WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Off the Trails: Fishing with Family

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Join Nicole Sighiartau and Storm Drexler as they discuss their wildest experiences in the great outdoors! This week they have Jack Peterson on to share some fun fishing stories with family. 

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Welcome to Off the Trails. What up? I'm Storm Drexler. And I'm Nicole Siguritau, and we'll be your adventure buddies every week as we discuss some of our wildest stories from our outdoor endeavors. This week, we have a special guest with us, Jack Peterson. Hello, people. Oh, my God, Jack on the podcast. Yep.

Fun fact, Jack came up with the name of our show. Unfortunately I did. Well, Storm and I couldn't think of anything good. All right. Don't throw me under the bus, Nicole. You came to me with dozens of ideas. Dozens? I had like three.

They were not to put it too fine a porn on it. Horrible. They were really bad. They were really bad. Nicole was like, what if we call it the Nicole in Storm show? No, I didn't say that. What if we call it great outdoors with great friends? No, I didn't say that.

Storm came up with that one. However, I did come up with the name the Get Outside podcast, which objectively is less cool than off the day. We're off the trails. We rock. Yeah, we do rock. So anyway, we're going to be talking about some fun fishing tales this week. But before we get into today's episode, we're going to start off with our trail markers.

Trail markers. Yeah, Storm. You should go first this week. Oh, me. Okay. I was outside like I am lots of times. And they're, guys, they built an igloo outside of Simpson, outside of Simpson dormitory. They, I don't know how they did this.

I have yet to talk to. I talked to Andrew today. Yeah. I've seen the pictures of the process. I kind of know what's going on, but they constructed out of genuine, like massive ice blocks a full igloo. So my trail marker was when I was walking back

Brian Simpson and I was like, oh, and there was an igloo there. It's really cool. Yeah, it's like you can go inside it. It's large enough to fit inside. Well, I just saw a picture, but it's completely ice. Like it's translucent.

It's not a snowy igloo. No, it's ice. And like blocks of ice that are cut that they crafted, I think. So Storm, after seeing this in real life, can you confirm that igloos are not a prank? No, they weren't ever a prank. They're just propaganda.

Like, Eskimos did not make igloos. That totally did not happen. Okay. This is one of the first real igloos ever made. Really? Yes. All igloos, that's propaganda by colonists. Okay.

There's no way that natives actually built ice houses. No way at all. I'm still convinced. This is accurate history right here right now. Jack, do you have a trail, marker? Yeah, well, mine also was when I was outside, like I'm a lot of times, but I'm not outside a lot of times at 120 in the morning. Wait. Ooh. Ooh. Spooky trail marker. So it's, it's 1.20 in the morning. I'm walking back to the dorm down the street. And I'm actively thinking about what my

trail marker is going to be because I know I'm going to have to come up with something. And nothing ever exciting happens to me. Because Nicole is a tyrant. And like, if I think back past couple days, I'm like, uh, yeah, nothing. mine's blank. So it's 120. I'm walking down and literally thinking what's my trail marker

going to be when I see my trail marker. Right outside the outside's building standing in the snow are four deer. Wow.

Probably, you know, 30 feet away from me and they just turn to stare at me as I'm walking along. I stared at them back and just walking, staring. Very awkward. We decided now

I have a conversation, sadly. I kind of wanted to ask how booge was doing, but oh yeah did you feel kind of one with nature yeah I would I would argue genuinely to an extent yeah without doubt

even in doubt science or near Dow science yeah were they one of the like it was biology you know were they the kind of deer that were like majestic and beautiful looking or like the mangy like street deer you know there's like a difference

yeah they were they were pretty nice wow authentic and wild Bambi then after they started me for a while one ran off cross street kind of towards the Fowler Maintenance Building and then the other three followed, leaving me satisfied

because now I didn't have to try and find a trail marker anymore. But it was a great one I found, I would argue, anyways. Heck yeah. That is a great story. My trail marker took place yesterday evening. I was in my dorm basically the entire day.

We have a virus going around campus. And so, yeah, I was staying away from that. but it got to 8 o'clock at night. And I was feeling a little lonely because I didn't talk to a single person all day. And I was like, you know what? I should just go walk around outside by myself because I can go and do that.

And it started snowing and it was beautiful. And so I just did laps around campus, like four times. And I'm sure I saw some people several times on my walk and I was like, they probably think I'm losing my mind walking in circles. Did you hit him with the on your left multiple times? On your left? No, I didn't. I didn't do that.

I like how all your trail markers are like really pretty, wondrous sights you've seen and all my life. Look, ice house. We're falling through mud. Or, yeah, falling into mud. I like that, though. That is really good. It adds variation because otherwise mine would be kind of boring. It's literally just me walking by myself.

That's why they pay me the big bucks. Sure. We got stories, right? We do have stories. We're going to have Jack go first this week because he's got a really good story. Yes. So you want a fishing story? Yeah.

Yeah, we demand. We demand. If you don't have one, get out. Supply and demand. I'll supply you with it. Wow. Let's start with a little bit of context, though. So this is, this took place 2021, 2021, 2020, one those years.

Well, you're time dating it. Yeah. And it's about two hours from here at Hillsdale, actually, north. So it was on the property of my great, great uncle and great-great-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-an. Whoa. This property is over 200 acres. Wow, that's pretty big. It's tons of, you know, wilderness and it's a beautiful place.

It's amazing. So, you know, there's a lot of wildlife here as well. My great-great-uncle owns a hunt club. People come there to hunt elk and deer on the property. That's a thing we don't have in California, at least not where I live. Any, like, conserved hunting grounds? Well, that concept, when I first learned about it, was very foreign to me, because that's just not a thing where I'm from.

Cap'am! Yeah. And my great-great-grand-a-ant wanted emus. So there's a couple of those on property. Oh my gosh, emus. I've had a run-in with one them before. I've seen one. Wait, side tangent, really brief.

I used to live a couple blocks from this person who had an emu in their, like who had an emu in their backyard. Crazy creatures. They're like ostriches. Have you seen these things? Yeah, I have seen them. Anyway, they are awesome. Whose name was Big Lou.

Anyway, I appear on. And. Yeah, so one other context about the place beforehand, because, I mean, it's just fun to tell it. It was a big beautiful barn that my great-great-uncle has as well, and on the walls mounted are various animals. We have elk, deer, wild boar, zebra, antelope, elk antlers. Whoa, water buffalo, cougar, cheetah, impala,

kudu, and an entire taxidermied fox. Okay, you made up those last three. A lot of animals towards the end where I was like, wait. Ku-U Impala. I've heard of Impala's, but I haven't seen them. A kudu is, it's kind of hard to describe it. I think it's kind of like in- Do you know what that is?

No, sorry, I remember what an Impala was. Because when I was younger, I had this little book and it spelled out my name, and each letter in my name was an animal. And so Impala was one of them. Impala was the second letter? Yeah, it was an I. Wow. They couldn't do iguana or something people actually know.

about. Anyway. And for a kudu, if you don't know what that is because you seem like, what the heck's a kudu? It's kind of hard to describe. You'd expect to find it in like Africa,

but it has like long black twisted horns. Oh, it's kind of like an envelope tie. Oh, it's like the long. Yeah, I know you're talking about. Yeah, it's kind of a little bit bigger. Yeah, it's really, really cool looking.

So anyway, epic place. So where it takes place on the property. There's a large pond in there. Lots of fish, large fish. And sorry, when people say pond, I always picture like a murky, mossy thing. Is it, it's more like a lake-ish? Pretty close to a lake, yeah. Okay.

It's not a trashy thing. Got it, okay. You take out boats on this and such. Okay, very nice. So it is more lake-like. It was basically a puddle. Yeah. Yeah, this is like huge puddle if you want to put it in that way.

Okay, got it. And there's a little island on the pond as well. a bridge that connects that to the mainland. So, to get into the story now. So I'm visiting from Minnesota here in Michigan. So my grandparents actually live like five, ten minutes from my great-great aunt and uncle. So it's my brother and I and my grandpa. We take out flat-bottom John boats onto the pond.

And it's time to go fishing. So my grandpa and I were in one boat. our brother's another, you know. And for a while, we weren't really getting many fish. It was kind of a slow day, which at this point, except pond usually is very fruitful, you could say. And sun started going down some. That's when they bite best, right?

Evening and morning? Yeah, I think morning and evening. And exactly, because we were starting to get bites, and every fish we were catching seemed to just been getting bigger. and bigger. But eventually the mosquitoes were starting to come out, you know, with the sun down. I hate mosquitoes, because they don't buy anyone else in my family except for me. You got sweet blood.

I guess so. They exclusively avoid my parents and go for me. That's not good. No. No. And then, so they were kind of going to start chasing us off the pond. Mosquitoes were, but there were elk on the shore drinking the water. so we were a little nervous about walking back to the car by all the elk because they're more

aggressive than deer they don't run away from you and you walk by a science building yeah yeah and that's when i got a bite on my pull so my brother's a decent way off so i don't even think he knows this happening in his boat so i get a bite and as i'm reeling in the fish my grandpa gets a bite but that's exactly where the story gets interesting now so i'm reeling in the fish And the pole is very, very old. It doesn't, it doesn't, it's not like a two-piece pole falls bar. It literally snapped in half. Oh gosh.

And half of it fell into the water. But the line was still, you know, connected to the real. To the half that you have. Yes. Oh my gosh. I still have the fish on. And then, so my grandpa, he's like, I got to help you. So he puts out his pole with the fish still on it.

Oh, he had also caught. a fish? Yeah, yeah, he had one on. Okay, he throws that down and it helps you? Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. And so he's, he's reeling and like bringing in the line with his hands while I'm reeling it to cut all the slack. And eventually, so we get the fish in the boat then. It ended up being, it was a largemouth bass that was like 16, 18 inches. Oh my lord. It was pretty good size. Yeah. That pond,

that pond gets a really big fish. It's bad boys. It is, it is a gem. It's really nice to have family that owns something like that so you can go there for free and they don't care if you're there. Yeah. That's one way to put it. Yeah. It's really nice. It's really nice. Because you don't really have to find a sweet spot as well. You just kind of go out in the pond. It's not too big. Don't have to worry about other people being noisy. Did it like flop up into the boat? Or was it like you like grabbed it? I don't recall that part, but we got it in the boat. I have a picture as well. So it's true. I cannot find the picture, sadly. But then again, this is a podcast and you're listening. So I couldn't even show you the picture if he wanted to. So yeah, we got it in. It was a good catch.

We didn't care about buying a new poll because that was, that pole was so old. It had lived its life. It lived its life and it died a good death. It was a sacrifice, really. It was. You know, it was. You know what? Was it one of those ones where you throw them back or did you cook it or did you? Yeah, we used to do it back. Okay. Just for the fun of it. No, yeah. That's the best part about fishing.

Though, I mean, I've eaten fish we caught a couple times. That's a pretty good. It's better than most fish, honestly. Heck yeah. And to cap off the story, when my grandpa got back to his pole, the fish was still on and he was able to bring in his fish as well. That's so cute. So it was a win all around. That's awesome.

Except for the fishing pole. Right. Yeah. But you know what? I think that's a good way for a fishing pole to kind of die. You know, it catches one last big fish and then just snaps. Gives out all hope like I'm about to do. Yep.

You're listening to Off the Trails on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 back in FM. And we're going to get back into our fishing story. 107 back in. Do you have a fishing story, Nicole? I do. And actually, I was going to tell one. but then I ended up changing my mind after hearing that story because that reminded me that both my grandpas loved to fish. It was their favorite pastime. I mean, both of them would go up

to Mammoth Lakes in California, which is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and they would just be there fishing all day. Sadly, both of them have passed away. However, I have a couple little memories of fishing with them. And that just kind of, it's a more touching story than what I originally had planned. So I think I'll share one of those. So this took place in June of 2019. So I was just out of eighth grade. And we were in Mammoth.

My dad and I got up there early to go skiing because Mammoth stays open very late in the season if there's a lot of snow. So we got up there and we were skiing. But then the rest of my family came up, my mom, my grandma. grandpa, some family from Texas. And so we were all up there and they were fishing at Lake Mammie, which is, there's three lakes in the Mammoth Lakes area. There's Lake George, Lake Mary, and Lake Mammie.

And so they were up at Lake Mammie and we went over. Mammie sounds like the one to go to. It is. That was their favorites. Lake Mammie. Yeah, Lake Mammie, that was the one to go to. And so they were up there and my dad and I after skiing, we were. went and we joined them. And let me just tell you, they weren't having any luck at all. Like, they had been there

all day since early morning, and it was now probably three o'clock in the afternoon. And they had caught nothing, like zero fish. Just some of those days. Yeah. And so I got there and I was like, oh, well, there's no way that I'm going to catch anything. But I threw a line in. And after I threw one, And I think they caught a couple. So we had some fish, you know, saved, you know, where they like skewer them through the gills. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we had those saved attached to a rock.

And so then I throw my line in. And it was pretty quick after I threw it in that the pole started to wiggle. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I caught a fish. And I've caught some before. So it wasn't that big of a deal. But it was still exciting considering they hadn't had a super successful day. And then I remember my grandpa getting so excited, he's like, reel it in, reel it in. And so I brought it in. I got the biggest fish of the day. And so there's a picture of me kissing it. That's awesome. Yeah. And so we cooked them all up for dinner. They were trout. And I personally don't like lake trout. So I didn't partake in eating them. But the rest of my family enjoyed having our freshly caught mountain trout. That's awesome. Yeah. Just. That was a little quick story.

I could tell another one, but if Storm, if you have something good. I have a small one. You have a small one? I grew up fishing, kind of, at my grandparents. Have a house on a lake in North Georgia. And we'd go up there all the time. And I have distinct memories and see photos of me as like a toddler

with like a little miniature fishing pool catching, like small brim at Lake Burton and North Georgia. But recently, I had a great fishing experience with my dad and some of my brothers. We went up and we were in Colorado. All my stories happened in Colorado because it's the best. But we went up hiking up into somewhere on the Rockies near BV, BV, Porevista. Side note real quick.

In a past episode, I said, where is Buena Vista? I've never been there. I actually have. I looked it up on a map and I have been to Buena Vista. Yeah, it's on the way to multiple things. Yeah, it's over. It's by the collegiate range. Yeah.

So we were up in those mountains. We did a hike up to like a lake up in the high peak somewhere. and, you know, crystal clear lake up in this area and hiked up early in the morning, went up there, and we did fly fishing. I don't know if you guys have been fly fishing before. I've done it once. I love it.

And for Christmas, I got my mom a fly fishing kit because I was like, my mom needs to get into this. I had done it two times before. This is my third time and my most recent time going. But fly fishing is a lot of fun. We didn't have a lot of luck. We had more luck as, again, as the day started to wind down. But the fish that were up in this lake were crazy cool.

They were what's called cutthroat trout. Oh, yeah. Which I hadn't heard of until the open at this point. But their entire underbelly was like a bright crimson red. Like the knife had like slit them and like it was like leaking down their side. And just super colorful, super cool. And what we really learned about that was like fly fishing really depends on the bait. Like we tried at a bunch of different ones.

And as soon as we found the right bait, we caught like multiple in a row. But up to that point, we had like almost zero luck. but it was really interesting and fly fishing is I don't know if it was a little bit less monotonous you know you're not just sitting there you're doing something you're whipping it around it's fun you feel really cool

you feel like Indiana Jones a little bit I was gonna say you're like a fishing cowboy exactly oh a fishing cowboy you're a fish wrangler yeah that's super fun which is cool and I don't know that's that I had a really really good time we had to quickly leave though because

the around you know it's Colorado 4 p.m. 5 p. DM does like dark clouds begin to roll in over the mountains. We're like, so we got out of there pretty quick. But with some good memories and some fish. I have, I just thought of something. So you mentioned the cut-rope trout trout. Cutthroat trout, yeah, yeah.

And so I was thinking, I want to ask you guys if you know the five different types of salmon. What? There's type? There's five different types of salmon. Do you know them? I might be able to name a few. Okay. There's a, there's king salmon.

That's not on this list, but I take it. Nicole, did you just Google types of Sam? Okay, I used to know this off the top of my head, but I just wanted to confirm my memory, so I didn't share false information. Do you know any others? Is pink salmon one of them? Pink salmon is one of them.

And also, King Salmon technically is another name for Chinook salmon, so I'll give you that one as well. Hey, there you go. So you've got two. Like, that's all I can remember. Big mouth salmon. I know you can, like, count them on your fingers or remember the names. Depending on which finger it is.

I just can't remember, like, all the names of them. What about, do you guys ever? ever get salmon from the grocery store and then what do they normally say that's not pig salmon well okay it starts with an S uh at least this salmon

storeboss salmon storebought salmon storeboughts no sock eye never heard of them what that's what we always get we always get sock eye salmon I bet that's what we get to I don't I just eat it

I don't buy salmon okay what about you know in New York they have Soho what's the salmon that sounds like Soho Oh, wait, I actually think I do know this Wahoo salmon. No, no, it's, it's, um, what is it?

Coho. What? Coho salmon. No, no, no, no. So, okay, so Coho and then we have chum salmon is the final one. Oh, like fish chum. Like, that's like the one you just chop up into like. Is it?

No, these are like, these are types. But is it chum like the thing, like chopped up seafood and fish bits? You mean pokey? Pokey balls? No, no, no, no, you don't eat it. But I think Chalmers what they call like fish and waste. You like put back into the water to feed the fish themselves, basically. If you say so.

I don't know. I could be totally wrong. But yeah, no, Jack, you are right. There is a method where you can count them on your hand. I'm looking at it right now. So maybe I'll memorize that. I don't, I don't know. I'm not looking at the picture.

I thought you were looking at it right now. I'm not looking at that closely. I just saw it from a distance. Anyway, thank you so much for joining us this week. Jack, this was super fun. You're our first guest, so hopefully it went well for all of us. Well, thanks for having me. This was an absolute blast.

I mean, it was, I can't describe it. It was a great time. You hear that? Sign up for your guest. Come talk to us. Yeah, absolutely. If you have a story, send us an email or DM us on Instagram, and we'll get you on. Thank you for listening to Off the Trails on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.

We hope you have a great week and make time to go outside and enjoy the great outdoors. We'll see you out there. trails. Go reel them in. Bye guys.