Show 07: Fishing’s Marathon Man and a “Snackle Box.”

Try This At Home Show

This week’s show comes from Teeg’s visit to ICAST and a friend from @takemefishing

Ryan and Jess @earlysnowbirds got a smaller RV – we cover life in a smaller RV, but for this week’s show, they got a hotel – that high speed wifi sure is nice! So is a hot shower.

Jeff Kolodzinski isn’t our first Try This At Home Show world record holder! But he *is* the first guy who’s joined us from a boat.

Kolo is a world record holder for the most fish caught in 24 hours. He joined the U.S. National Freshwater Fishing Team that competes in the World Championships. He fished in seven World Championships – “I never thought that some polish kid from Gary, IN would amount to much of anything, let alone something cool like that.”

In World Fishing Championships, you catch as many fish as you can in three hours. Kolo developed that skill, then met a guy named Tom Goodrich who was a military leader serving in Afghanistan who had a God-given inspiration to start something when he got back home which became Fishing For Life.

This last year was the 12th or 13th “Marathon Man” fishing event to raise money and awareness for Fishing For Life.

The event takes place at @GiantGooseRanch in Canton, IL

When this started, Kolo was catching 600-some fish a day, but set a Guinness World record with 2142 fish in 2010. This year he broke that record with 2177 fish!

How long does it take to recover? Only a few days in terms of sore muscles – but his hands become a human pin cushion, it takes him weeks to heal from that.

What’s bait? Fish candy is “eurolarvae – maggots.”

This weeks’ treats: the @TakeMeFishing “Snackle Box” from our friend Rachel Auslander at the RBFF.

Inside the Snackle Box: all the fishing favorite treats, Gummy Worms, Sour Gummies, Swedish Fish in several varieites, and Goldfish Crackers. MMMMM!

The discussion of “candy newness,” candy that’s been on the shelf for a while versus the newly stocked stuff. This candy’s been in a tackle box, unwrapped for a while. So, there’s a bit of a candy crust.

The Swedish Fish are close to bicycle tire consistency.

Gummy everything is happy candy – Brian Miller checked in which is a reminder of the Gummy Corn sitting on the desk, which got us back into talking about Gummy Corn.

Candy as an icebreaker – it’s great for making friends, and starting conversation.

Some candy the color doesn’t mean anything – but colored Swedish Fish are flavored differently.

The “gumminess” of a Swedish Fish versus the way that a Gummy Worm is springy.

Ryan considers whether these candies could be handed down across the generations. He’s re-using the tackle box that these snacks came in for nuts & bolts in the RV.

Why does fishing matter? For Kolo – it’s kind of a responsibility to pass it on.

One study looked at people on death row – to a man, none had hunted or fished. Which is not to say that not doing it will land you on death row, but it is to say that getting people outside makes a difference in their lives.

People who aren’t into fishing might not know that more people fish in the U.S. than play golf and tennis combined. Kids who spend unstructured time in the outdoors have lower rates of ADHD, do better in math and science, and research shows they tend to have better social skills.

What Kolo shows off while he’s fishing is a way to fish that is so simple and so inexpensive – the tackle he uses to set a world record costs under $25.

You can see exactly how he does it at Facebook.com/MarathonManFishing.

Fishing is for everyone – it’s truly accessible. Just ask Clay Dyer, who is an inspiration to many.

What Marathon Man fishing is all about is the Military Families and what Fishing For Life does. This isn’t just about setting a world record – it’s about raising funds for Fishing For Life and the Next Gen program. This year we set a record with over $15,000 raised.

If you’re inspired to donate after hearing this, you could donate at MarathonManFishing.com.

#SnackleBox