does snort get when she's being a good girl on a hunt? Well, you know, like she doesn't want to be I give her praise, huh? Really she wants food at the end of the day But man during a hunt you can't hardly touch her

Her praise is just fine in a bird right? Leave her alone. Oh she wants that bird so bad. Yeah. Yeah All right. Our next segment is MeatPole. I said show me your meat boys and take my pole. Welcome to MeatEater Radio. I got a game to play. MeatPole is a test of how much you know about your fellow hunters and anglers. I surveyed 500 meat eater listeners about the outdoors. Your job is to predict their answers. There are three questions. Whoever is closest to the correct answer between Cal and Brody gets a point and whoever gets two points will be the winner. Also

the chat should play along because Phil is going to watch your answers and give a shout out to whoever is close. I'm not following. What if what if we both get two points? There's only three questions, so that won't happen. Oh, I got one of you is going to get a point each question. And that's that's how we're going to settle this thing. All right. Question one. What percentage of media listeners have watched their pickup in the last month?

We supposed to write this right, write down an answer, hide your answer. That's right. What percentage of meat eater listeners have washed their pickup in the last month? Now for this question, I said for pickup owners only, which happened to be about 90% to folks who took the survey. So what percentage of those people

have washed their pickup in the last month? Cowan, the last time you washed your pickup. I am not a good vehicle washer. Never ever, ever have been. Okay. That doesn't surprise me. But part of my Memorial Day cleanup was vacuuming out the truck and with the dog hair and the sand and all the stuff. And then I did, I wasn't intending to wash the truck,

but I needed to spray out the floor mats. Okay. Cause they were real gnarly. And so I did end up hosing off the truck. I bet I go through a car wash, I don't know, four or five times a year, not that often. I'm conscious of it. If I go on a hunt where I think I'm gonna end up asking for permission.

Oh yeah. Because when I go knock on someone's door, and if I had just like a filthy, dirty, muddy pickup, they're gonna be thinking, this guy wants to drive through my field. That's gonna be a big no. Because one of the first things, if I do get permission, they'll say is just don't drive anywhere.

Don't drive through any gates, don't drive through any fields. So I try to be aware of that. I wanna show up with a sparkling clean pickup either, because then that sends a different message. But if that thing just looks like I drove it through a big old mud puddle, that's no good for me. No, it's not.

Yeah, I mean, but there's also like the noxious weed side of things, right? Like vehicles are a huge vector for spreading bad things. Yeah. And that stuff, like you're driving around say out in eastern, Montana And the gumbo and that stuff gets glued to the bottom of your truck. Yeah, you got to get rid of it Yeah, hey Phil. Do you have any bed of music to play while we while we do this? Nothing original. Oh, that's okay. Do you boys have an answer for what percentage of media listeners have washed their pickup in the last month? Go ahead and reveal your answers

This is the one came out. Okay. All right, so I'm not go ahead Brody says 71 percent Cal says 41 percent The correct answer is 30.5 percent So Cal gets that first point 30.5% of media listeners have washed their pickup. A bunch of dirtbags not washing their stuff. In the last month. One study showed that the average person washes their car 13 times a year. That same study showed that 79% of people go to a car wash versus 21% of people who wash their car at home.

But when it comes to the interior, the average person cleans the inside of their car once a year. I just paid my boys to detail my truck. Oh are they are they can I hire them too? Well depends on how much you want to. What do you charge? The quality of the job is gonna be based on how much you're willing to pay them. What did you pay them? I was a little underwhelmed and I had to up the ante. ante was about 50 bucks They split 50. Okay, did it seem like a $50 job to you? Yeah, it was worth it to me. I didn't want to spend a couple hours doing that Montana hunter said 28. Oh well done Montana hunter. You were two percentage points off All right question to what percentage of meat eater listeners have ever bitten into a BB?

What percentage of meat eater listeners You're talking like any kind of pellet like not a BB like a BB gun. Yeah any kind of pellet shotgun pellet But it does like thank you Phil that ups that makes it so much better what we're doing here What percentage of meat eater listeners have ever bitten into a BB? Cal, how many BBs in your lifetime? I'm gonna guess like five or six. Oh buddy, I got two cracked teeth in my face right now. Five or six a year?

Oh yeah. So how many? What's the number? Oh. Twenty. I was gonna say thirty, but I thought that sounded dramatic, but it's definitely higher than 20 Do you think you've gotten better or worse in your lifetime about cleaning BBs out of self well? Technology is a mother scratcher number nine tungsten. Yeah, holy cow dude buried like oh

In the bottom of a thigh or a breast. Yeah. You can't find that stuff. Probably swallowed several of them. Yeah. Without knowing they're dead. How about you, Brody? How many BBs have you bitten into?

Dozens. Dozens. I mean, there's degrees of biting too. It's like, oh, I feel it and I just spit it out, no big deal. And there's like, wham, you come down on it with both molars that's rough yeah I'm at single digits but it's because one like the last experience was really bad where I'm like I'm never gonna let that happen again I'm gonna clean these things so thorough or I'm gonna cut the meat so thin a BB is never gonna make it onto my dinner plate yeah they just find a way in there man yeah

when you get the one that we're like it, there's like a mammalian spinal reflex that happens. Yeah, it's almost like, it's like as shocking as a bad electric shock. Yes, oh yeah. It goes all the way down your spine. Roots and meal. So what percentage of meat eater listeners have ever bitten into a BB?

Are you boys ready? Sure. Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Brody saying 88%, Cal says 63%. One of you is within three points of the correct answer. The correct answer is 65.9%. Cal is on fire. Man of people here.

80% of Americans over the age of 40 have had at least one cracked or fractured tooth in their lifetime the most common foods that crack teeth are hard candy nuts ice popcorn kernels and bone-in meat that study I was looking at never said anything about pellets but I imagine our audience is very familiar with that feeling you boys are describing. I think, uh, you overestimated how many bird hunters we have. I think that's the... Yeah, but ducks, pheasants, turkeys, I mean... They're all birds. One thing in common.

I know. Just like, I'm a little disappointed. Alright, question three. We had the broke three gunner saying 67, so good job. Damn! One percentage point off. Here's question three We'll see if Cal can get the clean sweep and make Brody run around the office naked as is tradition When you get skunked naked lap what percentage of meat eater listeners have fishing bait in their fridge or freezer right now? Oh That's a tough one for a Montana kid. You do? What do you got?

Jared E. Meyer leeches? From the garden? Got some crawlers and leeches. How are you going to spend those? What do you mean spend them? Yeah, like it's fishing currency. What are you going to do with them? Catch a bunch of walleye, hopefully.

Maybe some perch. What percentage of meat eater listeners have fishing bait in their fridge or freezer right now? I have some deer liver that earmarked for some catfish on the Yellowstone River later this summer. So I've got some in my freezer. How about you Cal, any bait in your home right now? Well, you already asked the question, but I feel like old meat doesn't,

doesn't qualify for this question or shouldn't? Oh, I think folks would know if they put it in their freezer for the purpose of catching a fish. They probably answered honestly. What percentage of meat eater listeners have fishing bait in their fridge or freezer right now? Okay. Boys ready?

Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Cal saying 38 and Brody saying 50. It's a clean sweep for Cal. The correct answer is 34.9%. Cal dominated today. Very close on every one of these questions. He's declared it before, he's a man of the people, but this game really proves it. Phil, this has high hopes for people.

Will you take that Spencer Neuhearth sound clip that might be the nicest thing he ever says about me and we need to memorialize that someplace? Americans spend 1.5 billion dollars on live bait and natural bait each year. That's 50% more than they spend on lures and flies and 20% less than they spend on boat fuel. Bait accounts for about 13% of all fishing related expenses. And Ryan Carlson said 34.5. Damn,.4 percentage points off. 35% of people who are listening to this show have bait in their fridge or freezer right now. While you cook the lasagna, there's more to imagine when you listen. Discover bestselling adventure stories on Audible. Steve Rinella here.

The American West with Dan Flores is a new podcast production on the MeatEater Podcast Network. It's hosted by author and historian Dan Flores, who happens to be mine and our own Dr. Randall's former professor. By focusing on deep time, wild animals, native peoples in the West's unique environments, Flores will challenge your understanding of the American West and he will help to explain why it is the way it is today. I count Dan Flores as a friend. We do not agree on everything, but he has had a massive

impact on my understanding of American history and I invite you to get challenged by him in the same way that I have. Catch the premiere of the American West with Dan Flores on Tuesday, May 6th on the meat eater podcast network. Subscribe to the American West with Dan Flores on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to Dan and it will stretch your brain all out. And I mean that in a very good way.

All right, moving on. Our next segment is one minute fishing. Choose and bait. Well, do you find out in a second, go ahead. Make my cast spread in a ringer here. Didn't you? We were trying to one minuteishing is where we go live to someone who's fishing

and they have one minute to catch a fish. And if they're successful, we'll make a $500 donation to a conservation group. This week, our angler is Christine Fisher, AKA Midwest Fisher Gal on Instagram. She's on 10 Killer Lake in Oklahoma and fishing for a donation to the first Wisconsin chapter of Muskies Inc.

Christine, welcome to the show. Hey guys, how's it going? We're doing good. Christine is pre-fishing for a tournament today. So tell us about the tournament that you'll be competing in. So I am practicing for the Bassmaster Kayak Open here on Lake Ten Kyo in Oklahoma. I think it's the third open of the year. I've only fished here one time before. We had a championship here last year, different time of year, but this lake is gorgeous. Has big, small mouth, large mouth.

I've had a pretty good bite going, but the fish, the lake is about seven foot flooded. The fish are kind of spread out. They're post spawn. So bites are few and far between, but when you can get them to eat, they're pretty good size. Okay, tell us about your kayak setup that you got there.

I'm fishing out of a Hobie Pro Angler 14 360. I'm heating, I got a little motor on the back because we get lazy in our old age. I have two low-rance graphs up front. I've got about 15 rods with me right now. I've got a few different patterns going. I've been trying to just break down this leg. I didn't get a ton of, don't get a ton of practice on this one, but yeah, it's a pretty good setup. I love it. It's comfortable. I can stand up. I stand and fish and use that these two little foot pedals right here for control steering So I can set my motor on you know, a mile and a half an hour stand up

Powerfish and run a pattern and it's it's pretty effective for me Amazing little boat now christine is fished in 171 kayak bass tournaments. She's placed in the top 10 in 60 of them and took first place in 10 of them. So Christine, give some advice to folks listening who want to catch more fish from a kayak. So the best advice I can give you gotta get out

there and do it first and foremost. Coyotes are great because it forces you to kind of really learn an area. So I always advocate for kayak fishing, but I always tell people, fish your confidence, fish your strength. If you hear the doc talk that people are crushing them on a crank pan on a square bill

and you don't necessarily love throwing a square bill, you're not gonna catch those fish. So I always tell people when it's tournament time, when it comes down to putting fish in the boat, you need to fish your strength no matter where you're at, just try to find water that suits your strength. And at the end of the day, fishing how you like to fish, that makes it a lot more fun too.

Good advice. Now for the one minute of fishing, what kind of area are you in and what kind of lure are you throwing? Well, so like I said, my big small mouth, big large mouth bite is few and far between. So I came out to this little island out here in the middle of the lake, and I found some scattered bait.

Then there's some white bass. I've actually caught two of them while you guys were talking. So I'm just, I really want to, yeah, I want to be able to catch just a fish here. So I've got a little paddle tail swim bait, and there's a scattered bait, and there's some white bass kind of cruising in the area. I don't know if I can do it in a minute but I'm gonna try. Okay and standing or sitting? I'm gonna sit because if I stand and I'm setting you guys down my kayak 90% sure my phone will go in the water. So we don't want

to donate a phone to the drink. I've done that a lot. Not today. That's right. Is it intimidating to know that all of your tournament experience is culminating right now at MeatEater one minute fishing? I'm not gonna lie, I usually don't cave under pressure, but I'm feeling the pressure on this one, you guys. I want the Wisconsin muskie guys to get a little donation because I fish muskies up there all the time.

And I don't know, I mean this is more important than winning this tournament honestly in my opinion. I love that attitude, I'm rooting for you. All right Christine, your one minute of fishing starts as soon as you make your first cast. Okay, let's see. Pick your spot. Oh, all right. She's made our cast Got an interesting perspective here. I've never watched someone fish from the bottom of the feet before don't you don't put this on speedfinder Christine you're 15 seconds in 15 seconds in. A little paddle tail. There's some overcast today.

Conditions look good. Maybe a slight breeze. Yeah, I like it. Christine, 30 seconds to go. She's gonna make another cast. Got time for another cast. I love it. That's some crucial mental game right there.

Do you keep playing it or do you recast? 20 seconds to go, Christine. My heart's beating. Ten seconds left. We just need one white bass. She had a bite right at the end. Your one minute is up. Tell us what happened there, Christine.

Man, I had a little group of them right there and yeah, I didn't catch them. They came after it, but like I said, I've caught two here in the last couple minutes. I think they got smart to what I was doing. Okay, they knew you were now on the show and not just pre-fishing for the show. Dang, dang. I probably would have just thrown the... I've been catching these big smallmouth on a big seven-inch swim bait and under skipping in our docks and around some flooded cover. I probably just should have rolled the dice with that. I got one last question, Christine.

Ten Killer Lake is known for a mythical freshwater octopus. Have you seen any evidence of the freshwater octopus this week? No, but I think it's an unagi, it's an octopus. It's not Japanese unagi. That's one of my favorite like sashimi things. So if I do find some, I'll let you guys know how that tastes. Keep your eyes peeled. I'd love to know more about that. Definitely not a, not seen any. Okay the ten killer octopus continues to be elusive.

All right thank you for joining us Christine good luck in the tournament this week. Thank you. Have you ever seen a kayak like that? Man, it's intense, like an arms race of kayaking, like all things. It's, yeah, it's impressive. I mean, there's guys that are, like, doing offshore blue water fishing in those. Oh, big time, yeah. You know, it's pretty cool. Yeah. Alright, we're halfway through the show. Let's take a break for some listener feedback. Phil, what's the chat have to say?

We're halfway through the show. Let's take a break for some listener feedback Phil. What's the chat have to say? Yeah, Leland our guy says cow. What are you looking forward to most about BHA rendezvous? Oh, yeah We got rendezvous coming up starting I'm gonna be there all week, but it's June like 14 15 16 Zula in Missoula, Montana. Yep great people Fantastic people we got a bunch of stuff to recap. We got it. Keep folks motivated on Public lands we got corner crossing cases is getting revived at this point

I kind of feel like we should be thanking iron bar holdings because they just keep keep it Yeah, because now it's going to the highest court in the land Which means corner crossing is going gonna be legal everywhere for certain And it's gonna be on their dime, which is great What's kind of the general temperature on that right now? Are people optimistic that they're going to side with the hunters and public land users? Well, you know politics shouldn't come into play and stuff like this, right? Like a judge is supposed to be impartial. But I think that is the idea is that they're

going to lean way more conservative and they're going to somehow turn it into a private property rights thing where it, I mean, it just is not right. It's like you're stepping from public land to public land. There's a couple of bad actors out there that are trying to monopolize public land through the use of strategically purchased private land. But man, I feel really good about it. I mean, we have two federal court decisions. Yeah.

That's the thing is like the Supreme court has to find a good reason to not agree with the decisions that were already made. Yeah, I think there's a high likelihood that the Supreme Court's going to be like, this is not worth our time or the taxpayers time to review this. We defer to the lower courts. Sure. So you expect there to be some chatter about that at the BHA rendezvous? Yeah, I mean, we'll have some panels on all the policy stuff and that's a huge reason that people show up. I mean, say like, here you get to follow your cash in person, right? Become a member. This is what you're paying for. This is what we're working on. Here's all the issues that we're working across in North America.

Plus there's really good food and just it's a refreshing Kind of refill your cup type of experience. It's not Draining like like some of these Events that we all put together are so and Missoula is a good place to be in the summer Missoula is a great place to be in summer. What else you got Phil? Spencer I don't know if you watched the show last week But there was some some debate about if they prefer the free wheel and Yanni show, or the professional show that you run. But we've got a lot of people asking for random, for hunting stories, for meandering hunting stories.

Okay, you boys have any hunting stories too? You got anything new you haven't shared yet? I'm just trying to balance the shows out. If we sat around, and I don't want us to just talk about hunting stories every week. So I'm trying to be the the yin to Yanni's yin. And I think I think that's good. I think I think it should be a different show, a different flavor based on who's

hosting. I'll tell you this. Yanni is back in one of the host chairs next week. He's on a hunt right now. So so expect some hunting stories then. But in the meantime, Cal Brody, anything to share? No, man, hunting season's over for me for a while. It's fishing season now garden season Yeah on that note Sebastian says two days left of turkey hunting in New York running gun or sit and wait Go find them Sebastian New York's a big state

Like gotta know a little more. I mean if you're already on birds I Got to know a little more. I mean if you're already on birds I Would say sit and wait especially this time here and things just are slowed down Yeah, if you can get them to talk to you one time I'm like okay. They know we're here. Yeah, kind of like the best best move you can make so but this late in the year There's probably a lot of vegetation for you to be sneaking around in What else you got another one? Another one from Sebastian. Any update on the venison beef jerky contest? Oh, yeah, kind of.

It's probably not going to happen, Sebastian. The suits here at MeatEater said we shouldn't do that. We shouldn't invite folks to send us food that we're then going to eat because someone's going to get poisoned and then we're're gonna wind up in a lawsuit. So I think we're maybe working on a pivot. I pounded the table hard for us to do this. The idea being that we're gonna bring in 30 venison jerkeys from across the country from listeners.

We're gonna eat them. We're gonna rank the top three. We're gonna hand out some big prizes, but the suit says, no, you're not. So that's where we're at right now. Sebastian, maybe later this year, maybe 2026. That's that's your update. Russell says he's going out for Idaho spring bear June 13th to 14th, a little

later than usual, should I not use the distress caller or yeah, should I not use the distress call or stay with it? He says he always spots and stocks, but this lady's looking for a cruising bore Cal man. Yeah that Believe me, I don't plug stuff just to plug stuff But that Phelps font and distress call and you just make it sound like in your mind You want a crying human infant Like sick and dying human infant. Yep, yep. And you just have that in your mind

as you're hitting that call. And you are not going to see like a crazy amount of action, but it weeds out smaller bears. So you're either gonna get a big sow or a very confident and should be large bore. Could end up happening right in your face too. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm not afraid to scream on that thing. Love it. Find yourself a sick baby, Russell.

All right. One more quick one. Cody, can Phil make a new drop for the trivia tiebreaker question? I think you're a plant from Spencer, Cody, because he's also asked for that. And I think I've got some spare time in the next couple of weeks. I'll try to knock one out. Okay. Well, the people are looking forward to it now. He's made a promise on air, so it's going to happen. All right, moving on. Joining us on the line last is Brock Wall, the founder of the newly formed North American Pronghorn Foundation. Brock, welcome to the show.

Hey guys, thanks for having me. I Brock, welcome to the show. Hey guys, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah, we are too. The North American Pronghorn Foundation is the only conservation group that's dedicated to antelope. Tell us about how and why it was formed. Sure, yeah. First, I would like to say too,

that there are a couple of state-based conservation groups dedicated to pronghorn in Arizona and South Dakota are the two that I know of. But we are indeed the only nationwide one that is focused on pronghorn throughout North America, the entire continent. So I just wanted to make sure that those state-based groups get some love there. But we really got started on Randy Newberg's Hunt Talk Forum. There was just kind of a conversation that took place.

Some guys are asking why one doesn't exist. And a few of us got together and said, well, there's no better time to start than now. So we filed articles of incorporation in 2024 and got started. And we really felt like there's a variety of reasons in terms of our why. But everything from pronghorn populations just

struggling a little bit, habitat problems, migration issues, to also just, you know, with the amount of development that's going on and the amount of pressure that, you know, that Western hunting is receiving, there's also just this need to get more resources on the ground, whether, you know, whether that's the pronghorn or sage grouse or mule deer. I mean, there's a whole host of species that benefit from the same landscapes that pronghorn do. So we really just felt like there was just no reason not to have this group and no reason not to get it started. And what are the current initiatives of the North American Pronghorn Foundation? Well, right now, you know, we're still new. So we're

just over a month old. We went live on April 21st here of this year. And so, so far the things that we've been focused on are trying to get some policy comments out there in for some BLM stuff and for some migration corridor designations. And then we're also working on trying to set up a fencing project here in Northeast Montana. Not a hundred sure if that's going to all come together here this year, but we're super excited about it because we're able to, you know, get some local stakeholders on the ground,

both landowners, other conservation groups, and utilize some GPS collar data from pronghorn in that exact area. So we're really hoping to bring that added value to that Pronghorn research in cooperation with a bunch of partners. And then, really, I don't know that this will be really qualified as an initiative, but really, membership growth is a big priority right now.

We have some really lofty goals, and we'd really like to be able to do some big things around the entire West. And in order to do that, we're going to need a lot of money. And so membership growth is really something that we're focused on and really trying to grow that membership so we can take that money, turn it around, and put it right on the ground. Data shows that pronghorn populations are down

about 20% across the entire continent over the last few years. Talk to us about what the greatest challenges they're facing is and why that might be. Yeah, there's a few things that Pronghorn are really struggling with. And one is winters, obviously. And I think, you know, you probably wouldn't be correct to say that, well, there's not much

we're gonna be able to do about winters. And that's true. However, you know, when we highlight the fact that winters are increasing mortality, there's a couple of variables there that I think are really important to point out as to what is making those winters so hard on Pronghorn. And certainly, extreme winters with a lot of snowpack,

there's going to be some die-off, and you can't really do anything about that. However, you know, we have examples from other research data, from observational data, anecdotal data from landowners, where they're noticing that during those storms, those pronghorn are trying to migrate and they're getting stuck in certain areas because of fences or man-made barriers. Or another element would be, maybe their winter range habitat,

where they're only planning or intending on being at in the winter is degraded so much or non-existent that they just don't have the nutrition on the landscape to make it through that winter. And related to that, something that's really interesting to think about when we think about habitat degradation for pronghorn is that in the last 20 years,

so I think it was the USDA or maybe it was the USGS that came out with a study, and they looked at sagebrush from the years 2001 to 2020. And over that 20 year time period, they found that Western United States was losing a million, just over a million acres of sagebrush per year.

And that's prime forage for pronghorn, it's prime winter habitat, it's prime falling habitat. So it's things like that that we would really like to be able to throw some money on, throw some volunteer power on and some attention to really get things turned the other direction. Now I saw that your first policy action was to support the removal of feral horses from BLM land in Wyoming. Tell us about that.

Yeah, so I know this can be a controversial issue and we certainly don't want to be insensitive to the folks that are really big horse fans. I mean, we have nothing against horses. I grew up with horses. My mom was really big into horses, and so I'm used to being around them. But it's pretty hard to deny, and there's a lot of published peer-reviewed research that supports this idea that, you know, wild horses or feral horses can be really hard on a native landscape. One, because their populations just blow up. They don't really have any natural predators and so, you know, it's

really not uncommon for them to, you know, double their population in a really short period of time on a landscape that is really not suited for them. And so what you end up getting is you end up getting a lot of damage to sagebrush, a lot of damage to winter range, damage to water infrastructure. And it's just, you know, those horses are out competing native species, particularly pronghorn, mule deer, and sagegrouse are really, you know, some of those species that are most affected. And so the BLM has really been on a sort of initiative to try to get this under control and try

to remove some of these horses from the landscape so we can start doing some work for the native species that I know a lot of the hunters and anglers like myself really want. And so that we can start making some headway on sagebrush restoration and things of that nature. And so for us, it was really just about prioritizing pronghorn and their habitat over the feral horses

that are not native and are in almost everywhere in every case, they are vastly overpopulated. Brock, I just spoke with the rancher in California who's got a native population of pronghorn on his ranch. Not huddable, but he's going to join us at Field Table this year at rendezvous. So you got to meet up with him and talk. He actually has a fencing business where he goes through and does some of that mitigation work for wildlife passage. Very cool. Yeah, I'd love to meet him.

Yeah. Brock, I also read you say that Wyoming has some of the best infrastructure in place for antelope and some other states need to catch up. What does that mean exactly? Well, I don't want to make that sound like, you know, the other states aren't doing or pulling their weight. I think part of what we're observing here is just the fact that Wyoming is sparsely populated, which gives them a little bit of advantage when they're trying to deal with some of this stuff in terms of wildlife and habitat. But they really have devoted a lot of resources. They've gotten a lot of support for these things on a political level, through a management level, or level. And so, you know, they just have the

right resources in place. They've had the right support for it, the right public support for it. And I think it's just put them in a position where they're able to utilize, you know, cooperative research unit funding, you know, through the Wyoming Migration Initiative, who's done some fantastic and incredible, you know, really groundbreaking work on migrations for a variety of species. And so I think, you know, when we look at places like Colorado or Montana or Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, you know,

we're starting to see some of that similar migration research and things like that being done. But I really think that what we say when we mean, what we mean when we say that is really just to try to get everybody else operating sort of with that same intent to really try to figure out what pronghorn need, where they're at on the ground at different times of year, and what their challenges are. And there's just very few tools out there that will beat a GPS caller to tell you all that

stuff. Now, last thing, how can listeners support the North American Pronghorn Foundation? Right now you can go to our website, which is pronghorns.org. So that's pronghorns with an S dot org. And that is our website. You can buy memberships there. You can go to our merch store and order t-shirts and hats, things of that nature. And then we also have an Instagram which is napffficial. So N-A-P-F

underscore official. And then you can look us up on on Facebook as well. And we really want your membership. Like I said, we are really trying to grow this organization into something that's impactful. And so we would love for you to give us $35 and let us prove to you that we are who we say we are. We're going to do what we say we're going to do. Again, that is pronghorns.org. Brock, thanks for joining us. And thanks for sticking up for Antelope. Thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Cal, it's been too long for us to not have a pronghorn federation or foundation at, appreciate it. Cal, it's been too long for us to not have a pronghorn federation or foundation at a national level.

Yeah, I mean, for such a crazy, iconic, unique native species, like truly native. It's really wild once you understand how pronghorn are managed differently, state to state, or you could say not managed at all. Sure. State to state. Um, it's like a giant loophole.

So, um, putting some more, more focus, getting that magnifying glass on this species, uh, is, is certainly needed. And Brock's correct, right? Like that sage brush ecosystem or grasslands We're losing about two million acres a year right now So it's the most imperiled ecosystem in the world not just the United States again. That's pronghorns.org Consider joining the North American pronghorn foundation You searched for your informant Who disappeared without a trace? Foundation. While curled up on the couch with your cat, there's more to imagine when you listen.

Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. All right, last thing for today is the hot tip off. H-O-T-T-I-P-OF Turn your head and give cop What's that face? Don't use cop There aren't reading words that rhyme with cough. H-O-T-T-I-P-OF I don't have any hot tips. Let's all do a hot tip off.

H-O-T-T-I-P-OF Let's all do a hot tip off. Hot Tip Off is where two listeners go head to head with competing pieces of advice. And after we hear each tip, we'll declare which one is hotter. If you have a hot tip, take a one minute video on your phone and email it to radio at themedia.com with the subject line Hot Tip Off. This week it's Matt Short vs Ben Hunter, and they're competing for a copy of Catch a Crayfish Count the Stars paperback edition, as well as an MKC flat-tail knife and we

have a special guest judge joining us today Steven Rinella because these are hot tips about parenting and Cal and I have yet to reproduce and you have so we brought you into the studio to decide who's gonna win this. So you guys are you guys even voting or is it? Well I think the listeners vote. This is like very identity politics. Maybe Steve can sway their vote. I think the uncle vote is. I thought we were weighing in, Corey. Everybody can weigh in.

You can weigh in, but I'm the judge, right? If I'm not, I mean, am I the say or not the say? Listen. What do we think? I'm a parent too, man. I got rights. We're gonna let the chat decide. like Brody's like that's my truth We're gonna let the chat decide those are the folks are gonna listen before we go Both of the people that are competing get a copy not just oh, okay. The real prize Is the second blade right here that they're gonna give to their kid and so their kid can yep

Remember tell your kid cut toward your body and not your body. That's right Uh-huh. So uh, steve you're gonna need to watch the screen behind you phil is phil is gonna play these hot tip offs Take it away phil Benjamin hunter Wow My name is benjamin hunter and here's a hot tip for taking kids fishing make your own lures Go to the thrift store and buy some cute spoons from the Silverwell Island. Then go home and cut off the handles with a hacksaw. File off the sharp edges and drill a hole about an eighth of an inch from each end.

Now what you have should look something like this. Now attach a split ring to each end and put a treble hook at the bottom. Tie it off to your line and go fishing. Not only can this be an effective lure, but it is also fun to catch fish on a lure you've made. It's going to be hard to beat that. That's strong. Yeah, that's strong.

I don't even want to see the other one. Matt Short. Hey, what's up, meat eater crew? My name is Matt Short from Firestone, Colorado, and here is a hot tip. Every parent knows that the success of their outing with kids is dependent on keeping them fed, warm, and dry. But nothing will end your family fishing trip, day hike, upland hunt faster than a bathroom emergency gone wrong.

I can't even count on my two hands how many times my own kids inability to judge when their next valve movement should be has ended one of our trips. That's why I've come up with kid poop bags. Pretty simple concept, zip log bag, toilet paper, dog poop bag, right? If you wanna get fancy with it, grab yourself some sanitization wipes. If you don't have a dog and don't have readily access access

to these poop bags run down to your local park I guarantee you there's a lovely little dispenser there you can grab a couple for yourself I put every single one of I put one of these in every single one of my bags that way I'm always ready kid needs to take a dump I go great drop it on the ground pick it up like it's a dog Wipe them up Hand sanitize myself everything goes back in my ziplock baggie. I pack it out. We keep on trucking Don't let your kids incontinence of lack of judgment of when is a good time to drop a load and your next family adventure

Oh, I've got Steve thinking hard. It's a tie We only got one knife, man. We're going to have to find another one. I'll give him one of my personal knives out of my personal box of knives. Wow. You're going to pick Matt poop bag over the little kid who's making his own fishing. Well, I like to kick because he's cute. Yeah. The whole thing's cute.

It's just cuter and I'll get out the whole thing. Making lures, the fact that the kid presented well. Yeah. I love everything about it. Okay. That's good. I mean, it's all good. Normally what would happen, normally I would watch and I would belittle one of them. Do you know what I mean?

I would be like, but they're so strong. You're in a good mood today. No. And they have DIY components, right? The material is so strong. And notice the guy with the poop bag. He's also getting into cleanup. He's not like, hey, just grab some toilet paper.

Because then you just leave it behind. He's bagging it up when it happens in an inopportune location. There's no way that I can in good conscience. That's why the chat is gonna vote. Oh Phil is the Chad voting? I'm voting for the kid. I didn't put up an official poll I can if we've got like Personal night for my personal stash Wow Benjamin this new ones yours sure that's the kid right? Yep. Yeah I don't Wouldn't it be more special for the kid to have Steve Ronella's knife though? Oh, there you go. You could sign it

I don't care. I'm just not picking between the two. I would vote for the kid Cuz he's a kid cuz he's a kid. Yeah, yeah, but that's identity politics Brody Brody. Who are you voting for? I'd vote for the kid I'm not down on the other one. You can always dig a hole and and honestly man, I Don't know how many times that's actually happened to me with my kids Like a total like oh my god, bro. He just makes me to bag cheese curds We're gonna fish all day eat this sack of curds no water It's just not like something that's happened to me enough times to like. Well, if I came down, listen, did I come down here?

Are we whistling Dixie or are we, or am I the judge? Oh, you can be the judge. Good. It's all you. I'm going to send him a private personal knife. The kid. The kid gets the nice fancy new knife. I'm going to send the guy. The dull used one. No, no, I'm going to send the guy the dull use one stash. No, no, I'm going to send him something for my personal stay.

Uncle Cal. What do you think? Who would you pick? Man, I like them both a lot. They're both super prepared. If I had to pick one, um, I like the recycling and the packing in packing out stuff too He's not swayed by the kid being a kid today's kids are tomorrow's enemies Oh, that's what they say Yeah, yeah, I have a running job where I'm like I'd like to shove that kid down

When I see like why can't because it's easier now when he gets big why can't the community enforce parenting now granted? I think that like if everyone had the same attitude about the poop thing Mmm, like adults are bigger culprits and kids. I think yeah, this is bigger poops the kid like the kid I I love kids. I mean I got most of them Yeah, I mean like most the time I like mine like I like like I like the idea of them I like mine most of time Love him. He did a great job presents. Well, all right material 30 seconds left

I Just can't disrespect the dude. So let the kid win. Let him win He wins, but I'm sending the guy a little something from the private stash and he gets a book anyway Is that there's a good reason? I'm not a dad, but it's hard for me to fathom pick it up a kid's poop out in nature Oh, no, thank you. I got a story After you change a few diapers You get poop on your fingernails, it's like not a big deal. Do I really only have 30? Do I really have 30? He was saying the vote.

The vote had 30 seconds. Can I tell a quick story? Go for it. So one time when I was in high school, we got a job where there's a guy building a log house and he bought, there's this old farmer, old man Burns, and he had a big red pine plantation and he bought all these red pines from Mr. Burns, who one time on his farm, this is a little side story, a bull killed a kid on his farm one time. Wow. A bull killed a kid on his farm. Like stomped on him. Yeah. So before my time, this is a deep past, he was a pumpkin farmer. I used to go and help him load the pumpkins and drive them down,

because he sold them to the local grocery stores. Anyhow, this guy buys these red pines from him, but he needs them cut and hauled out and stuck in a field. So we signed a little contract with him where he's going to give us $5 a piece and use a Ford tractor of his to cut limb move out to where they can be picked up in a truck and put them up on stickers to get them off the ground 100 trees five bucks a tree well we get done and we had popped the holes

well those brine filled tires we'd hit a stump and put a big hole in the brine-filled tire. We get all done with the job and he informs us, hey, we're even. Oh no. We're even because it costs so much to buy a new tractor tire. How old were you? High school.

Okay. We go home and tell our dad, and that is just not acceptable to our dad. Our dad gets him on the phone and says, here's what's gonna happen with this $500. And then my dad says to us, he's waiting with your $500 at the job site. So we go to the job site and he's gotta give us 500 bucks.

But you know what the main thing, our main takeaway was? He happened to be there with his grandson and his grandson had just shat his pants and as we show up he's trying to clean up the grandson and we thought at that time before we had our own kids we thought that that was the comeuppance oh you got him mmm yeah clean up yeah like ha ha ha right now I've done that myself on a homie time. Oh, so you you had something coming to you then well I just felt like a punishment worse than losing 500 bucks would be to clean up a child's feet

And then you had kids and I had kids and then we just eat it now That you're just drowning in it you're drowning in it. Oh, man, not anymore You were telling me how great kids are with you, huh? You were just telling me how great kids are for a while I'm not selling drowning and you just dry. It's just everywhere. It's on everything. They puke a lot on your pants Oh, yeah, norovirus every other week now love that kid though. That's great. Thanks for having me down with 72% of the vote Ben the kid wins wow I was 72% of the vote Ben the kid wins But we had a lot of people in the chat

Basically agreeing with Steve saying that the poop bags probably a more practical helpful tip, but the kid kicks ass so yeah Yeah, that's right was the guy who has to filter through about a dozen entries for this. Thank you everybody But this was tough next time we can't we should mix kids and adults we should do kids an adult Yes, yeah survival of fittest Lord of the flies There's a bracket system Where the kid could out compete the adult? Yeah, the kids against each other. Well done, Ben.

Well done, Matt. Thanks for sending those in. Steve, you got time to stick around for the chat? Sure. Okay. I'm having the time of my life. Oh, okay, great. Phil, what questions you got?

This is the end of the show. We'll answer a few questions, and Steve is going to stay around to help us out. Yeah, if you have any questions for Steve, get him in there right now. You don't have a lot of time. I would say, let's see, Leland, our guy, once again, favorite way to prepare rainbow trout. Steve, if you've got something. Oh, you know, it's a lot of fun.

There's a dish called, it's in French, what would be blue trout? Bleu. Trout de bleu. Trout de bleu. That's the part on blue. Trout en bleu. Yeah. Any good one? Where you drop them. It's got to be real fresh and brand blue. That's the approach. And with one where you, you drop them, it's gotta be real

fresh and brand new. It's gotta still have its nice color and you make this, this heavily vinegared, like poaching liquid. And for whatever reason, I don't understand the chemistry of it. When you load, when you drop that brand new fresh trout in like the French will do it where they'll drop the they'll like stun the trout and do it you gotta do it that

fast and the trout turns blue I'm not kidding you it turns blue electric blue okay if it's like some old trout it's been tied to a string out in the creek you know it's not gonna do it but it's got that one in the smoker yeah true double you there's a lot of fun just to just to watch the Thing happen. It's like a traditional like got them leave the head on stuff their tummy with lemon and herbs and and that just looks fun Just looks nice. Yeah, yeah, I'll brody anything to tin foil packets. I mean Leland your program You're you're running a bunch of volunteers out there I have an assembly line with tin foil packets.

Yep. Lemon, slices of lemon. A lot of butter. My dad used to talk about wrapping them in leaves and then packing them in mud and cooking them. Oh, that's cool. I'd like to try that sometime. Phil, what else you got? Trey asks, well first he says, I love having bears on my land, but they're starting to tear feeders down.

What can I do to keep them around, but not have them tear things up? Remove your feeders. Bird feeders kill a lot of bears. Please. Oh, is he talking about deer feeders? I imagine he's talking about trying to feed deer. Yeah. Be my guess.

Well, I don't know if you're going to dissuade him from that man. No way too. Cause you ever see that time they took that dead deer and electrified it. Oh, that's amazing Just like eventually just gets the deer Eventually, it just gets angry enough to where he's like, I'm just gonna take he starts unplugging stuff Having them on your land. You're just going to have to learn to coexist with them. If you got deer feeders out. What else you got, Phil?

Uh, Mogor asks Steve, when was the last time you went on a hunt, uh, without cameras or last week? Yeah. I think people think that you are constantly being followed by, by cinematographers, but you go, you're out there all the time. Yeah. Mostly, I mean, a lot with my kids so a ton But generally with my kids, but we just got back from hunting. How'd that go? Great. My boy got his first bear How many more bears died on that hunt?

Our party had three. Okay. Well Yeah, our little group had three, but we weren't all together. I was there for two of them. I Was present for two and I was 300 yards everything went well. Oh, yeah a great time bad Well, you guys saw some some bear lovemaking on that trip didn't you we killed two boars that I? Was there for one not for the other one that we watched a bore breed us out for 20 minutes I'm not kidding you think people think like I'm saying minutes, like meaning it was seven, but I'm saying 20. We watched the boar breathe out for 20 minutes. Did, did the 20 minutes end when the boar was shot or would have he kept? I don't know why he walked away and started feeding. Okay. And you don't know why he walked

away. No, I mean, I should say, I don't know why he walked away, but they would like, like, She said, I don't know why I walked away, but they would like, like, it was, I don't know. I haven't watched enough. Like the first one they watched, the, the saw was receptive. In this case, it was hard to tell like what level of receptivity there and what level of sort of like, just so there's like a lot of display and a lot of for play. Well, like, like fit. I don't like fitness. Yeah.

Like you're like testing fitness. You're like, she's like sussing out the cape, whatever. A lot of like theatrics. There were some times like our, our, my initial instinct was those two boars fighting. Then at a distance when I couldn't see clear, I was like, maybe it's just like two, you know, a cub's eyes fight. Maybe that's what's going couldn't see clear I was like maybe it's just like two you know Cubs always fight mm-hmm Maybe that's what's going on then eventually. I'm like oh, no. It's like a mating ritual surprised It was that ambiguous that it because they were through there was they were obscured You can just see like a lot of black like you know you know but but once we got clear. I mean we were like Sure, we were we were 60 yards your Your comment about like perceived time

versus actual time. I ran a little experiment during turkey season and because you're always like, you're like, all this major saga is playing out and how we got to allocate the right amount of time to this and when to move and when not to move. So when I struck the bird, I hit the timer on my phone. Oh, smart.

Yep. And then we have this huge saga, like no calling and not responding and what the hell is going on. And then eventually the bird calls and oh my God, he's coming in and he skirts us. And then lo and behold, there's another Tom down there and oh now he's coming in and and all these mental gymnastics Shotgun goes off. I hit the stop on the timer 13 minutes Man and it felt like You're getting ready to walk somewhere else. Go get in a truck, not somewhere else. Bill, let's do a couple more before we close this out.

Yeah, sure thing. Nick says, question for Steve, any plans to do some upland hunting in the near future? And I would rephrase that by saying, Steve, what do you have against upland hunting? Does hunting blue grouse count? Yeah, sure. Upland bird. Absolutely. Okay.

Boy, we did some camping this past weekend and those blue grouse were doing their thing. Oh yeah. It's everywhere, man. But I was trying to get my boys to sneak up on them and that noise is so like, you think you know right where they are, you go there and then you're like, he's over there. You go over there and you're like, he's over there. You just feel you're like he's over there. You know you just feel the noise. Yep. Yeah, it's struggling with this four-wheeler again Yeah, yeah, we were in a cool spot the other day when I was with my little boy Matthew there we were in a cool spot where you could hear blues and roughed at the same time yeah

Yep, and I was like so no he's doing that with his wings. Yep. He's doing that with his mouth. You know um Yeah, I like hunt bluegrass a lot. Let's do one more Phil. Sure there was a favorite summer lure for largemouth from Bradley. We're in Montana that's tough. If it top water friendly conditions there is nothing more exciting in freshwater fishing than watching a largemouth just explode on a frog so you can I give some that's my favorite I give one from 1985 please when I was a boy when I was a boy the thing that we most coveted in life was like you get those pre-rigged to be a purple crawler with an orange spot and the three hooks yeah the three hooks on it and it had a snelled loop.

Like, you know, and you'd see them in the bait shop for like 79 cents. Dude, that was the lure. That was the lure, man. We call them purple crawlers. There you go. So Bradley favorite again, would be something, anything top water.

But if you just want to catch bass, throw a spinner bait or a worm. That's like, anything top water. But if you just want to catch bass, throw a spinner bait or a worm. That's like Steve said. All right, that's the end of this show. Next week, the Meat Eater Movie Club returns with hundreds of beavers. You can stream it on Tubi, Pluto TV, Amazon Prime, Free V, YouTube TV, and Sling TV.

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