Bullfrogs Ate The Bigfoots

In this episode, Jesse and Andrew discuss weird fishing laws, strange fishing regulations, and misconceptions about night fishing in Ontario. The main topic is all about  weird things that can be encountered or caught while fishing in Canada. They cover stories about catching clams, musky in Toronto Harbour, bullfrogs, and the big impact goldfish can have on local fisheries. The episode also explores the possibility of Bigfoot's existence, including sightings and descriptions of the creature. The hosts also share some weird fishing stories from their own experiences and from their followers.

Links:

Muskie caught in Toronto Harbour: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/muskie-toronto-harbour-1.6637077

EDD Maps link for reporting Goldfish sightings and catches: https://www.eddmaps.org

Invasive Species Center Website: https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/take-action/dont-let-it-loose/

Quoted goldfish article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/goldfish-london-ontario-thames-river-2023-1.7059259

PLEASE DO THIS SURVEY! (pretty please) Goldfish Survey For Anglers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/23YCLYW

Invasive Species Awareness Week: https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/events/invasive-species-awareness-week/

Ontario Parks Bigfoot Blog: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/parksblog/beyond-the-light-of-the-campfire/

Transcript

Jesse (00:01.314)
Welcome everyone to episode 46 of the Average Ontario Anglers fishing podcast. We have a great show for you today but I have to warn you, things are going to get a little weird. And not just a little weird, super weird. If it's your first time listening, my name is Jesse and with me today is the man that needs no introduction, the man with the mustache and now a beard, Andrew. How are you doing today, Andrew?

Andrew (00:31.713)
Thank you for introducing me.

Jesse (00:33.642)
Me and Andrew are pretty close, actually married as cousins, so we're technically family now.

Andrew (00:37.686)
That's such a weird way to introduce oneself, which is right on point for this episode.

Jesse (00:42.142)
Yeah, see? Weird. So me and Andrew created this podcast to share our humor, our stories and our tips related to fishing that we've accumulated over the last 20 years fishing together. Now, as I mentioned, this episode is weird. And I tried to think, I'm like, what's the weirdest thing I can think of off the top of my head. And for whatever reason, when I was writing this up, I was like, it's weird, like putting mustard on pancakes. That's weird.

Andrew (01:08.501)
Mm. Ha ha ha.

Jesse (01:09.494)
So the topic will remain a mystery for now, which is kinda weird, but right now as tradition states we have, as tradition states, I have no idea what that means but we keep saying it anyway, so as tradition states we have an interesting fishing fact and to handle that the man with the mustache and the beard, Andrew.

Andrew (01:29.621)
Alright, well speaking of weird, I was doing some research on some strange... When we look at the fishing regulations, it can be hard sometimes to get all the information from your regs when you're looking at them and like, oh, there's all these exceptions and all this stuff. And it can be aggravating at times, right? But do you know that there are some really weird laws out there in the world about fishing?

Jesse (01:56.116)
I believe it.

Andrew (01:58.109)
There are some absolutely bizarre ones. I have some from around the world, a lot from the states. For example, in Chicago, up until 1964, it was against the law to fish in your pajamas.

Andrew (02:14.261)
But if you're like me, then you get so excited for the fishing trip. You're just dressed in your, your camping clothes and your fishing gear and just ready to go. Or if you're overnighting in a hut, you're just like, I'm dressed in my gear all the time. So I'm in my pajamas. And, uh, in Pennsylvania, you're not allowed to catch a fish with your teeth. I wonder who's the first guy who tried that.

Jesse (02:27.63)
straight to jail. Hahaha.

Jesse (02:36.386)
Really?

Jesse (02:40.129)
You mean you can't bite them with your teeth or you can't like put a set of dentures and put hooks on it and cast it out?

Andrew (02:46.221)
I'm sure there's a video somewhere, some guy putting dentures and like hooking a grouper or something. In Tennessee, it's illegal to lasso a fish. Although I think that that's just, you know, John Wayne style at its best. You filthy pilgrim.

Jesse (02:50.674)
Yeah, that's a good one.

Jesse (03:01.258)
I could see that. I could see that with like a Buffalo carp because it's the Buffalo. It's like, come on.

Jesse (03:12.67)
If you know that tune, Bonanza, how's your back this morning? Ha ha ha.

Andrew (03:18.758)
In Australia, the land down under, it is illegal to tickle a trout. In Iceland, you'll like this one, Jesse. It's not illegal to skip rocks, but it's commonly accepted that you shouldn't skip rocks because you may hit invisible elves.

Jesse (03:24.502)
Ha ha

Jesse (03:28.973)
You know what?

Jesse (03:44.586)
Oh, that.

Andrew (03:45.505)
That's not super fishing, but I mean, before I leave, if I'm fishing the lake shore, I'll usually skip a stone or two.

Jesse (03:51.638)
You know what, that's completely fair. I would never want to hit an invisible elf.

Andrew (03:56.179)
And in the last weird law I'll talk about is in Ohio. It's actually illegal to get a fish drunk.

Jesse (04:02.815)
Ah.

Andrew (04:04.577)
So, you know, in those videos, they crack like a bud light, and they pour it down like a catfish throat.

Jesse (04:11.338)
It's basically water anyway.

Andrew (04:14.105)
Well, if you're using that view, yeah. But it made me think of, are there any more weird laws in Ontario? So there's actually one, it makes sense. There's one that actually says you're not allowed to use dynamite or explosives while fishing. It's like, yes, that's a fair law. I think that should be standard common knowledge though, but apparently not.

Jesse (04:31.262)
Okay.

Andrew (04:38.025)
But something that I've heard a few misconceptions about is it's illegal. I've heard that it's illegal to fish in Ontario at night. Have you heard that before?

Jesse (04:48.926)
Yeah, I've honestly had a few people ask me and they sent me the rule and I was like that doesn't make sense I didn't really look into it super depth, but it didn't make sense because like I know a lot of people fish at night Yeah, no, I have take me to jail

Andrew (05:00.865)
Yeah, I know I have. So I, so I decided to do a bit of research on that one to clear up any misconceptions about it. So from the Ontario government, it says, no person, no person shall sport fish during the period between sunset and sunrise.

Jesse (05:10.366)
Okay, cool.

Andrew (05:25.645)
means the catching of fish for non-commercial purposes. So you'd think, okay, that covers it, I'm not allowed to. However, there's exceptions to all the rules. So the subsection under that rule, that does not apply to a person who is angling, except in the waters of Eagle Lake. So now what is angling? Again, the government defines it on their website.

Angling means fishing with a line that is held in the hand or attached to a rod that is held in the hand or closely attended. So when we have gone fishing at night, we are not just fishing but angling. So the government defines fishing or sport fishing is a very general term. I remember when I was reading this, I'm like what other thing is there than angling?

Jesse (06:14.259)
Yeah.

Andrew (06:15.189)
But then you have spear fishing, they have bow fishing, you have netting, there's a few different, like even snagging in some areas. So for that, it makes sense, yes, because other people, you can do that. There are certain zones you can do so, and you cannot do those things during the nighttime. Again, there are a few more exceptions. You can use a bait trap at night to catch bait.

fishing for rainbow smelt by means of a dip net or a scene net, or fishing for lake herring or lake whitefish by means of a dip net. Those are things as well you can do during the period between sunset and sunrise. So just a clear misconception that people may have or if it's confusing because it absolutely is, when you just look at these weird rules. So you can angle between the hours of sunset and sunrise,

Jesse (07:00.448)
Yeah.

Andrew (07:09.527)
we're doing when we have our fishing rod in our hands or closely attended like carp fishing.

Jesse (07:15.042)
You gotta love the laws that make absolutely no sense. It's just like, hey, you're not allowed to fish a jig. And then the other law says, you're allowed to fish a jig. Oh man, that's a good one. Cause I honestly, like I said, I've had people ask me.

Andrew (07:25.985)
Hehehehe

Jesse (07:31.858)
and say like, hey, it says in the law says that you can't fish at night. But then you open like any fishing magazine or any fishing show and they're like, oh, yeah, fishing for night for walleye or for salmon or whatever like that. That's a common technique. So if it's illegal, why are they doing it and promoting it in popular literature and TV shows? So that's a good one.

Andrew (07:45.141)
Yeah.

Andrew (07:50.557)
Yeah, like Ontario out of doors. Hey fish at night, but you said it's illegal

Jesse (07:55.438)
straight to jail. Yeah, that's good. And that's exactly what the interesting fishing fact is about every week we try to find an interesting topic. It's either kind of funny or something that, like we always said, like maybe like, for instance, with me, I've always wondered that and I've never actually dug in and found the actual reason. So that's perfect. That was a great one. And I'm sure a lot of our listeners.

I'm sure if you're listening right now, you probably didn't know that. And if you did, you're smart, much smarter than us with average intelligence. Ha ha ha. Aw. Gonna give you an A plus sticker on your lunchbox. I don't know if that's a thing. It's been a while since I've been to school. So we'd like to thank Andrew for that. I'm gonna give you an A plus for that, cause I like that. You know, if it was an A plus plus, it would have been slightly weirder.

Andrew (08:25.798)
You smart cookie you.

Andrew (08:32.126)
I'm going to go.

Andrew (08:39.863)
Nice.

Jesse (08:44.63)
because this is a weird episode, but we'll see what happens. So we would like to take this moment. Me and Andrew would like to thank everyone who listens to this podcast. If you are listening to this right now, either on Spotify, Apple, another podcast streaming service, or if you're watching us on YouTube, hey, how's it going? We really appreciate it. Every single download really helps us. We'd like to thank everyone who has given us a review in the last few weeks. We've been asking people if they haven't already.

Andrew (08:48.072)
Hehehehe

Jesse (09:12.738)
to write us a review or give us a star rating and they've been coming in good. We're actually gonna read some of them next week. It's been absolutely amazing. What happens is when we get more reviews and ratings, it helps us in the podcast charts. And if you're higher in the podcast charts, it also looks cool to see yourself in the top 10 of all of Canada, us, but for fishing and wilderness. I don't wanna say of all time. We're not up there with Joe Rogan, believe me. But it...

When we're up in the rankings, it actually helps us, helps more people find the podcast, which helps us get more views, which helps us get bigger sponsors, which helps us do bigger giveaways. So it's really a big deal for you guys to actually listen to this podcast. So we really, really appreciate it. We'd also like to thank all of our Patreon members who helped me and Andrew finance this show. This show actually has expenses every single week, every single month. And all you guys and girls on Patreon that donate a few bucks, that's all it takes.

to help us cover the costs. It is a huge help for us so we're not paying out of our pockets. Some of you guys and girls have been on Patreon since the beginning. And once we started it up, we really appreciate you guys. We appreciate everyone that just started recently too. It's a huge weight off our shoulders, isn't it Andrew? That we're not going bankrupt. Ha ha ha. Another cool thing about Patreon, we're gonna get into this a little later, there are added benefits to being a Patreon member, but we're gonna talk about that later.

Andrew (10:27.908)
It's super helpful.

Jesse (10:38.326)
So I thought we could do just like a brief new segment to the show. This is groundbreaking. This is brand new. It's new. It's called news. AOA News. I wish Radio Voice Royce was here because he sounds like a news anchor and he'd do the news really good.

Andrew (10:55.975)
You need to put a nice little sting here of like, dateline.

Jesse (11:00.534)
Hey, hey, copyright, just kidding. So for news, there's two items that I thought we could cover really quick. It's not gonna be a long thing. So item number one, news in Ontario. If you did not go to Cancast last year, you have to go this year. It is the best fishing show in Ontario for sure, possibly Canada. Tickets are on sale now for Cancast. That is the news. Get your tickets, get them now. Don't wait till it's too late. Don't.

Andrew (11:02.126)
Hehehehe

Jesse (11:28.586)
Be the guy that has to wait in line for the box office. Get your tickets now. You can order them online. And that is big news because they just posted, there's over 150 vendors, I think they said, all fishing vendors. Actually, because we're so cool, and we don't know all the facts about Cancast, next week's episode is actually all about Cancast. We're actually having Kyle Krotherzhan, who is the guy that runs the whole show. Him and his crew, they do a fantastic job. We're having him on next week. So.

If you have any questions about Cancast, make sure to message them to us so that we can ask him and you can listen next week on the show. So that's the first piece of news. The second piece of news is yesterday or whatever day we recorded, but this week in Ontario, Daiwa released a new fishing rod. Now I'm a bit of a gear junkie, Andrew knows. This one is kind of special though for Canadians because it's called the new Daiwa CDN or the Canadian Rod Series.

Andrew (12:15.87)
You are?

Jesse (12:25.158)
and they actually start at a $99 USA price point. Now, not affiliated with Iowa, like for advertising sales and stuff, but I love fishing rods and reels and gear, I love it. So whatever brand, when I see a rod in that price point, the $100-ish range, gets me excited because we started using more rods like that. That is the rod that the average angler in Ontario is gonna buy. So they look pretty good. They have them in some of the stores already. I know East Hill has them on the shelves already.

They look really good. They're like black and they have like a red little, you know, logo on it and everything. They look really cool. And this rod series is specifically designed for fishing in Canadian waters. There's all kinds of rods. Like there's rods for like drop shotting for bass. There's steel head rods. There's, you know, walleye rods. There's a rod that really caught my attention. It's a six foot, don't quote me in this, but I think it's a six foot eight, medium heavy, extra fast. That is a legit hair ripping rod for walleye. Like that is perfect.

And a lot of them are two piece. I know like I'm a big fan of one piece, so is Andrew now, but you gotta admit, when I worked at the tackle shop, for most people, eight out of 10 people buy two piece rods. They're just so convenient. And the technology now, it generally you're not gonna tell that much of a difference, they're fantastic. So we're hoping to get one of these at least. I'll make Andrew buy it. But we're hoping to get one of these so that we can try it out and we'll report back how they are. Cause I've had a few people ask me already. I had a guy today ask me, hey,

Andrew (13:42.669)
Mm-hmm. Heh, heh, heh.

Jesse (13:51.83)
Have you tried the new Daiwa Canadian Rod? And I was like, they just launched them yesterday, so no. So open my door, oh, no package there. But anyway, maybe we'll go down to the taco shop and whip a few around and see how they are, but they look pretty good. Honestly, like I'm a huge Daiwa fan, as you can tell I'm wearing a Daiwa hat, but I have had been using Daiwa rods and reels for a few years now, and I have probably like 10 of them. It's kind of an obsession, but we'll report back. Love that price point of gear. Anyway.

Andrew (13:59.297)
Hehehehe

Andrew (14:19.273)
Yeah, absolutely.

Jesse (14:20.842)
Maybe, yeah, maybe Andrew and me will both get one and then we'll have a sword fight. That's weird. See, this podcast is weird. All right, so let's get into our main topic. So we're gonna talk about, like I mentioned, weird things. More specifically, weird things that you could encounter or catch while you're fishing in Canada. Now, some of these things, I may warn you, they may terrify you right down to the bones. So we have compiled a list of

Andrew (14:28.525)
I'm sorry.

Jesse (14:50.818)
Things that me and Andrew ourselves have seen or caught in the wild, so to say. But we also have a bunch that listener sent us off our Patreon and also Instagram. So one thing I would mention is if you don't follow us on Instagram, definitely do that because oftentimes we'll put up polls and question and answers that you can submit your own questions and we'll read them on the podcast. Another thing you can do is if you're a Patreon member, you'll notice that I post those same polls. But if you don't support us on Patreon.

you can still join as a free member to see all the conversations and those polls and stuff as well. So definitely check that out as well and you'll have access to that. So the first weird thing. Now, if anyone asked me like right off the bat, like what's the weirdest thing you've caught? I've caught a lot of weird things, believe me. I grew up and I fished Oshawa Creek for 20 years. I've caught some weird stuff, really gross stuff too. But we're not gonna get into weird stuff because some of you are eating your breakfast right now.

Andrew (15:45.939)
Hehehehe

Jesse (15:50.162)
or lunch or dinner. So probably the weirdest thing, I'll tell you a little story. Me and Andrew are just gonna, our experiences we're gonna tell stories. So I was fishing, just imagine the scene. I'm out in my canoe, my flatback sports pal, and I have my buddy Zach, he's in the front of the boat. And I have the trolling motor going and we're just going down this line of docks. There was literally like 20 docks in a row, it was kind of like an old marina. And we didn't have a lot of time, so I was kind of just shooting down fast. And you get like maybe one pitch per dock.

Andrew (15:50.396)
Hehehehe

Jesse (16:20.234)
you know, and then by that time you'd reel in and you'd pitch through the next one, right? So I had, you know, just my standard heavy cover flipping rod, it's a 7.3 Diwa, Diwa Tatula, and I got that Diwa flipping pitch reel, 50 pound braid. I think it was like a half ounce tungsten, you know, pegged worm weight, and just like a three or four inch, you know, black and blue beaver, something like that. And I'm just pitching, nothing. I actually missed a bow fin, which happened to be there.

and I set the hook and he came right up to the boat and got off, so I was kind of mad. I was like, oh man. So anyway, I was pitching down the docks and my bait sunk to the bottom. It was pretty deep, it was like six, seven feet there. It was like, boom, hits the bottom. And then I pull up and I felt like I'm stuck on something. And I'm like, what the heck? It wasn't like the telltale tap of a bass, just tap, you know? And it was just like this mushy weight. And I was like, what the heck? So you know what they say when you're jig fishing, if anything feels off, set the hook. So I set the hook, okay?

And I just feel like this weight, like I'm pulling like a stick in, and I'm like, what the heck? And it comes up and my buddy Zox in the front, he's like, oh, you hooked a rock. And I was like, what? Like I've hooked rocks before and I'm still out fishing. Like your hook gets jammed in a crevice or something. And I look closely and it's a legit clam. And it's a big clam. It's like, it's big. It's like a sandwich, size of a sandwich. And I was like, what the heck?

Andrew (17:44.061)
And Jesse makes hefty sandwiches.

Jesse (17:45.742)
I do, that's another story. That's a weird story. So I'm like, what the heck? And I get it and I pick it up. It's a big clam. And the thing is the line didn't like go through like where the clam connected. Like the thing had clamped down on this bait. Like the only thing sticking out of the clam was the tungsten weight. And I'm just like, what the heck? I took a bunch of pictures and I, you know, I tried my darndest to get this bait out. I'm trying to like pull it out. I'm thinking it would just pop out. No way, those things are like steel.

I couldn't get the thing out. I had to legit like have to like half pry the thing open just to get the bait out. It was just clamped down on that thing. And I looked at it like I took a picture before with the bait in its mouth. I'll post it on social media, maybe Patreon, but I posted that and I was like, has this ever happened to anyone? And I had one time that post went legit viral and I think it got like 10,000 likes or something like that and hundreds of comments like from all over the world. And

I had many people say that the same thing has happened because I had a bunch of people say like, oh no, there's no way you stuck it in its mouth. No, there's tons of people that had the same experience of me where the legit, the clam must have been open or something and I must have pitched like right, either right into it or like the line must have went right through his mouth and then I hopped it into his mouth because that thing just was like snapped right shut on the bait. I was like, oh my goodness. It was crazy. And

Yeah, that's probably like the weirdest thing I've caught while fishing. It's just like a clam. Then it got me thinking, like, how crazy would it be? If clams legit just like attacked humans, like, what do you think?

Andrew (19:16.585)
Yeah.

Andrew (19:25.83)
Well, I've actually had, uh, I had like the freshwater muscles that you find like all over the place. I've had them on a few different hooks and like single hooks and jigs, you know, fishing a ball head jig on the bottom, but I've actually had on more than one occasion I've had a hook from the inside of the shell out on a treble hook hanging off the back of a, uh, square bill crankbait. So like for some reason, and you're really in a crankbait, the hooks are hanging back, so you'd think that.

Jesse (19:37.131)
Yeah.

Andrew (19:53.461)
Maybe he get the line or the swivel or the bill or something of that crank bait in his mouth. But no, he gets the hook. It's like, are these things actually like swimming after them? Like, like those clams and SpongeBob, like swimming through the air and like chasing this thing, like I don't know how it's getting on these treble hooks.

Jesse (20:05.474)
Yeah.

That's crazy. Imagine though, like if they did swim after people and like you're just like, you know, being a weirdo, like weird, like this episode, you're like, I'm gonna go skinny dipping. And you just jump in the lake and all of a sudden you look down, there's all these clams just swimming towards you, snapping open and shut like, ch-c That'd be more terrifying than piranhas.

Andrew (20:14.029)
I'm out.

Andrew (20:22.805)
That's the, that's the next cryptid creature we're going to make up. Jesse.

Jesse (20:27.31)
Oh, okay. We'll have to do another one of those cryptid creatures of Canada episodes. Yeah, okay, that was a weird thing though. I don't even know if that'll ever happen to me again. I've seen clams all the time, but I've never had one legit fully clamped down on the bait. Very cool though. All right, so this next one, it's more of an experience that's happened locally. And I remember when this happened, I think it was last year, maybe the year before.

but this guy actually we know from Instagram. I've never met him myself, but I follow him on Instagram, he follows us. And this is not a weird thing per se, but it is a good story because it's something that he caught that he totally wasn't expecting. So if you guys know, there's a man named Will Sampson, and he fishes the Toronto Islands area, or the harbour down at the Toronto harbour area. Now, if you know anything about that area,

Not a lot of people fish out. I'm pretty sure you need like a harbor license or something to even like have your boat in there. I'm not 100% sure, but there are giant pike in there, like big ones. There's also like bass, like walleye. They catch both in and like big both in. Like there's really good fishing in there.

Andrew (21:35.713)
I remember walking around Ontario Place and just looking like all the marsh areas and you'll see like pike and stuff swimming around like, holy, I want to fish it so bad.

Jesse (21:45.034)
Yeah, no, like there's very big, very big pike in there. So anyway, if you follow this guy, his name is actually, I think it's like Outer Harbor Angler on Instagram. You can see some of these giant pike that this guy catches. The guy like lives near there and he fishes it a lot his whole life, caught a ton of big pike in there. But anyway, he was fishing there. This is from an article on CTV News Toronto. So he's fishing there. I don't know if he was casting or trolling, but he hooks his fish.

And he's reeling it in and imagine like Toronto, like the water generally from my experience is very clear. You can see down like sometimes like 20 feet. He's fighting this fish and it's swimming around and it comes up and he's probably just thinking, oh, it's another pike. Cause like you see this guy's Instagram, he slams pike all the time. What happens though is it comes up and it's a big musky. Now.

Why is that weird? It's not weird. You think, oh, it's Lake Ontario. Everyone says, oh, everything's in Lake Ontario. That is true. But in that area, in Toronto Harbor area, again, this guy's been fishing there his whole life. He's never caught a musky. And it's, for most people, I've never heard of anyone catching a musky down there. I'm sure someone has, other than Will. But catching a musky down there is extremely rare, like very rare. Like you could fish a lifetime, not even see one. You could probably fish 10 lifetimes and not see one.

Andrew (22:54.957)
Thanks for watching!

Jesse (23:04.222)
So he brings this musky in and he said his knees immediately became like jello. Mine too. Man. I'd be like, I'd be like peeing as I put it in the net. Like, Oh my goodness. Yeah. So he caught this musky and it was, uh, 20 pounds. It was a big one. It wasn't like a massive 50 incher, but it was a sizable fish 43 and a quarter inches, which

Andrew (23:15.506)
Yeah, that'll happen with a musky.

Jesse (23:27.858)
is a very respectable size musky anywhere. And if you see the picture, we'll post it on social. It wasn't just like some old beat up dirty musky. This thing was fat and beautiful. Like it was, the markings on this fish were amazing. So it was just like some unicorn musky that just happened to like the CN tower and like seeing it at sunset, you know? So he got this musky in and it was in the Toronto Harbor. He said, it's super unheard of and...

Andrew (23:45.366)
Yeah

Jesse (23:52.77)
The funny thing is, in Lake Ontario, like we said, there's tons of musky in the St. Lawrence, tons of them. They think the next world record might come from the St. Lawrence, because they get huge. And there's also lots of musky on the Niagara. So both sides of Lake Ontario, lots of musky. In the middle, nothing. For some reason, the musky don't like it. So that's why it was more of a weird bycatch, catching that musky there. So.

He said he couldn't pinpoint why there was a muskie in the Toronto Harbor, but notes there are a lot of them in, again, the Niagara River and near the end of Lake Ontario, near Kingston. So I thought that would be really cool because I think like generally most of us go fishing and we're like, I don't care what I catch, I just want to catch something. You know, some guys would be like, I'm fast fishing, but hey, if you catch a pike or if you catch a walleye, you're just like, yeah, this is awesome, right? But catching something that you a hundred percent don't even think as a possibility, like a clam, that's just so awesome. So.

Andrew (24:43.949)
Hehehehe

Jesse (24:46.39)
Definitely check that out. I'll post a picture of that on our social media. It was a beautiful fish. So congratulations to him. It's always funny when you see someone like on the news or something and you don't know them, but you're like, hey, I know that guy. So anyway, you have the next one. So what's the next weird thing that you could possibly catch?

Andrew (24:56.606)
Yeah.

Andrew (25:03.757)
So I know I've done this a few times and I know you've caught some like this too, Jesse, but and oftentimes I catch it when I'm frog fishing and it's catching a bullfrog like that happens all the time. It's actually some pretty interesting facts about it. I know a little while ago. I had kind of a fun fact or a fishing fact on the

hibernation habits of frogs. So this is kind of a bit more information about bullfrogs. So the

Jesse (25:33.026)
What was that word that you kept saying for the bullfrog hibernation? Hibernaculum?

Andrew (25:37.217)
The hibernaculum is the area they will choose to hibernate in. Yeah. Good, good memory, Jesse. So the American bullfrog is the largest frog in Canada, and adults can reach 20 centimeters in body length. The appetite of the American bullfrog is often described as voracious, much like my own.

Jesse (25:40.958)
science. All right, continue, continue.

Jesse (25:57.396)
Yep.

Andrew (25:59.285)
So they hunt their prey using a sit and wait strategy and will attack any animal smaller than itself that passes by. And I love that because like, I know for me, or you normally hear of, you know, fish or whatever like that. It's like, oh, they'll eat anything that'll fit in their mouth. It's like, okay. It's like, bullfrogs, anything that's just smaller than they are. It's like, that's still huge.

So a large part of their diet consists of other frogs and often other American bullfrog, tadpoles and juveniles, and that can comprise up to 80% of their diet. They can also they also eat, though, invertebrates, mammals. I've seen I've seen one eat a mouse, too. Occasionally birds and as tadpoles, the bullfrogs, they'll eat suspended organic matter such as algae and small aquatic invertebrates as they're growing up.

Jesse (26:31.714)
Wow.

Andrew (26:49.417)
Now what's interesting is like we've caught them accidentally, but you could do so purposefully because there is a bullfrog hunting season from July 21st to October 15th. So in any part of Ontario, except there are some restrictions, you can look at the regulations, but the regulations are for the hunting regulations.

Now what's interesting is that's in the hunting regulations, but bullfrogs may be taken for personal consumption under the authority of a valid sport or conservation fishing license. So you need a fishing license to harvest them, but if you want to know where to go, you need to look at the hunting regs. So the only, there are...

Jesse (27:25.803)
Ah, that makes sense.

Jesse (27:31.298)
That's another one of those awesome, not confusing at all laws.

Andrew (27:39.533)
Firearms are permitted but only bows. So they say firearms but bows are considered firearms so no guns unfortunately. So a person may take bullfrogs at night without a firearm and may shine a light for that purpose. Generally it is illegal to harvest frogs in provincial parks or crown game preserves.

But it's cool when it talks about finding them with a with a with a light at night. Have you ever shown your flash it out in the water, like on the shoreline at nighttime when you're camping and what and it's all their eyes like always like white eyes is glowing. Like you look in the daytime and it's like, Oh, I've, I found like about a dozen frogs on my campsite. You go at night. It's like, I'm surrounded by like hundreds of frogs.

Jesse (28:07.934)
Yeah, you see the eyes? Yeah

Jesse (28:23.235)
You know what? It's crazy though. Like bullfrogs, if you think of it, they're insane. Like imagine if they were slightly bigger. Like they're already big. Like you see bullfrogs that are just legit. Like they must be multiple pounds.

Andrew (28:31.885)
Hehehehe

Andrew (28:35.769)
Oh, it's so hard to hold them like you having your hand and they'll kick out of your hand. As a grown man, it's hard to hold them.

Jesse (28:40.898)
And that's why, yeah, and that's why people like catch them and cook their legs, like frog legs are like, they're literally like chicken wings, like they're that's how big they're. But like imagine, because you said like, they're pretty much like huge cannibals that are voracious and they put anything into their mouth. It kind of sounds like a large mouth bass, but imagine for a second if bullfrogs were like, the size of bears. Like imagine that for a second, like you have this.

this frog that's just like an ambush predator, just like sits along the shoreline, just slightly under the scum. And then as you're bank fishing, you're just walking along the bank, like, oh, chuck a frog in here. And all of a sudden it just like lunges out and grabs you and pulls you back in.

Andrew (29:23.265)
Imagine you're like in the roadside ditches. So anyone on a motorbike is susceptible to this massive bullfrog like Grabbing and ripping down the road

Jesse (29:32.698)
Oh man, it's true though. I have caught them on weedless frogs and it's almost like you chuck it out the frog. Sometimes you don't even see them and then they just kind of like rise out of nowhere and just like, they literally just like dive onto it and grab it. I'm always like trying to shake it out of their mouth because I don't want to get it stuck in their mouth. I'm like, no, but it happens. Yeah.

Andrew (29:47.755)
Yeah.

I was using a weedless jig and I had a bullfrog. He got it in his mouth like three times I was fishing at the cottage because it's fishing along the shoreline and he jumped out from the weeds and just like he'd get the back of the twister tail in his mouth and then as soon as they get something they don't just open rather than kind of hopes it goes in there. They'll stick their tongue out a little bit. It's not a chameleon but they stick our tongue out. They have their mouth open and then they're constantly grabbing in front of them with their hands like shoveling stuff into their face. So like within half a

Jesse (30:15.905)
Yeah.

Andrew (30:19.495)
and within half a second he's got the rest of the bait like shoving down his gullet it's ridiculous to watch imagine it happening to you

Jesse (30:24.819)
Oh, it's crazy. You know-

I do that with pizza. So you know what would be really cool? Again, like we like fishing, obviously we have a fishing podcast. It's not a frog catching podcast, but I think it'd be really fun, Andrew, next time if we went say to like somewhere like Pigeon River, somewhere that has like a lot of bullfrogs, if we went out at night with flashlights and actually like tried to catch a bunch of them in the canoe without tipping over and falling in the slop, it's like.

Andrew (30:51.597)
That's the hard part, not tipping over.

Jesse (30:53.654)
Here's the fun part, you catch a bullfrog, that's a pro. If you fall in and get covered with leeches and get attacked by a snapping turtle, that's the con. Yeah, no, that'd be cool because like I always knew that it was legal to hunt them. I just didn't know anything about that. So.

If you've ever hunted bullfrogs in Ontario and obviously ate them, send us a message because I'm an outdoorsman. I like all kinds of stuff like that. So is Andrew. We'd love to try that. So let us know your experience because I know people have done it. I've never seen anyone actually do it. So that would be cool. Yeah, Andrew can put some of his favorite beer batter on it.

Andrew (31:24.553)
Yep. And even if I could actually, yeah, if I could legally catch one, if I knew how, like where exactly when and, you know, what we talked about, but I would have no idea how to prepare it. So if someone has actually cooked it, I'd love to hear about that.

Jesse (31:39.81)
We'll have to catch some bullfrogs to just give them to Royce. Radio voice Royce, he's pretty much our camp chef. He's amazing, but I don't know if he's ever cooked frogs, so we'll have to ask him, but. That was a funny one. That's funny, but it's also weird. Like you're fishing for bass and then you catch a frog. It's like, come on, I'm using a frog as bait and I catch a frog? Maybe I should use a bass as bait and catch a bass. Oh wait, that's illegal. Don't do that. All right, so the next weird one. This is a bit of a public service announcement.

Andrew (32:00.439)
Hehehehehehehehe Hehehehe

Jesse (32:09.09)
Do do do. Weird things that you could possibly see or catch in Canada. What is the answer? Goldfish. I was gonna say the answer may surprise you. It won't surprise you though, it's goldfish. Andrew, have you ever seen a goldfish yourself when you're fishing?

Andrew (32:22.637)
Hehehe

Andrew (32:26.757)
I have actually, we've, uh, I've caught multiple. I've actually caught, I've caught, I can't even count now. I probably like dozens of goldfish. Now that's, that's because, okay. Well I've caught like three then. No, because I, I've, I found a couple of ponds. Um, one in particular that's loaded with goldfish.

Jesse (32:27.822)
Have you ever caught one?

Wow.

Jesse (32:36.214)
You're not allowed to go fishing at PetSmart.

Jesse (32:41.787)
Okay.

Jesse (32:45.879)
Yeah.

Jesse (32:49.228)
Yeah, I've been there.

Andrew (32:49.637)
And it's not connected to anything else, but we've, we found it together. Cause we wanted to fish for years. We would fish this trout stream and we'd always look at this pond and some guy's property and like, I wonder what's in it and eventually, you know, the property became abandoned. So we went over and we looked and you just see this like orange cloud in the pond and moving around, but I've, yeah, I've been fly fishing in there and stuff like that, and I've caught some pretty good size goldfish out of there.

Jesse (33:07.138)
Yeah.

Jesse (33:13.866)
Yeah, no, it's crazy. So you may think of goldfish and you're like, well, it's not really that big of a deal, is it? Well, you're wrong if you think that. There's several reasons why having goldfish in the lakes, rivers, and streams, and ponds is a massive deal. And I'm gonna tell you some of these points and we're gonna discuss them because it's probably some stuff that you've never thought of. So here's the reasons upfront. One.

Andrew (33:23.533)
Hehehehe

Jesse (33:41.058)
is goldfish are tough as nails. The second reason is goldfish are a tad too romantic throughout the year. And the third reason is they love to eat and they get huge. So we're going to cover some of these. And it's not really weird. It's just it's goldfish. So it's kind of weird. So seeing a goldfish like

Like you said, you see like a cloud of orange. So I always thought it was funny when you see a goldfish in like a lake and you're like, wow, that fish has the worst camouflage ever, it's gonna get eaten. You know what I mean? So anyway, the first point is goldfish are very hardy. So like, how would you describe a fish that's hardy? Like, I think a fish like catfish, you know what I mean? But like goldfish are just like that too.

Andrew (34:04.877)
Hahaha.

Andrew (34:14.528)
Yeah.

Andrew (34:25.929)
Yeah. So something that you can just like pick up, give it a slap and throw it on the ground and it'll swim away if it goes back in the water, like that's a hearty fish.

Jesse (34:34.638)
Yeah, and they can deal with all kinds of conditions. So goldfish have actually been in Canadian waterways for over a hundred years. But the difference now is because of the warming trends that we have, like look at right now, like it's literally mid February. And like the other day, remember it was like 16 degrees. Like it's crazy, like the weather is just, it's getting warming, it's terrible. But due to that goldfish, they're very adaptable to different temperatures. Unfortunately, other...

Andrew (34:53.641)
Yeah. Ugh.

Jesse (35:03.298)
fish and other game fish aren't as adaptable as goldfish are. Not all of them, but some of them aren't. So like you have to think like that pond that we saw the goldfish in, it's not a huge pond. It's actually a pretty small pond. But we thought to ourselves like this pond, I don't know if it would like, if it freezes in the winter of like, are these fish gonna like survive?

We went back the next year, there was more than the year before. Like they can survive in like freezing cold water with like almost no oxygen in it. They can also survive in water that's like almost boiling hot. You know, like you go in the middle of summer and the water's like warm. Goldfish are like, no problem. So.

Andrew (35:37.438)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's ridiculously hot in that pond.

Jesse (35:41.386)
Yeah, so like that's the main problem is like goldfish, they're survivors, they literally are tough as nails. So that is one problem. Now the second problem is goldfish are very, very greedy. Now how is that a problem? Well, they compete with other fish that are in the same area. So like the native species, now they have to compete with these goldfish, which are just like, they're like the bullfrog, they're just like voracious feeders, right? They pretty much eat almost anything.

Andrew (35:46.945)
Mm-hmm.

Jesse (36:09.182)
and they out-compete native species for food and resources, which obviously impacts other fish and game fish as well. So it's a slippery slope of like, you bring one thing into an environment and now everything else is competing, it's a big deal. Now this.

Andrew (36:26.409)
Yeah, I've had goldfish before like in my fish tank and it's true. Like them eating is, is nuts because in my experience they will, they will eat. It doesn't matter if they're hungry or not. They'll just keep eating and then they poop like crazy. It's a pain in the butt. You got to stay on top of them to keep that tank clean or some of the dirtiest fish I've ever had.

for that reason, but they will just keep eating and eating and eating. So if they're in an environment where there's a bunch of food to be had, they're not going to stop. It doesn't matter to them. They'll force feed themselves all day long.

Jesse (36:59.562)
I just picture Andrew just talking to his goldfish like, hey, are you full? Why are you still eating, man? So obviously having this competition with the native species obviously affects the species itself and it also affects you as the angler. So the more competition for the native species, the harder it is to catch these species. So that is another reason, that's the second reason why goldfish in the lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds is a serious matter.

Now the third one is, we'll keep a PG-13, but these goldfish get too romantic. I try to use my romantic voice. They get too romantic. That wasn't romantic at all. My wife's just looking at me like, absolutely not. So, give us a example, Andrew.

Andrew (37:39.906)
You gotta bring in the berry weight.

Jesse (37:46.57)
Not bad. So goldfish, they reproduce quickly and are known to exist all across the Great Lakes and the rest of Canada. Now they're known for having extraordinary reproductive abilities. Imagine if someone said that about you. It's like, wow, you have extraordinary reproduction abilities. Now there's a aquatic biologist named Erin Carroll and she wrote that a goldfish's ability

Andrew (37:47.841)
Boom.

Jesse (38:14.69)
to reproduce multiple times per season and quickly balloon in population sizes made the small fish, the goldfish, a big problem across the country, including British Columbia, Alberta, and other communities. So the fact that they spawn multiple times a year, like most fish you know, like, oh, you know, salmon spawn in the fall, they go up the rivers and spawn and, you know, trout spawn in the spring, like steelhead and like bass spawn in, you know, like, you know, May or June in Ontario, right?

Andrew (38:34.56)
Mm-hmm.

Jesse (38:42.006)
these goldfish, they don't have a time to spawn. They just spawn like multiple times a year. So they almost like multiply like rabbits. Like, you know what people say like, oh, they multiply like rabbits. They just constantly have babies. You have to think it's like you get two goldfish and then that becomes even like four and then four becomes 16 and it just like. Brrr.

Andrew (39:00.737)
Not even though, because it's like the amount of eggs that you can get out of just one breeding pair and then that's exponential. But you're doing simple math. I get it. I get it.

Jesse (39:04.382)
Yeah. Hey, I don't want to do math here. Yeah, this is Average Ontario Anglers, not average mathematicians. Okay, come on. Maybe next episode. We're gonna start a new podcast called Average Mathematicians. It's gonna be terrible. All right, so let's go through these points to just remember. So remember, they're super tough. Goldfish, super tough.

Andrew (39:16.011)
Hehe

Andrew (39:23.476)
I was homeschooled.

Andrew (39:33.28)
Mm-hmm.

Jesse (39:33.838)
They're greedy, they eat like pigs. They spawn multiple times a year and reproduce like crazy. And the fourth point is they can get huge. Now, Andrew kind of talked about having goldfish as pets. And you know, like I always, like I'm not like a, what is it called, an aquarium expert, but you always have people have goldfish in like a bowl or a tank. And from my understanding, goldfish will kind of like adapt to the amount of space that they have. So like, if you have a small bowl, the goldfish won't get that big. Isn't that right?

Andrew (39:55.221)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew (40:02.985)
Yep.

Jesse (40:03.01)
to a certain extent, yeah. So when you have these goldfish, they can grow much larger, much larger than in your goldfish bowl when they're out in the wild. So if you have these goldfish, and you're like, oh, it's just a little goldfish, it'll only grow like two, three inches, and you put it in the wild, I'll tell you what can happen. So that same biologist that I mentioned, she said that she's heard reports of goldfish weighing as much as six pounds. Six pounds! Like that is a...

Andrew (40:30.824)
I believe it.

Jesse (40:32.598)
That's a big goldfish. Like, if, you should see these pictures of goldfish. They look like the goldfish in your tank, but they're literally the size of like a six pound bass. Like they're like bigger than a football. That's how thick they're. That's how big they get. It's insane. Oh man. Like have you ever seen a goldfish that big?

Andrew (40:39.169)
Hehehe

Andrew (40:46.678)
Yeah.

Andrew (40:50.797)
I haven't seen a bass that big. Yeah, I've seen small ones that big, but I haven't caught a large one with that yet. This year.

Jesse (40:53.181)
Poor Andrew, still looking for his 6 pound large mouth.

Jesse (41:00.562)
Yeah, we're gonna do it this year. So you may think, okay, these goldfish, these are the reasons why they're a big deal, why they're a bad thing. But how does this happen? How do goldfish get out into the lakes, rivers, and streams? Well, it's pretty obvious, because people have pet goldfish like Andrew used to have. My mom used to have goldfish, like a lot of people do, right? And then for whatever reason, they might be like, you know what, I'm done. I don't wanna care for this goldfish anymore. Maybe they inherit the goldfish.

or they're moving, whatever, or the goldfish is sick. So what do they do? What do you do with a sick goldfish? You flush it down the toilet. It's pretty, it's sad when you think of it. Imagine just getting flushed down a toilet. It's just like I'm finding Nemo and they're like, all drains lead to the ocean. But they flush them down the toilet, or maybe the goldfish are fine, and they're like, you know what, I'd rather not kill these things. Logically, I'm gonna release them into a pond or into the river, and then at least they'll have a chance to survive and have a good life.

Andrew (41:44.277)
Hehehehe

Jesse (41:58.014)
Unfortunately, releasing domestic species into the wild is a bad idea because at that point, they become an invasive species, which we know, we did that podcast a few months ago about the invasive grass carp, how big of an impact a single invasive species can have on the fishery. And not just the fishery, like you as an angler. So you may think, oh, they're just innocent, cute little goldfish, but they have a huge impact. They can have a huge impact on a water body.

So what should you do? Well, the main thing we wanna get the point across is, don't let it loose. Don't let these goldfish loose into the lakes, the rivers, the ponds, and other places, because they have the potential of becoming a big problem. Another thing about goldfish too, is they also oftentimes carry diseases. I'm sure like, like Andrew, you've had a goldfish tank, or like a fish tank, fish oftentimes get diseases, right? So.

Andrew (42:52.321)
And goldfish too, because they have the long like frilly fins, they're more susceptible to have those fins get damaged and then more susceptible for infection and then you have diseases passing that way. So yeah, they can be like, yeah, if you if especially in the wild, it's not like to go with a bunch of other goldfish only, they may be getting attacked and maybe getting injured and spreading more diseases.

Jesse (43:14.282)
Yeah, so they can carry diseases that can harm local fish. So that's another bad thing about goldfish being in our lakes, rivers, and ponds. So what should you do if you see a goldfish or you catch a goldfish, either one? Here's what you do, listen up. I didn't know this, so this is interesting. So you can report goldfish sightings and catches to EDMAPS if you capture one. Now, EDMAPS, if you didn't know, it stands for this. The Early Detection Distribution Mapping System.

Sounds pretty fancy. But really what it is, is it's an internationally based web mapping system for documenting invasive species. So that sounds complicated, but I'll tell you, this is fast and easy to use and all you need is your smartphone. You can literally do this. We're gonna link, I always say we're gonna link the link, but we're gonna put in the show notes the link to this so that you can report. And if you, I did it myself, it's super easy to do. Definitely check it out. So,

The Invasive Species Center wants to see how common it is to catch goldfish in Ontario and Canada. So do us a favor, we're gonna put the link below in the show notes. There's a quick survey, this is super quick. Again, I did it myself, it was like 30 seconds. That's all it took. And what it does is it helps them learn more about where people are catching goldfish and what size they are, and it helps them do the research and help prevent them from...

Becoming a crazy problem in the future. So definitely check that out. And one more thing we want to mention on the topic of goldfish is February 26 to March 3rd is the invasive species awareness week. So We're making you aware of these goldfish, but there's a lot more things to be aware of so make sure on February 26 to March 3rd You pay attention to the invasive species centers social media and their website for all kinds of informative topics

They always post stuff and I'm like, what? That's invasive? That's crazy. Like stuff that like, I don't even know about, but anyway, we'll link their website and all their socials down below so you can check that out. So that's all about Goldfish, but I can't stress enough the fact that this is something very important. So you may be thinking, oh, it's just Goldfish, but this is a problem. And again, if you've seen one or you caught one, report it, do the right thing. So the next one is actually, Goldfish aren't really weird, but the next one,

Andrew (45:15.227)
Yeah.

Jesse (45:40.354)
super weird and not just like super weird but like super like super weird is weird with a cape super weird So if you've seen one of these things this isn't something you can catch Unless you're possibly looking at the goofy movie of how they caught one if you remember that Yep, is the Bigfoot Now I didn't tell Andrew about this but I want you to do

Andrew (45:57.381)
Yeah

Jesse (46:09.578)
What you think, imagine the scene, it's quiet at night, you're waking up, you're camping, you wake up to go to the bathroom and you hear the subtle yet eerie call of the Bigfoot. What would it sound like?

Jesse (46:26.806)
Wow, that was weird. Good job. So anyway, I got this information about the Bigfoot from the ontarioparks.ca website and I'll link the link to this article below. And again, not affiliated with the Ontario Parks website or the Ontario Parks in general, but they actually have a lot of good articles on the website. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I was like, okay, whatever.

Andrew (46:29.399)
Hehehehe

Andrew (46:47.073)
That's that's a government website talking about Bigfoot. All right.

Jesse (46:53.41)
So I know a lot of people are like, oh, where do you guys get your interesting fishing facts or your facts and stuff? It's like, obviously we try to find credible sources and it's the Ontario Parks website. So anyway, I was booking camping and I was like, oh, Bigfoot, what? You know when they tell you when you book a provincial park and it's like, what this site, like what activities are provided? And it's like fishing, kayaking, and it's just like Bigfoot sighting. Just kidding, didn't say that. They should add that though. So anyway, this information came from the Ontario Parks website, from an article by.

Andrew (46:57.9)
The government.

Andrew (47:15.342)
Hehe

Jesse (47:21.678)
Park naturalist Roger Lafontaine. Guy sounds pretty fancy. Now this is, again, I've never met this guy. No offense to this guy. I just, I thought this was kind of funny. So Roger is a classically trained biologist and an amateur Sasquatch researcher. So my question is, how do you get from being an amateur Sasquatch researcher to an expert?

Sasquatch researcher. What qualifies you?

Andrew (47:55.533)
I want to know why he's not classically trained in the art of Sasquatch research.

Jesse (47:59.678)
Is it Sasquatch research or Sasquatching? I don't know. So anyway, he has spent nearly two decades researching and documenting the occurrences of Sasquatches in Ontario. So anyway, before we get into this, we're just gonna, I'm gonna ask Andrew this because I kind of know his thought on this, but for everyone listening.

Andrew (48:02.925)
I'm sorry.

Jesse (48:20.354)
For me myself, if someone literally asked me, does Bigfoot exist? And I think the better question is, is there a possibility of a Bigfoot like creature that is smart and has evaded being seen by humans, a possibility? I'm gonna tell you, I honestly think the answer is yes. That's just my personal, like if you told me there's some smart animal, like there's smart animals out there. There's some smart animal that happens to have been smarter than us, like we're.

Like, that's just things. Most people are pretty dumb. Most people have average intelligence, right, like us. So if you're telling me that there's some smart animal that has been able to evade humans for hundreds of thousands of years, or even hundreds of years, right, that's not too far-fetched, is it? Like, what do you think?

Andrew (49:09.549)
So I don't want to say yes or no that I think Bigfoot exists. However, I will say this scientifically, there is an example of something similar happening. Have you ever heard of in the Congo, the Billy Apes or Bondo Apes? So they were discovered in 2003.

and they're another form of great ape. Like they're large, not like tiny monkeys, they're large. And what the scientists found out was they were making their nests to sleep in at night and then taking them apart and moving on and covering their tracks. So they didn't know that this species existed until 2003. Yeah, so that being said, could there be a...

Jesse (49:47.21)
What?

Jesse (49:53.282)
That's like 20 years ago. Holy smokes.

Andrew (49:59.661)
great ape of some sort, like a large mammalian creature that's living in, you know, the North Americas that is, could be doing the same thing. Who knows? Like they'd be doing it in the Congo. Why not North America? So I wouldn't be surprised if they're like, Hey, by the way, here's this new thing or like an hyper smart bear or something like that, like maybe, maybe it's a bear, but it's like a super smart species of bear.

Jesse (50:12.811)
Yeah.

Jesse (50:19.958)
Well, 100%.

Jesse (50:28.238)
for sure. You know what? I think the mystery of it is more intriguing to everyone, right? Because it's like, again, I love conspiracy theories and all that stuff. I don't believe half of them. But it's funny to watch some of these like, people that are like looking for Bigfoot. Yeah.

Andrew (50:40.04)
Bigfoot was an inside job.

Jesse (50:42.922)
But like you see it's like Bigfoot Hunter. And it's like this guy that spent, you know, 30 years in the wilderness trying to get one shot of Bigfoot and he's like, oh, there they are in the distance. And you just see like a shadow going through the woods at night. That doesn't prove anything. That just proves that like a fat raccoon just jumped up a tree or something. You know what I mean? Like there's no actual.

Andrew (51:00.301)
Yeah, it's like them putting fruit up in a tree and like, oh, if this is 11 feet high in the tree so only a Bigfoot could reach it. It's like I've seen squirrels run away with half a grapefruit hanging out of their mouth. Like they can carry a lot. That's a squirrel. Like you can't prove to me that just because the crab apple is gone that Bigfoot reached up there and grabbed it.

Jesse (51:16.321)
Yeah.

Jesse (51:22.466)
Let me tell you a secret, raccoons can get anywhere. But it is interesting. Honestly, if someone literally caught one or they found one, like you think that they would have found like bones or something, you know what I mean, but if it's a very rare creature, but if someone actually caught one and it was documented as true, I wouldn't be surprised. If they never found one ever again in the history of mankind, I also wouldn't be surprised. So who knows? But.

They call them the Sasquatch in Ontario, but they're also known as Bigfoot. There's also different versions like the Yeti and stuff like that, right? Yeah, which we should do a whole episode on Bigfoot stuff. But anyway, it's described as a large hairy ape, often like Andrew, right? I've seen Andrew in a bathing suit a few times, unfortunately. So I should just start calling you Sasquatch.

Andrew (51:59.533)
forest people.

Andrew (52:04.641)
should.

Andrew (52:15.702)
Hahaha

Jesse (52:15.99)
The funny thing is that they're more commonly known to inhabit Western Canada. So oftentimes the sightings are seen in like British Columbia. Think of like the vast wildernesses in British Columbia. I knew like Ontario has that too, but like that's where most of the sightings are seen. But sightings do occur in Ontario. You have to think Bigfoot, he's got big feet. He can walk, he can walk to Ontario if he wants. I mean, why wouldn't he? We have, you know, hundreds of thousands of lakes.

And like most of Ontario is like uninhabited. Like literally, if you look at the population map, it's like right at the bottom and then like just like a smattering throughout the thick middle, yeah. So again, he could live there for like generations and no one would know, right? So it said this and I thought this was interesting. It said, sightings do occur in Ontario, often made by credible eyewitnesses. So by credible eyewitness does he mean,

Someone that's not a drunk hillbilly.

Andrew (53:14.265)
You can believe me because I'm writing this down. I have a theory for why Sasquatches aren't seen. Maybe they're being eaten by the giant bullfrogs. Now we just need to find the bullfrogs. Follow the money people.

Jesse (53:23.49)
Okay.

Jesse (53:27.406)
Oh, that actually makes perfect sense.

Jesse (53:36.003)
We should have another podcast just about weird conspiracies. Anyway, it says, however, well, we can all envision the figure or silhouette of a Sasquatch. Few is a few of us have seen the real thing. And I obviously might even venture to say none of us have seen the real thing. But anyway, again, if you believe in the Sasquatch, I totally get it. Like I might, too.

Andrew (53:38.657)
Ha ha ha!

Jesse (53:58.398)
So researchers believe that the Bigfoot is a species of giant ape or like a relative species of giant apes, which makes sense. That's what Andrew said. Like those, what are the bonobo apes or whatever? They're very smart looking creatures, right? So they're usually described as being two to three meters tall with long arms, hunched shoulders, no neck and a sloped head. Kind of like Andrew. Exactly like Andrew. And he's hairy, too. But just think two to three meters, like three meters is nine feet tall.

Imagine seeing like I have a buddy, he's six foot eight. He's a giant. Like he's a big dude too. Like he's a giant. Whenever I stand beside him, I look like a child.

Andrew (54:36.745)
Well, an average door is two meters, like your average doorway. So if you have something that's one and a half doors high, measure it like an American, one and a half doors high is how big a Sasquatch can be.

Jesse (54:41.386)
Is it? Wow.

Jesse (54:52.878)
crazy. So it says the body, the hairy body can vary in color from black, dark to light brown, gold and even white. So imagine like they're like stealth chameleon yetis, right? They go up into snowing also and they change white. It's like they're sitting in some like leafs in the fall. They're just like splotted just like a you know, like how you see those cuttlefish just change colors and stuff that'd be that that's why no one sees them because they can literally blend. Yes.

Andrew (55:17.72)
Bigfoot also has chromatophores. You heard it here first.

Jesse (55:20.754)
Yes, every single hair is full of them. Now, again, not making fun of anyone that believes in yetis. I think it's just entertaining, but anyway. Yeah, they... I believe in yeti. I can't sing, but anyway. I thought it was funny how this article ended. It said, don't be afraid. Like you, Sasquatch is out there to get away from it all.

Andrew (55:29.737)
Yeah, they make great mugs.

Andrew (55:35.757)
Hehehehe

Jesse (55:47.39)
So if you like the feeling, so if you get the feeling you're being watched, check that you're exploring the park responsibly and give a thumbs up towards the tree line. So I just picture myself camping in the middle of nowhere and I hear like a twig snap behind me. And instead of literally just like feeling happy, I literally just swing around and I'm like, thanks Yeti, don't kill me. Yeah, that's kind of whacked, but yeah.

Andrew (56:16.555)
Yeah.

Jesse (56:17.162)
So if you ever see it yet, you just give them a big thumbs up. And apparently that's what Ontario Park says is chill. So anyway, so we're coming towards the end of the podcast. So I'm actually I have a bunch of weird things that followers have sent in. But before we do that, I thought I would just give two quick stories.

One of them is of a skunk. So I was paddling out my canoe early morning It was like, you know bass season, you know, you know when you go in the morning and it was still dark out flat Got the mist rising up. I had a popper tied on, you know It's just like ready to get and I had to go to the other side of the lake that Lake kind of narrowed down And I'm paddling along and also and I see this thing like swimming across the lake from one side to the other And I was like, what the heck is that? It looks like a beaver like you always see beaver swimming, right? Didn't think anything of it. I start paddling I'm on my way and we kind of like we're on an intersecting course and I get close

Andrew (56:49.645)
Hehehe

Jesse (57:06.76)
and it's small, I'm like, oh, is that a squirrel? Like I've seen squirrel swim before. I was like, what the heck? But it was black and it had a white stripe down its back and its tail was floating. So as I got close to it, I don't know if I was wearing my glasses at the time, but I realized it was a skunk. I did not know skunks could swim. And at the time, I must've been really deliriously tired at the time. I, for some reason, thought I was gonna get sprayed. So I started paddling like fiercely in the opposite direction. Now, when I did that, I spooked the skunk.

Andrew (57:21.834)
Ha ha

Jesse (57:35.538)
And I feel bad for him because he had swam all the way across the lake, literally 80% of the way to the other side. And when I spooked him, he just turned around and swam all the way back. I felt so bad. I was like, you almost made it. Just wait. So I felt bad. But yeah, apparently I looked up research. Skunks actually can swim and they're actually pretty good at it. So if you ever see that and I don't know if they can spray you, probably not. Imagine if you're scuba diving and a skunk just sprayed you from underneath. Like, no.

Andrew (57:45.313)
Hehehehe

Andrew (57:56.99)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew (58:01.365)
scuba diving Yeah, you worried about gasoline in your hands what about skunk spray in your hands for you know preventing fish from biting

Jesse (58:02.71)
That's why scuba dive! Anyway.

Jesse (58:11.393)
It just turns out to be like the next biggest bass scent. Spray some of that on your bait and all the bass is spectacular. All right, another story about a woodland creature. I'll just do this one quick. I thought it was pretty funny. I was ice fishing with some of my buddies. Andrew wasn't there because he had to work. Anyway.

Andrew (58:15.468)
Yeah. Skunk fuel.

Jesse (58:29.658)
I was ice fishing up on Nipissing in one of those sleepover huts. We were out fishing for a few days, I think like three days, and we were catching perch, some walleye, burbot, just a bunch of everything, right? And what we do is it was like minus 30, it was freezing, is we'd ever, we'd catch a fish, and since we didn't want to open the door constantly, we would just chuck the fish out the window and then shut the window quick. And the fish would literally freeze like instantly because it was so cold. So anyway.

One night, I was jigging at night, it was like four in the morning or something, I couldn't sleep, I was just jigging for like walleye or whatever, one of my buddies got up to go for a pee, and when he came back in, he's like, God, I saw the weirdest thing, I saw like a fox. I was like, yeah, see, I was carrying a fish in his mouth. I was like, oh, and I must've been really tired because I literally didn't think anything of it. In the morning, when I went outside to check on our big pile of perch and walleye, they were all gone. Every single one of them, they're all gone. This fox.

We were not close to shore either. We were far from shore. Like it was a drive out there in ATV. This fox had been going back and forth. Because like you have to think, how many perch can a fox fit in his mouth? Like he wasn't eating them. He took them whole. They were all gone. And then we ended up talking to the HUD operator and he's like, oh yeah, he does that. I was like, why didn't you warn us? You knew. So anyway, I thought that was pretty funny, but now we can go to the weird things that our followers have.

Andrew (59:42.284)
Hehehehe

Jesse (59:52.398)
scene, which some of these are actually pretty funny. So again, if you don't follow us on Instagram or Patreon.

Make sure you do that. And again, if you're on Patreon, we really appreciate that. But you can even join as a free member. You won't get all the benefits. And the benefits, I know I said we'd talk about that after. I'll talk about it right now. The benefits of being a Patreon member is you get a warm and fuzzy feeling of supporting me and Andrew, so we don't have to pay for most of the show out of our own pockets. But you also get automatically entered into every giveaway, as long as you live in Canada or the United States of America. So, yeah.

Andrew (01:00:22.273)
there is a caveat as well, where if they win one giveaway, then they can't win the next one. So they'll miss one, but then you're good for the third one after. So that's, you're all right there. So just the one after your next gear, you're winning. You're unfortunately won't be a pick up for that because it's tough for someone to see a back to back winner. Ha ha ha.

Jesse (01:00:41.79)
Yeah, it's true. And just as a tip, we had two giveaways this month, but in March we actually have four giveaways. We have a giveaway every single month. So make sure you're a Patreon member for that. So these are some of the responses I got from my question, what is the weirdest thing you've ever caught? And some of these are pretty good. Some of them I can't read because they're just way too weird, way too weird. So Taylor24242424 said that he has caught a snake

Beaver and a seagull. Andrew's caught a seagull. Remember that? That was crazy. Andrew actually handled it pretty good.

Andrew (01:01:14.797)
have. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's pretty yeah, I was able to I was fishing at super shad rap. And I saw the seagulls starting to come down like you saw him I kind of hover midair. So I started like ripping it in. So I'm trying to get it to dive as deep as possible and get it in as fast as possible. And then the seagulls dives in swims down and just grabs the thing.

Jesse (01:01:25.154)
Yeah.

Andrew (01:01:40.329)
and it comes up to the surface and it's all freaking out. So I pulled it in and just grabbed it behind the head, tucked it under my arm and unhooked it and just let it fly away. Ha ha ha.

Jesse (01:01:48.798)
Yeah, and like I've seen that, I've had many seagulls attack my lures, but thankfully I've never actually connected with one of them, but you handled it well. I was surprised. Had a crowd watching too. It's just like, hey, it's the Andrew show. All right, so Inked Outdoorsman said that the weirdest thing he's ever caught is a $20 bill. That's awesome. That's not weird.

Andrew (01:01:56.609)
Thank you. Yeah. You keep?

Andrew (01:02:09.921)
That's awesome. I normally lose that much in baits every time I go fishing. So that's sweet to come out ahead.

Jesse (01:02:16.726)
Redneck Carpenter said, on the Detroit River with coworkers, he caught a leopard skin thong. I hope it was catch and release. Rickson3 said, he caught a rod and reel when he was trolling for walleye, he thought it was a monster. We've actually caught a fishing rod before, and yeah, imagine that. It's a whopper, and it's a fishing rod, and unless someone dropped it in recently and it's clean, it's all covered in like muck and algae, it's like, ah, it's pretty much garbage.

Andrew (01:02:25.953)
You know.

Andrew (01:02:35.901)
Yep.

Andrew (01:02:42.871)
Yeah.

Jesse (01:02:46.251)
Canadian cowboy outdoors. He says that he caught a water heater in the Oshawa Creek. I believe that. Like I said, I grew up in Oshawa. I fished that creek so much. You'd find like ovens in the creek. I still don't get what drives a person to just chuck large appliances into the river. It drives me insane. Oh yeah. Oh.

Andrew (01:02:51.701)
Not surprised.

Andrew (01:03:03.541)
The weirdest thing I caught out of the Oshawa Creek was a dead muskrat. I snagged it. I reeled it in. That's something I did not unhook. I just cut the line. Like I'm not getting any closer to this thing.

Jesse (01:03:17.046)
He's treating it like a shark. Just cut the hook, don't even risk it. You know what though, I have smelled muskrats close up. They smell terrible when they're alive. I can't imagine what it smelled like when it was dead. Dear, ugh. A bunch of people messaged that they had caught a sock. Three people said that. A lot of people mentioning snapping turtles. And this guy, Philip Daniel 33 says, a big snapping turtle.

Andrew (01:03:26.413)
Oh, it was, yeah, it had been there for a while.

Jesse (01:03:43.67)
Jig hook on the side of the shell, confused feeling when the drag goes. It's like, yep. I've hooked a snapping turtle that I was fishing for catfish with just like dew worms on the bottom or something. And I hooked this, I thought I snagged and then I was slowly pulling it in. I was like, what the heck? And it comes up, it's big, like 25 pounds snapping turtle. I was like, oh my goodness. JR fishing and hunting, which is your old school buddy.

Andrew (01:03:47.87)
Heheheheheheh

Andrew (01:04:01.498)
Hehe

Andrew (01:04:06.942)
Yeah, yeah.

Jesse (01:04:07.842)
He said the weirdest thing he caught was a glove and then he said thank god there wasn't a hand in it Oh Uh, todd h newman. He says he caught a submerged plastic Minnow bag at 25 feet. I wonder if he was like ice fishing and someone dropped their minnow bag in usually they have air in them Yeah

Andrew (01:04:16.319)
Oh man.

Andrew (01:04:28.105)
I wonder if it still had minnows in it. It's like free bait.

Jesse (01:04:31.314)
Imagine though if it did have minnows in it and the perch just were down there just like hitting it They're like there's some kind of force field John Penders he said I had a snapping turtle grab a sunfish. I was reeling in glad he let go and did not get hooked Yeah, no like of the things that I don't want to hook ever it's snapping turtle 100% know Trevor Barnew says my mom's ear

Andrew (01:04:35.65)
Hehe

Andrew (01:04:45.897)
Yep, seen that happen too. Heheheheheheh.

Andrew (01:04:56.506)
Free piercing.

Jesse (01:04:58.774)
You know, we always said before in an episode last season is like, honestly, I don't want to hook myself, but if I do, it's not a big deal. But the worst thing is when you hook someone else, that's the worst. It's like, I'm sorry. Oh, especially on the head. Oh, anyway. A bunch of people said that they've caught lots of articles of clothing, t-shirts, a towel. Yeah, just a lot of weird stuff. Some stuff I'm not going to read because it's just, it's gross.

Andrew (01:05:07.453)
Yeah.

Andrew (01:05:26.167)
Ha ha!

Jesse (01:05:28.63)
That was a fun episode. What do you say, Andrew? Yeah, so we do have a little bit of housekeeping before we end this episode. And then I'm gonna give Andrew a little bit of time to think about his quote of the week, but.

Andrew (01:05:31.046)
I like it. I like it.

Jesse (01:05:42.794)
Our housekeeping is we do appreciate everyone listening, like we mentioned. If you do feel inclined to follow us on Patreon and donate a few bucks a month so that you can enter those giveaways, we would really appreciate it. But if not, we're just happy you're here listening to us. We really appreciate that. We would like to say again, for the goldfish thing, all the links will be in the show notes. If you have seen a goldfish, it doesn't mean like right now, today or this week, but if you've seen a goldfish or you've caught a goldfish,

definitely go and report it on the website there and make sure you take the survey. Please, please, please do the survey. It takes literally 25 seconds. Appreciate it. So.

That is pretty much it. I guess news coming up, if you're listening this weekend, it is Family Day weekend. So have fun with your family or do what I like to do on Family Day. Make plans so you don't have to spend time with your family. Just kidding. But if you are fishing on Family Day, have fun, be safe if you're ice fishing. And I think this weekend, we're gonna be at the, what is it, the Toronto Fishing and Boating Show. So hopefully by the time you listen to this, it's probably already passed, but.

Andrew (01:06:36.858)
Hehe

Jesse (01:06:52.85)
If we saw you there, it was nice meeting you. And if not, we'll catch you next time. So anyway, we'd like to take this moment to make Andrew tell us. You have to say it like this too. The quote of the week.

Andrew (01:06:56.01)
Heheheheh.

Andrew (01:07:06.453)
Don't complain about getting skunked. Just be glad you didn't get sprayed by one.

Jesse (01:07:11.055)
Ha ha ha!