Try this sentence:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSomething just gave a\u00a0\u00a0how\u2019s your father<\/strong> to your hell rod<\/strong>, you better grab it off the guthrie stick <\/strong>and give it a brent burns<\/strong> because I think newman<\/strong> is giving you a mouth party, <\/strong>and do it quick because a couple of gussucks <\/strong>are coming.<\/span><\/p>\n To make sense of this and more, read on.<\/span><\/p>\n Guthrie<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This was from my grandpa, Phred.\u00a0 It was used to refer to another fisherman in a derogatory way,\u00a0probably one whose fishing skills are suspect.\u00a0 \u201cLook at that guthrie, doesn\u2019t he know there are no fish there?\u201d\u00a0 Classic moves that would identify someone as a guthrie include using a spinning reel upside down, using a Zebco reel, not changing the water in your minnow bucket, fishing where there is zero chance of catching anything.<\/span><\/p>\n All of our fishing was done at popular shore fishing spots where you are likely to interact with other anglers.\u00a0 When I think back on some of the locations and tactics we used, we may have been the biggest guthries of all.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked about the origin of the word, Phred never really had a good answer, only that someone he had known many years before had used the phrase.\u00a0 It should also be pointed out that Phred\u2019s real name was Ray.\u00a0 He would refer to all males as Fred, including a two-year-old me.\u00a0 I started calling him Fred back, and it stuck.\u00a0 For reasons unknown to me, the \u201cPh\u201d spelling was used 100% of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n We still use this phrase.\u00a0 Guthrie can be broken down into several sub categories such as Gussuck [see below], dipshit, jabroni, or fucking asshole depending on the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n Guthrie sticks in plain sight as we fished the Harvard Hole in about 1973<\/p><\/div>\n Guthrie Stick<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Bank angler\u2019s version of a rod holder.\u00a0 At is simplest it is a forked stick.\u00a0 And this is fishing at its simplest\u2014walk down to the riverbank.\u00a0 Bait up with a nightcrawler.\u00a0 Cast it out.\u00a0 Prop up your rod on a guthrie stick.\u00a0 Wait for a bite. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes fresh cut, sometimes pulled from a pile of driftwood.\u00a0 In recent years we have taken to using store-bought models [about $4 at Fleet Farm] that can be adjusted for height. Often used by persons that would be referred to as guthries.\u00a0 Phred would never admit that we were guthries, yet why did we employ guthrie sticks so often?<\/span><\/p>\n I sometimes see Jeremy Wade using Guthrie Sticks while in pursuit of a \u201cRivah Mahnstah\u201d, so maybe a name change is in order.<\/span><\/p>\n A bunch of Gussucks<\/p><\/div>\n Gussuck<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This comes from Alaska, it was understood by us fish guides that this is the Native word for \u201cwhite man\u201d. Research shows that it is indeed accurate, possibly a variation of \u201cCossack\u201d.\u00a0 We would often refer to each other as \u201cgussuck\u201d, and back home became a word used to refer to any random person, not necessarily in a negative connotation.\u00a0 A gussuck isn\u2019t necessarily a guthrie, but a guthrie is probably a gussuck.\u00a0 Make sense?<\/span><\/p>\n Mouth or Snagged<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m steelhead fishing on the Root River in Racine, early 90\u2019s.\u00a0 I hooked a fish right by a foot bridge, and I immediately hear a voice above and behind me say \u201cmouth or snagged?\u201d\u00a0 It should be said that in a place like 1990\u2019s Root River there are so many fish around that it is inevitable that you will snag, or \u201cfoul-hook\u201d a fish once in a while.\u00a0 This means the fish did not bite your fly but somehow ended up getting a hook stuck in a fin or other body<\/span><\/p>\n A rare photo of Chris and Gunnar. Two steelhead from the Root that were “mouth”, not “snagged”. We kept these two fish<\/p><\/div>\n part.\u00a0 It is not legal to keep a snagged fish, so my new friend on the bridge was probably just hoping for me that it was hooked in the mouth.\u00a0 I shouted back up at the guy \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s a biter!\u201d\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t keeping any fish no matter what, but I was at least trying to be friendly.\u00a0 He said again \u201cmouth or snagged?\u201d \u201cMouth!\u201d I responded.\u00a0 \u201cMouth or snagged?\u201d he repeated.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m annoyed, and I take my attention away from the hooked fish to check this guy out. I quickly realize this guy is sort of like a cross between Rain Man and Forrest Gump, and he is now walking across the bridge away from me, still saying \u201cmouth or snagged, mouth or snagged\u201d over and over in a sing-songy voice that I can hear to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n From then on we used\u00a0the phrase “mouth or snagged” to refer to any slow individual we may encounter in our travels\u2014\u201cThat guy behind the counter has a little bit of \u201cmouth or snagged\u201d going on.<\/span><\/p>\n Milk Man We\u2019re trout fishing on the Whitewater River.\u00a0 It is wintertime, late 1980\u2019s, perhaps the first year that Minnesota had a winter trout fishing season.\u00a0 Gunnar and I hadn\u2019t fished much together yet, and he was still pretty new to trout fishing.\u00a0 At some point he was getting frustrated by something and said something to the effect of \u201cFor all the good I\u2019m doing here I should have stayed home and fucked the milkman\u201d.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 OK Gunnar whatever you say.\u00a0 A bit later I walk up to where he was untangling his line from a streamside bush.\u00a0 As I passed by to hit the next riffle upstream I said, \u201cSay hi to the milk man for me\u201d.\u00a0 And just like that we had a new saying.\u00a0 We came to use the milk man sort of like our version of the Domino\u2019s Pizza \u201cNoid\u201d\u2014an evil specter who was always looking for an opportunity to screw things up for us.\u00a0 If we had a bad trip, we would say something like, \u201cWow the milk man was in full force this time.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re older and wiser now, and have mostly figured out how to leave the milk man behind.<\/span><\/p>\n Gunnar Grip<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Pity the fish that gets caught in the Gunnar Grip.\u00a0 With precision and just the right amount of force, who needs a net when you have the Gunnar Grip!\u00a0 Famously came into play when he tailed a giant Kispiox steelhead for me.\u00a0 More frequently used on small, unfortunate pike often encountered while bass fishing.<\/span><\/p>\n How\u2019s Your Father<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Originally a line from Austin Powers, Man of Mystery where he says \u201cI like to give my undercarriage a bit of a “how’s-your-father<\/em>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n This became sort of a catch-all for whenever something needs attention or adjustment, as in \u201cI think the campfire could use a little how\u2019s-your-father\u201d, or when you are getting a bite, as in “something just gave my bait a how’s your father”.<\/span><\/p>\n Brent Burns<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Brent Burns was a player for the Minnesota Wild.\u00a0 Tall and gangly, he was a fan favorite, definitely one of my favorite players.\u00a0 He played with a lot of Somehow I made the connection of a Brent Burns slap shot to a big hookset while bass fishing.\u00a0 Most of the time when a bass bites you know it.\u00a0 Other times the bite can be subtle. \u00a0You\u2019re working your bait through deep weeds\u2026 It that a fish?\u00a0 Did I feel a peck? Am I just dragging weeds?\u00a0 What is going on?\u00a0 \u00a0Is this a fish?\u00a0 Skip all that, when in doubt, set the hook hard, like a mofo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat was that all about?\u201d Gunnar might ask after I do a particularly violent hookset not resulting in a fish.\u00a0 I shrug and say \u201cBrent Burns\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m the captain for my daughter\u2019s bass fishing team, and on tournament days I spend most of my time watching their rod tips for bites.\u00a0 I have tried to explain this premise to them.\u00a0 Not sure if they really understand it, but they do know if I yell \u201cBRENT BURNS!!!\u201d that they better set the hook like they mean it.<\/span><\/p>\n From the great film \u201cBorat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan\u201d.\u00a0 Borat enjoys sexy time, especially if it is a mouth party with his favorite American, Pam-ella.\u00a0<\/span>Anytime we miss a suspected bite, we will confirm that there indeed was a \u201cmouth party\u201d; in other words, a fish had\u00a0the bait in its mouth, it wasn’t weeds, and we just missed on the hookset.\u00a0 Like when a \u201cBrent Burns\u201d does not result in a hooked fish.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most consistent ways of catching largemouth is casting around and under boat docks.\u00a0 We do it often enough, mostly in tournaments, but my daughters like fishing this way too.\u00a0 You should see how good my girls can skip a plastic worm under a dock.\u00a0 Most docks have a pontoon boat tied up to it, and getting a cast or two under the pontoon is mandatory.\u00a0 Usually the dock owner pulls their pontoon in forwards, with the bow facing shore. \u00a0This mooring arrangement requires precision casting: you have to hit the space in between the outboard and the actual pontoon. \u00a0This is generally not a problem, but we always look forward to the rare pontoon owner who is thoughtful enough to back his pontoon in to the dock.\u00a0 In this situation you have the whole front of the pontoon to cast under.\u00a0 After pulling a couple of nice bass out from under a dock parked this way, I remarked that we should thank the pontoon owner by taping a five dollar bill to it.\u00a0 Even if we don\u2019t set out to fish docks, if we see a Five Dollar Pontoon it is hard to resist sliding up there to skip a couple under.<\/span><\/p>\n Skylar sends one under a dock at a tournament last summer<\/p><\/div>\n Gunnar Dock<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re working along a line of docks and the next one in line is short; like one straight, 8-foot section, no boat tied to it, and the end of it is less than a foot deep.\u00a0 I kick the bow mount into \u201chigh\u201d to blow past this waster of my time.\u00a0 Gunnar makes a Hail Mary cast as were flying by, and of course lands his jig three inches away from the dock where it is immediately eaten by a four-pounder.\u00a0 To this day I still don\u2019t bother casting at a Gunnar dock, when out with my daughters they know this and will say something like \u201cYou sure you don\u2019t want me to make a cast at that Gunnar Dock?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Herman Muster Feet<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Fresh fallen snow with temperatures above freezing can result in an interesting situation if you are wearing felt soled wading shoes.\u00a0 Each step can add a layer of snow to the felt, reminiscent of Herman\u2019s big boots. Makes for awkward walking and comedy on the trail.<\/span><\/p>\n Newman, with his long face, tried to steal my Mag Wart<\/p><\/div>\n Long Face<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The classic joke about a horse walking into a bar was popularized by a bit on a local radio station in the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 In the bit, obnoxious but funny local radio personality \u201cThe Chucker\u201d interviewed comedy legend Buddy Hacket.\u00a0 The punchline from the joke, \u201cWhy the long face?\u201d was adopted as one way to address the many northern pike we catch in our outings.<\/span><\/p>\n Newman<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Another name for pike.\u00a0 From Seinfeld, as in \u201cHello, Newman\u201d.\u00a0 This was Jerry\u2019s greeting for his sworn enemy.\u00a0 Jerry would try to be civil when Newman showed up at his door, but you can hear the contempt in his voice when he greets his portly neighbor with \u201cHello, Newman.\u201d\u00a0 I treated pike with something between tolerance and amusement until I started fishing bass tournaments.\u00a0 Get bit off 3 times in a row by pike and the hatred will build.\u00a0 \u201cWhy the long face?\u201d turns into \u201cHello Newman\u201d with a side helping of Gunnar Grip on days when the pike won\u2019t leave us alone.\u00a0 Also acceptable\u00a0to use when you do get bit off…make a fist and say in a hushed shout, “Newman!”<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Putting the Hell Rod to good use on the Minnesota River in about 1988<\/p><\/div>\n Hell Rod\/Hell Fishing<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It started with one of my first \u201ccustom\u201d rods.\u00a0 I built it in my apartment when I lived in Brainerd.\u00a0 I was proud of it at the time, but it was really a piece of shit.\u00a0 I still have it and it hasn\u2019t gotten any better with age. \u00a0Shitty 1980s fly rod blank from 3M, and shitty craftsmanship combined to be what Gunnar one day referred to as a \u201crod from hell\u201d.\u00a0 I initially intended it to be a fly rod\/steelhead rod, but it soon was relegated to strictly \u201chell fishing\u201d detail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At its core, Hell fishing is still fishing with crawlers on a river.\u00a0 But to really get into the spirit of it you can\u2019t be using a plain old spinning rod.\u00a0 You best have a spinning reel mounted to a fly rod, preferably one that is of limited usefulness otherwise.\u00a0 We catch all kinds of fish doing this, mostly redhorse, carp, and channel cats, but we get smallmouth and walleyes too.\u00a0 We cast about 99 % of the time on the river, Hell Fishing makes for a nice break in the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you’re going to be on the water with me, best study up if you want to understand the nonsense.<\/span><\/p>\n Other phrases for another time…<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Ridge Runner<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Pressure bite<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Sinker bite<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Seven footer<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Should we have caught one by now?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I got a pick up<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Hey Dan<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Chin Music<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The lingo.\u00a0 The jargon.\u00a0 The nomenclature.\u00a0 Seems like every group of guys has their own dictionary of words, phrases and coded language that is specific to them, and you\u2019d better learn it if you don\u2019t want to feel like an outsider. Try this sentence: \u201cSomething just gave a\u00a0\u00a0how\u2019s your father to your hell rod, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1578"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions\/1606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Guthrie](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DTTS-handed-down-300x197.jpg\")
![\"A](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/TBT-Tikchik-Crew-001-300x200.jpg\")
![\"A](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/root-river-chris-and-gunnar-300x256.jpg\")
![\"milk](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milk-man-132x300.png\")
<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"How's](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Hows-Your-Father-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Brentburns\"](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Brentburns-300x292.jpg\")
heart and enthusiasm.\u00a0 And a big slap shot that he wasn\u2019t afraid to use from the blue line.\u00a0 It would sometimes seem like the slap shot came out of nowhere.\u00a0 When in doubt, shoot the puck at the net is a good rule of thumb for hockey, and Number 8\u00a0was a big fan of this rule. It should be noted that he had the hardest slap shot during the skills competition at the NHL All-Star Game in 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"borat\"](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/borat-150x150.jpg\")
Mouth Party<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"dock](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/dock-owner-300x300.jpg\")
Five Dollar Pontoon<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Skylar](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/skylar-dock-fishing.jpg\")
![\"herman](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/herman-munster-300x274.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Newman,](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/newman-pike-150x150.jpg\")
![\"hello](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/hello-newman-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Putting](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/hell-rod-218x300.jpg\")