Fish Schtick Episode 40 – Jackie Smith

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Subscribe to Fish Schtick on iTunes

Subscribe to RSS

Jackie Smith may be most well known as a  professional football player and NFL Hall of Famer. He played tight end for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys from 1963 to 1978. His career included 480 receptions for 7,918 yards, and 40 touchdowns. At the time of his retirement, Smith’s 7,918 receiving yards were the most ever by an NFL tight end, and would remain so until narrowly surpassed by Ozzie Newsome in 1990. Aside from being in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Jackie was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2001. Today he’s more often found with a fishing rod in his hand than a football. Jackie Smith is involved with Hobie Kayaks – he helped design the award-winning Pro Angler boat, which is more of a pedal-powered battleship for fishing than it is a kayak.

Brian / Moldy Chum News
Brian’s trip to Baja

Slab award winner
Spill news
Pole Dancer

Teeg / Recycled Fish News

Moved!
Video shoot in the rain
Carp Fest in Des Moines – Saturday
End of the Line & Road Trip with a Mission – Sunday
24 Hour Fish A-Thon: 1 month to register

Around the world of fishing in 120 Seconds

Good News – In Florida, an effort to heal Everglades National Park and help Florida Bay took a big step forward this week. National Park Service wants to lift the Tamiami Trail with a bridge – a new proposal extends the bridge by five and a half miles. Raising the road will restore water flow currently blocked by the road that connects Tampa and Miami, and that will help fish and wildlife thrive.

Bad News – You’ve already heard that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is probably ten times what was originally reported. Horrific. And now headed into the Atlantic ocean. Shrimp, birds, sea turtles – oiled fish and wildlife all beginning to be recovered. Another unofficial report we’ve gotten is that the dispersant they’re using may be even more toxic to marine life than the oil itself. It’s time to sell your SUV.

In Nebraska and a bunch of other states, it’s Free Fishing Weekend – most states have a free day or weekend, they all tend to fall around this time of year. So no excuse – get someone new out on the water.

Kentucky – the Lady Bass Anglers Association has formed, filling the void created when the WBT closed its doors in January. More at LadyBassAnglers.com.

Des Moines, Iowa – Gray’s Lake Carp Fest is on. It’s a youth and adult fishing contest with other fun stuff to do like a fish tasting: no carp on the menu though.

Washington State – Fishing is CLOSED at Anderson Lake due to the presence of toxic algae. Blooms are producing a dangerous neurotoxin, and it’s doubly bad news, because the bite had been pretty good too.

Round Lake, Randall Minnesota – Two-year-old Ella Haag was fishing her first Minnesota Walleye Opener. Until the opener she had never caught a fish. Her first one: a 30 inch, 20-pound muskie on her Barbie Rod n’ Reel. She caught a sunfish, the sunfish caught a muskie, and the muskie was landed, photographed and released to swim another day.

This week’s Recycled Fish Stewardship Tip: Don’t print, “Green Print.” It’s an app that eliminates blank pages and makes two-sided printing possible. Less paper, more trees, better fisheries, better fishing.

More fishing hoopla at MoldyChum.com  – Stewardship Tips and more at RecycledFish.org.

Guest Intro / Interview

Before Jackie Smith became a star football and track competitor at Northwestern Louisiana, long before he became a fixture in the NFL and a professional football hall of famer, he was a southern boy who loved to fish. Today he’s in St. Louis, Missouri and he’s back to his roots through his role at Hobie Kayaks.

Jackie – been on the water much already this year?

For some of our listeners, football is a vauge concept, it’s something for people who don’t fish. But we also know that a majority are going to kill us if we don’t at least touch on your career in the NFL. When you look back now, what are some of your favorite moments?

So how does a guy who is one of the all-time greats in professional football wind up involved with a kayak company?

Do you make connections – is there crossover – between fishing and football?

Tell us where it all begins – what got you interested in fishing in the first place?

Your work with Hobie has probably taken you to some interesting places – what are some of the destinations that you’ve enjoyed fishing?

For people who haven’t fished out of a kayak and imagine that it’s tippy, what do you tell them?

Any favorite fishing moments from inside the kayak, or the boat you helped design, the Pro Angler?

We shot a video at the Fly Fishing Retail show with Morgan from Hobie last year, he walked us through the Pro Angler. People can catch that on the Mauro Media page on YouTube or in our show notes, but walk people through what makes this boat more than a fishing kayak.

Conservation

The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico grows more horrific by  the day, and it highlights our need to end our nation’s addiction to oil. For those of us who want to be out on the water, talk to us about what makes paddle fishing more environmentally friendly.

Podcast: Play in new window
| Download