Mostly Legal

Episode 45 - George Knowlton joins us to recap the Dinkins Mill Classic!

• Stephen Dinkins • Season 1 • Episode 45

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It's so good to have George back in the studio this week. You can tell he has spent a lot of time in the outdoors and really knows his way around the water and the woods. We hope you enjoy him sharing some more stories, and making some more excuses!

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SPEAKER_01

That came Scott and Bubba came in with a bag full of bait. I would not have to brought that to the weight here.

SPEAKER_04

Bubba's been scotting now.

SPEAKER_01

My teeth were just getting to the point. Well, they were hitting together so hard I thought one of them was gonna skip off.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's another mostly legal Monday, and if you're listening to this week's pod this week's episode on Memorial Day, we want to wish you happy Memorial Day to all of our listeners. Hope you're having a good time, maybe off from work and enjoying your family and celebrating those that have served this country. We're excited uh to be coming to you from four different locations. Usually we're all together in one spot telling stories and laughing. But with a summertime schedule, that was hard to do. So we're excited to be together, but uh electronically. We've got Bubba Johnston down in Sumter, South Carolina. We've got Scott, my brother Dinkins from Chapin, South Carolina. I'm coming to you, President, and then I'm I'm coming to you from North Myrtle Beach, Cherry Grove, South Carolina. We've been out here for Memorial Day weekend with the family and excited to take a minute and uh get together with the mostly legal brothers. We're also excited to have a repeat guest, just our second repeat guest in the history of the podcast, Mr. George Knowlton coming to us live from New Zion, South Carolina. George, welcome. Thank you. We're excited. We're excited you're here. I've had we got a lot to talk about, George. I can't wait to hear from George.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, we got a lot to discuss. But before we jump into an episode and get to hear some more stories out of New Zion and Turbyville, I do want to give a shout out to the listener of the week. Uh, a good friend of mine goes to church with me, Dr. Trenton Shook, that shared with me this week that he enjoyed listening to a couple episodes. He had a long road trip uh to go fishing, and he had a chance to listen to a few of the episodes and really enjoyed them. Trenton, I want to thank you for listening. I hope you get to listen to a lot more and continue to share the podcast with your friends and families and all those that you influence. We appreciate you spending time with the mostly legal team. Um, that said, George, I want to uh I think you and I probably need to eat a little humble pie. We talked a lot of trash uh last month or so leading up to the Dinkins Mill Classic, which we had just a couple weeks ago there at the mill pond, and you and I didn't do so well. Anything you want to say or comment about our our performance in the classic?

SPEAKER_01

Uh well, I mean, not a lot to say, Stephen. I mean, we didn't have our best day. We didn't have our best uh that wasn't our day to shine, really. And we uh I don't know, you know, we tried it.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I guess I guess if there's a silver line, George. I mean, you really did about what I thought you were gonna do. Maybe I don't I probably probably about what I thought what I was expecting. I don't know what Scott was expecting, but I y'all, well, y'all finished there was about eight boats or something, y'all finished what, seven?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well let me let me say this. Let me say this in our defense, and this is not my partner's fault at all. I I hadn't fished in a little while, and we got out there and I had a dead battery on my trolling motor, and we kind of leapt around all day. So whether that made a difference or not, you know, is it made a difference, and it's not we gonna say it, we're gonna say it made a difference. I I think it made a difference.

SPEAKER_02

Well, George, if there's a silver lining to us not performing well and not winning the classic, uh the silver lining is Scott and Bubba didn't win it either, right? And uh if you ain't first, you're last. Not by a long shot.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's important for us to go over the details. We need to they came Scott and Bubba came in with a bag full of bait. I would not have brought that to the way end. I mean, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Speaking of bait, what did y'all catch? What'd y'all catch?

SPEAKER_01

What what we we we had plenty. We had plenty. Did y'all have five? We would like to have more, but we had plenty. We had some big fish come off. No doubt my partner had the, and if we'd had a better troll motor, he would have caught him. No doubt he had big fish. There's no probably would have put us over, probably would have put us number one first place. Right. But um fish bit close to the boat, it happened fast. It's just one of them deals. One of those things that just happened. So if you don't have a if you don't have a good troll motor battery, that's the kind of stuff that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04

Well, typically if the fish bite, if the fish bite is close to the boat, what what difference do the troll motor battery like? You jack him over the side of the boat.

SPEAKER_01

Listen, listen, let's let's don't jump into all that bubble.

SPEAKER_04

I just I'm just not two plus two is equal to about three and a half right now, George, with this tour.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm trying to.

SPEAKER_02

That's your normal math.

SPEAKER_03

Uh I'm just trying to understand. So, did y'all paddle around with the with the limp controller motor? I mean, how'd you run?

SPEAKER_01

We we we limped around. We had a little juice, and it was a little bit of juice.

SPEAKER_02

Which basically meant we got about half the fishing in of everybody else, which if you so if you take that into account and you double our weight, we probably won, don't you reckon, George?

SPEAKER_01

And if you want to get right down to it, you had Bub and Scott and some others with these small little little hot shot boats just jumping around hitting the hot spots at a pond that is their home field. Am I right? Yeah, no, that's true. That's scary. And they just they jump, and they see us there limping around, and you could just tell they were smirking and licking their chops. Yeah, licking their chops for the hey, listen. And when you got somebody's mill, George, George, did we finish Dinkins Mill? Hold on a minute. Hold on. I see where you go. George, did we finish Dinkins Mill? Stephen, how how many years were you away in the dark continents? Uh 12 years, obviously. Oh, yeah. A lot of people.

SPEAKER_02

Would you agree, Stephen? Yeah. Uh Bubba, we'll come back to you in just a second. I'll let you know uh we're back to you.

SPEAKER_04

I'm just trying to figure out this home home field advantage thing and all right. I'm just trying to figure that out.

SPEAKER_02

Well, one of the things I want to do is uh we need to quit this squabbling. It sounds pretty immature to our listeners. What what they're probably asking is, well, who did win if you two uh groups didn't win? They did win. And we need to give credit to Daniel Andrews and his son Jenkins. Both of them have been guests on the podcast. You put them together, that was a dynamic duo. It was hard to overcome them. They they called, I think, the most fish and had the biggest weight out of their top five. So kudos to the Andrews. They were a father-and-son tournament that a father-and-son team that just wasn't gonna be beat.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Other than Scott, and I think they're the only other father-son team that's ever won it.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, I'll allow that. I'll allow that. That's a really good point, Boba. You can keep talking now.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my goodness. So I think our listeners can deduce from what hasn't been said. Uh y'all didn't weigh in five fish and you didn't finish.

SPEAKER_02

Nobody's deducing that. We're not what we're trying to say is you got winners, and and none of us were the winner. And kudos to Daniel and his son. And uh, we want to celebrate a good tournament, but trying to get down in the weeds with you guys throwing mud is not what George and I are gonna do. No.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it's not throwing mud just to clarify how many fish you caught. That's not really throwing mud, that's just facts.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know how much clearer we can be. We I mean it was plenty. That's a that's the number.

SPEAKER_02

Scott, Scott, the fact is you can make numbers say anything you want them to say. Okay, if you just want to twist them around, think about context. So we just don't need to go down that way.

SPEAKER_04

I did I do want to say a couple things. I will say this was a very good thing for Mill Clanton, as far as they go. It was a good turnout, great, great turnout number, boats wise, and everything. And um, just uh it was it was very good.

SPEAKER_03

The weather, the weather was fantastic. It was nice and overcast, it wasn't too hot. Matter of fact, it got cool at one point, and Bob and I made a comment that we don't ever remember feeling like we even need to think about long sleeves at the Dinkins Mill Classic, but it was it was pleasant. Yeah, no, it was very nice.

SPEAKER_02

And another thing I enjoy about this year's classic was um of those of us in that charter member division, um, all of our sons were there participating. And even Sandy, who wasn't able to, uh, who used to be on the podcast here with us, his son Ben got to come and fish with my son Asa. So it was good seeing that next generation, one of which was a champion last year, Thomas, uh, seeing, but seeing all of them out there fishing, having a good time, uh getting to be a part of competition. That was a lot of fun for me. That's what it's all about. Yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_04

And it was good seeing the whole family. I think next year, I think from what I understand, Sarah and Rainey are gonna be open. And then like the whole crew will be there.

SPEAKER_02

It is you ain't gonna get saucy.

SPEAKER_04

I was being nice, Bubba. I'm just picking, I'm the one that brought up and said it was really good, and I really thought it was good. I'm not joking. I thought it was good to see, and it was good, like it was everybody was spread out, so it was a good time. And I really enjoyed it. Um, Gordon Michael made it out there, Gordon Gordon made it out with Mike Dinkins, and um I think they they struggled too to catch a limit, but you know, they were there, they they showed up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and and uh they had a good time. And you know, I talked uh a good bit after the tournament to Gordon, Mike, and Bubba. I'd love to pick George's brain about the pond in general, um, and just some ways to steadily increase the quality of fish out there. One of the things we we talked about is um trying to figure out a way to bring some fish from other places. You know, when you when we catch fish at ponds down the road or even at you know, watery or whatever, bringing uh six or eight, ten fish a trip from somewhere else just to kind of beef up the population at Dingas Mill, I think would do a lot of good. George, you have any thoughts on that? I mean, I know y'all catch a lot of fish at the lake and a lot of fish in some ponds around Turbyville. Um what kind of transporting have you done in the past?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I mean, this is just my opinion. I mean, I've you know grew up fishing around ponds, irrigation holes, anything that we could get a full wheel or a walk to my whole life, and obviously I'm no biologist, but I I will say this one of the hardest things for people to hear with a pond, sometimes the best thing for a pond, and I this is not always the right thing to do, but sometimes the best thing for a pond is to start completely over, to dry it up, let some vegetation grow, and start over. And it's amazing, really, if you got the right amount of, you hear biologists say that the right amount of fish. When you got the right amount of bass and the right amount of brim, you got the right amount of fish in a pond, it's amazing how quick a bass can be five pounds. I'm talking two and a half years, I mean three years, and I I don't know how what the growth rate is, but I know growing up, any time a pond drained, even sand tea, you know, when sand tea was, this has been some years back, sand tea just dried up. It was some 12, 14, 15 foot low, uh, whatever it was for a period of time. Some vegetation grew up that wasn't there, hadn't been there for years. I mean, Santa was basically a soup bowl, it was a desert on the bottom, just sand. And that one year having vegetation just it it blossomed. I mean, it made, you know, it made vegetation and habitat for the small fish to grow. And if you got small fish from planking up to menus and from there up to brim, the food chain just, when the food chain thrives, obviously it the whole thing thrives, the big big fish included. But with a with a pond, one or two things, you either take a lot of fish out, where you've got fewer fish, you've got to have enough fish to sustain them and enough fish to grow them big. But sometimes starting completely over with a pond starts that cycle back where you've got a balance. But with a pond, with bass, I mean you think about how many eggs they lay and how many, how many fry come from one fish, and you've got that every year, and there's over and over and over, you go in it with a lot of small fish. That's a big pond. I don't have the answer. I don't have to keep on a lot dink as milk, because that's a you know, that's a huge, huge pond in terms of what people consider to be a, you know, just a fish pond. Oh, yeah, 60 acres open water. Yeah, yeah. But and there's grass, there's vegetation there, but I I don't have the answer. But a lot of times you see with a pond, if it ever dries up and starts completely over, um, just a few fish goes a long way quick. They grow fast, they're healthy. But um, anytime you have a pond that has a has a feed, like a water feed, water comes in and flowing through there, that creates the right stuff to um to grow a lot of fish quick. But I don't have the answers. I have a lot of guesses, but they're not all they're not right most of the time. No, I'll just go.

SPEAKER_03

And George Go ahead, Scott, sorry. I was just gonna I I agree with him. I like it. It's it's always fun to talk about and try to try to think through some things that we can do. Um, and it is a big pond, and it it I mean, everybody who fishes it talks about how difficult it is to figure it out. Um, and I mean there's some big fish that are caught out of there, but home feel it bandage definitely matters in a pond like that. So you need a good guide, is what you mean. That's what you're saying. You need Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

That's not what I'm saying. I I had an excellent guide.

SPEAKER_04

George, say this and this is you to what you absolutely just said. I think it was 2007. Right around there. When we had the drought on Santee. And literally what Georgia said, y'all, it dried up like some pack flat. You could you can see all there was one little creek that ran down the middle of Pax Flat. Everything was dry. The woods were dry over across in the flats and everything. People took four-wheels and they rode all the way from all over the swamp and everywhere else because and we just crossed a few creeks and stuff because that was all it was. And one of the interesting things, George, if you'll probably remember this, is after that drought, probably two years, I'm gonna say it was 2009 after the drought, the crawfish population absolutely exploded in the lake. And I'm talking about when I say exploded, I'm talking about they were like they were hanging on the side of trees and everything. People going out and catching them on a piece of bacon on a hook and just taking them and dropping them in the cool, and they were catching that many, like there were that many crawfish in the lake in the swamp. They just exploded. And following this in 2009, about the 2010-11, is when the absolute fishing went unbelievable. We caught more big bass after that than I have ever caught down in LA for the next three to four years. And I think that food source is kind of counter to your point, George. What the biologist said, and whether this is true, false, or whatever, I don't know. It's way beyond my PhD level. But they said that when the when it dried up, that ground cracked, and those cracks and stuff, when the water came up, they released nutrients that had been like sealed down in the ground and was had not gotten up, and it looked like it created vegetation and everything else for the crawfish to feed on and everything, and it just it started a whole new ecosystem and uh that was dormant for years. And so that lake really it was amazing to see what happened all the way up to 2015 when we had the flood, which is kind of opposite. It kind of, I think it washed a lot of that stuff out of there and it kind of went back to where it was. So to your point, George, that's probably a really good point to say. But it's kind of scary too, Scott and Stephen. I understand, well, now though, what if what if we what if we do stop it and and and kill everything and start over? What's that gonna look like? Um, that's just one of the things that you have to kind of talk with some people to see what they think, too. But I know, I know at Cain's Mill, which is another mill pond, they have absolutely drained theirs several times over the years and started over and had some amazing things, but it just goes in cycles as far as like the results and stuff, and eventually it gets out of whack again and they start back over.

SPEAKER_01

There's a guy, I'll give you an example. There's a guy close to me here that um farms, he's got some cows. He farms, he's got some chicken houses, he got cows. And he he closed in a he dammed off a pond where he was gonna put a future cow pasture. This has been probably 10 years ago, somewhere thereabout. And uh I had a friend at that time, an older guy, he had he had all the livestock. My kids were small, and he had guineas, chickens, cows, pigs, he had it all. And we I take my kids over there a couple afternoons a week just to chit-chat. He grew up with my father, and and I he was just my friend. But anyway, I was over at his house, and this pond was no more, no more than two and a half, three years old at the tip top. I mean, it was at the absolute most three years old. And I saw a bass feed, and I just happened to have a I just happened to have a rod with me. It had a buzz bait. I just I had a buzz bait tied on it. Now, I mean this thing, I mean, it's probably six acres. And um, just a long skinny pond. It's fed by a ditch, and you know, that just it has a good flow of water all the time. Anyway, I saw a fish kind of break the water on the edge, and just out of curiosity, I grabbed that bait and threw it out at the first throw. I mean, it sounded like a bowling ball fed a water. And I pulled up one about a three and a half, four-piner. And I'm telling you, you could have, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I could not believe it. I said, this, you know, I my first thought was somebody put put a fish in here. And I threw eight or ten more times. You know, you had to kick at that point I had to throw a few more times. And I caught three or four quick, and all of them were two, two to two to three pounds. I mean, just a little like little footballs, not like these big heads. You see these fish in a pond, um, there's all head and and and and no tail. These were these were bass. I mean, these were chunky football, you know, healthy fish. George, where was this pond? Because based on your results in Dinks and Mill Classic, that's like putting oath. Let me just say this. You bring you and Scott to this pond right here and put me and Dean together, and I got two words for you butt whipping. And this is Woo!

SPEAKER_04

I will absolutely 100% accept. That's right.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I yeah, uh Boba, uh, we could we could continue to, you know, try to trash talk and cut each other. Uh, I don't really want to do that. What I'd like to do is look to another subject. Now, I know you're probably tired because you used a lot of big words just now. You talked about dormant and ecosystems and things like that. But if you are still got some capacity, tell us a little bit about the lake and these big bass tournaments we've been having there down at Santee Cooper in the last couple weeks.

SPEAKER_04

First, I have some very exciting news to share, real quick. And and just so you know, like we are glad to have George on it. All joking to the side, George and I cut up and everything else. But George is somewhat of a local legend, okay? Like most people around know George, and I mean this sincerely. Like, George's got a pretty good network of people, and he's a he's known to be an amazing deer hunter and incredible fisherman of all different kinds of fish and everything. So this afternoon, Thomas and I made a quick little trip down to the lake to go try to catch a fish on the frog, and we end up catching one and missed several more. But while we were back in the boat in the water, a fella pulled up at the landing and he gets a pair of binoculars out, and he's looking out across across. We were at Jack's Creek and he was looking out across the billet with binoculars, and I hollered at him because I saw him and recognized who was. I said, Hey man, how about quit that scout? And I said, Duck season a long way away. And it was none other than Mr. Toy McCord. Oh my goodness. So I talked to Toy a little bit, I talked to Tory a little bit about um about um like maybe coming on the podcast, and I can't remember, but somehow or another, George, your name came up. And he said, he said, he said, that George Nolton's a good guy. He he uh he he gave you a little pat on the back, George. I want to let you know that. A true, another legend in South Carolina, duck hunting and and everything else, but George McCord gave George a little shout out today at Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that means a lot. He he is actually a true legend. Him and Mr. Don both, they they good guys. They um I I can say a lot of good things about them. They're a lot of fun to talk to, and they they have a plethora of knowledge, they got a head full of knowledge, they've been doing it a long time. And uh, and Mr. Jimmy as well. I just know I know Toy, you know, Mr. Don a lot better from um just daddy knowing them and the Legion balling man, and they just they're good guys.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and they and a matter of fact, they the Dinkins boys, y'all probably have a little special place in the heart because when we when Thomas walked over there, I introduced Thomas, so Thomas truly do want to introduce you to a legend. Um he shook his hand or whatever, and I told Toy that Thomas was gonna be a junior at Clemson this coming year. He's and and he said, Thomas, you need to know that ducks play off orange. He said, But they come in the garden and he was wearing the Carolina shirt. And um I said, Thomas, Toy play played baseball for Carolina, he said, and I played football too. And uh he pretty pretty funny, and he I'll tell you this, and he don't mind me telling this. He said, uh, he said, he said, let me tell you why I don't like Clemson. I said, why's that? He said, well, the last football game I ever played against Clemson, we lost. He said, the last baseball game I ever played against Clemson, we lost. He said, and the last time that I ever went to Clemson, it was for my ex-wife's graduation. He said, so I was 0 for 3 and I don't like anything to do with Clemson.

SPEAKER_02

I've never meant to him, but it sounds like I don't like him a lot.

SPEAKER_04

But he uh we're gonna try to get him on the podcast. I really do think we'll get him on there. But so so just wanted to kind of give that little shout out. And on top of that, you're asking about the lake. The lake is absolutely incredible right now. Um, Bassmaster just had. Their tournament. They just finished up their Elite Series tournament about a week ago. And some of my some of my long-lost cousins, Chris Johnston, J-O-H-N-S-T-O-N, he's from Canada. He's from one of the Johnstons north of the border. He won it with 113 pounds over four days, which is a phenomenal cost. They caught it, he got a sentry belt for breaking the 100-pound mark with his verified air, and they broke a lot of the records that they've had. And some of not the highest weight or whatever, but just some of the stuff they did was just amazing with what they caught and everything. This was not a tournament where they could use LiveScope. So it was a no no-scoping tournament or whatever. Had they used LiveScope, I am sure they would have broken the 125 to 130 pound mark. I'm just telling you right now, that's how good the lake is. We fished a tournament last Saturday. Bennett lost, she won it with 32 pounds. Um and if you if you if you're fishing a tournament right now and you can scope, it's gonna take 30 pounds, a minimum of 30 to 35 pounds a day to win it.

SPEAKER_00

Right?

SPEAKER_04

It's just that good right now. And so for what they did with no scope was really, really impressive. But that's that's why they're doing it for a living and they're really good. But the lake is the lake is just absolutely on fire right now. Thomas and I went yesterday, we had a really, no, excuse me, that's the story. Thomas was gone. Ed Burnett and I went yesterday, and we had a really, really good day. We caught um, we caught about 25 bass, and we had five that weigh somewhere 22 to 23 pounds, our five beakers, and just had a really good day yesterday. And so they're biting them and they're biting at the lake, and they're biting from one end of the lake to the other. They're biting all the way from Panopolis, all the way up to the forks of the river. So all you just need to go is go down there and catch them right now.

SPEAKER_01

I tell you one thing, I tell you one thing that's pretty incredible about it, Bubble, and and and you've seen this, and a lot of people think, well, Santa, there's there's there's there's plenty of fish, there's plenty of space in there. Santa's a huge, a huge area, and there's a lot of fishable water right now. Well, when I talked about Sandsea being a desert, that literally 10 years ago, there was not a lot of fishable water. Sandsee gets small very quickly where there's not a lot of vegetation. These guys came there and they fishing in places. Well, let me let me back up again. Eight or ten, fifteen years ago when you went to San C, there was hard to find a store even open. These places are back, all the stores are open, all the parking lots are full of boats. These docks, these guys fish around the trees, these guys fish around areas, they fished. These are not little pockets they found nobody fishes in. I mean, you can look, there's lines of boats going through them all day, especially on the weekends. Sand C is polluted with fishermen. I mean, it's there's two hanging off every bush. I mean, they're just everywhere you look. You go to a parking lot and it's you have to you go to a parking lot on Saturday, Friday, Saturday, um, and Sunday, I'm assuming the same way is just loaded with people. These guys came in without live scopes and they came in there and fished in the old boys hole, I mean, where where everybody fishes, and they tore their behinds up. I mean, a hundred pound of bass in in uh four days is that's just unheard of, really.

SPEAKER_04

And what's the what's amazing, George, your point on that, and well, this is what really, really, truly amazed me. There's two things, number one. The first thing is what just what you said, Chris Johnson won it, and he was fishing the docks at I-95. I mean, he fishing some docks in Wabu and Goat Island too, but he really was fishing mainly the docks at I-95. And I mean, that's not a secret. If you watch Bath Night, you can see it, so I'm not giving a secret away. A little bit above I-95 around stump hole too and everything.

SPEAKER_01

I bet there's a few people still rolling their eyes above saying, ooh. I don't care.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, it's just not that sick. But anyway, and the other the that that's the first thing. The second thing is, and and y'all, what really amazed me is the size fish he caught because I have fished those docks since I was a little boy. I uh we had a good friend and family had a house down there. We stayed down there three or four weeks of summer when I get out of school, and I would wade those docks. Like I'd walk down the bank from Cooper's all the way down there, all my pollies and everything, and wade out there and fish those docks, just throwing a worm up under them. And we used to catch fish on those docks all the time. And I fish them still and catch the two to two-pounders, three pounders. Every once in a while you catch the four and a half pounders or whatever. But that sucker was catching seven pounders off his docks. Like they were going out seven pounders and five pounders, and just the quality of fish that he was catching was amazing. The second thing he did it, catching them on a Kawiki, which is a Japanese bait that is kind of taking the fishing storm, fishing world by storm. It's a, it's a, it's a, it looks like a sea urchin almost. It's kind of like a round ball with tentacles that come off of it and everything. And not just him, but a lot of the guys that finished in the top were all throwing this kawiki type bait, um, which is like a sea urchin. And it's just amazing to see what those guys did with that that agam bait. They came down here and they were, I have two of them. And I have fish them on them guns to uh I am black and black and sick of fishing them, and I can't get a bite on them, and they kill them on them. Go to show why I don't do it for a living, because I get home all the time, but it's amazing to see what those guys can do. I was I was extremely impressed.

SPEAKER_03

Bob, I got a question. This might be hard to explain, but I've seen the bait you're talking about. This it looks like uh it almost looks like uh sea urchin's a good description of a picture of a round ball with little tentacles coming out of it. How do they hook that thing? What does it look like with a hook in it?

SPEAKER_04

It's just it's just the center is just a ball of plastic, almost like those rubber balls that you used to get out the out the little gumball machine for 25 cents or whatever, but it's made out of something called plastic or some kind of some kind of materials almost like that elastic stuff that you can't hardly tear. But basically, I mean the way you rig it, I mean, I had a treble hook, I got a one-off treble hook that you stick through, you just take it and stick it through the meat of that ball, and you got two hooks hooks that are exposed, and then you put a nail weight. I got a 116 ounce nail weight in mine. It sinks, just it sinks a little bit faster than the Cinko does. And I mean, if you put my bait beside Chris Johnson's, you couldn't hardly tell the difference. I'm just telling you right now, and I can't get bit on it, and he catches them like crazy on it. But if they just rig it that way, they tell me it's crazy. They just stick that treble hook in one like through the meat of it, and there's a bunch of different ways. If you go out on the internet and look, there's there'll you get 10 different people, then 10 different people could tell you how to rig it, but that's kind of the main way that I've seen most of them using it. And and it's pretty interesting. You throw it out there, and like I said, it sinks a little bit, and then you kind of pop the rod on this working like a jerkbait, and you think you're moving it far, but because of those tentacles and everything, the water displacement, another another word for you, Stephen, that water displacement, it doesn't it doesn't move that far. You can snatch the rod and only move a couple inches at a time. But it's just pretty pretty interesting how how it how it works. I mean, it's but they're catching them on it, and I I can't get them, but I made my mission to try to catch one on. I have finally had a bite on it, and I missed him, but I did get a bite on one of them finally um after like five days of fishing it.

SPEAKER_02

Um you're on a tear. I I've I appreciated this the monologue you've been on. You've had complete sentences and everything. It was really amazing. That's a big word. Stuff like that. Something. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I mean, well, I'm just trying to hold up the fort. You know, I know like some of us are on vacation, and and the rest of us are still in the working world, so I'm just trying to hold up the fort while while the rest of us play a little bit.

SPEAKER_02

You've been working on Sunday today, the Lord's Day?

SPEAKER_03

Um He was at the late today. He was at the late yesterday. I don't he his work is a little different than my work.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, I was I was down there talking to Mr. McCord trying to get him lined up for the podcast. Somebody's got to work for this group.

SPEAKER_02

You serving us. Thank you, Bubba. Thank you for serving. What a heart.

SPEAKER_04

That's what I have, that server's heart. I mean, there you go.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my goodness gracious. Um, George Nolton, I I heard that number, that's sentry belt the guy got for catching over a hundred pounds. It's been a long time since you and I caught 100 pounds in four days.

SPEAKER_01

It has. It has. And but and Bubba, I do want to encourage you. I heard you say this a little while ago that you that you're humbled off. And I want to remind you that even the best fishermen get humbled every now and then. I get humbled a lot.

SPEAKER_04

I get humbled a lot more than my share, I can tell you that, but that's okay. George Nolton has caught 100 pounds probably last week with Mr. Costus out on out on Sandy Cooper's striper fishing.

SPEAKER_01

Tell us by that door. They they biting a little bit. They not they're not doing, they're not, I can't get them to bite that good. He people know what they do and they know how to catch them. I I don't have the uh I have to go with somebody that knows.

SPEAKER_02

George, you're also uh the expert catfisman. Uh has it got hot enough for those catfish to start biting yet, or are we still throwing this away?

SPEAKER_01

They they they uh they eating it up. Catfish are killing it.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01

Well we won't ask we want to ask you to ship that. Now we're a good time. Now's a good time.

SPEAKER_04

George, I can talk to um Bandy Hobbes and see if he got Mr. Hobbes' old pontoon boat, and we can kind of run it back across the dam if you want to try to run a battle.

SPEAKER_01

If you tell him who's getting it, I don't know if he'll let you bar it or not.

SPEAKER_02

I would say I would pass on that offer, but that might just leave me in George's boat with no trolling motor battery, so maybe I don't know what I should do. Oh yeah. We might either bar somebody else's. We'll take your boat, Bubba.

SPEAKER_04

We can do that. We can do that. George, I I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I've been with George Catfish and he will put you on them. He absolutely, the couple times I've been with him, he'd just he's like, just throw it out there, and you just throw it out there and just hold on because the rod's going off before you can blink.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, he'll even he'll even catch them for you and hand you the rod like he does for Scott, that you really did.

SPEAKER_03

It happened like that. The names were different, but that's how it went. George and I was excited, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02

I'm done. He was excited. Very, very excited. But if all I caught was a small catfish, I'd probably get a little excited too. You've got to talk about something. Oh yeah. One of them deals. Uh George, um, we loved having you on, and we could talk fishing with you forever. But I feel like uh before we went live here on this podcast, this episode, there were I heard uh rumors of a store of a hunting story that um you didn't get a chance to share that first time you were with us on the podcast. And it had to do with a dog drive and a truck and and somebody falling out of a truck. Do you mind recapping that story for our listeners? I think they're gonna enjoy hearing that one.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah. Well, that's that one's tough to that's tough to relive. But yeah, that it the joke was on me, I guess. But when I I was younger, I was, I think the best of my the best of my remembrance, I was in the third grade, and my brother Paul, and last time I was on, I talked about Paul. Me and Paul hunted a lot, and me and my older brother Rocky hunted a lot. Well, we were on a dog drive, and the deer was coming, the deer was kind of coming our way, and um I was on the back of Paul's truck. And this is this is a this is a this is a story about um the Lord's hand of protection on you, and this is also a story about what not to do when dog hunting. And um it wasn't Paul's fault, and it wasn't his fault at all, but I was on the back of the truck and I had a gun and the deer was coming, and when they get you can kind of listen to the dog, you can kind of course kind of the way the dogs are are going. Any any dog hunters know what I'm talking about. Well, they kind of shifted, and they were gonna go up the road about a hundred yards away from us. There was a canal ditch, and Paul said, hey, sit down right there, and I'm gonna pull up, and um, I'm gonna pull up to the next stand, and when I stop, you can get back up. Well, I was kind of knelt down on the back, and as Paul was pulling up, the deer came in the road ahead of us, and I stood up and shot that deer. And um at that point, what Paul tried, he was driving, and uh any speed would have been too fast for me to get up and shoot at that age. But anyway, I got up and I shot the deer, and the kick of the gun, it was a 12-gauge, and I was I I I know I was in the third grade, I remember it as good as anything. I fell off the back of that truck, and when I did, I hit my head. And um, crazy enough, I remember vividly, because I uh things were hazy. That was the only time I've ever been knocked completely out. Crazy enough, I remember when that gun rocked me backwards, I knew I was going, I kind of tossed the gun over to the side. It was a there was a we were driving alongside a ditch. But anyway, long story short, when I came to, my daddy was there. And um to hear him tell that story now, I can imagine the fear that went through his um mind when they had called on radio and asked where daddy was and told him to get around there that I was hurt or whatever. But anyway, funny enough, when I woke up and I was a kid, and I didn't have you know what it's like when you're that age. I didn't have but one thing on my mind when I woke up, and all everybody was around. Daddy was putting me in this truck. And I said, Daddy, did I did I kill that deer? That's what I don't know. But um, I remember, uh, you know, some things just get kind of stuck in your memory. I remember as clear as anything, my daddy had a two-wheel drive Toyota pickup truck because the White Dove. It was small, pointy nose in the front. I mean, it was one, it was old school. I mean, that daddy never, I don't think he had much, but he never splurged on a vehicle. He still had he's 84, 85 years old. But anyway, I remember driving all the way to Manor, either Florence, wherever he took me. I had broken my arm. And um I remember driving the whole way there because Daddy was making me stay awake. I had my knees in his floorboard and I had my head on his feet. And anytime we were hunting and I took a nap, that's where I would get in. That's why that's how I would take a nap. And um I perfected it in high school. It's the same position you sleep on your desk. You know, you kind of sit there with your head. But I was looking, I was looking at the I was looking at the highway pass through the holes in my daddy's floor. That's just that was that was the white dove for you. When you hit a mud hole, water came through the floor. And uh anyway, it was just one of those things, Scott brought that up, and I had kind of forgotten that story, but that um, you know, when you start talking about it, all kinds of memories flood your mind. And again, that was my brother Paul, and he, Paul, he always would, if he went, I went. He didn't matter where we were going. And I'll tell you another funny story, real quick, if you got time. I got time. We were going to Walter Eastwamp, the Roland track, on my mama's side of the family. That was a small piece of a decent little sized piece of land that belonged to my granddaddy Roland. Well, anyway, the Roland's all the cousins that a whole nother store. But that side of the family was always just had we had a lot of fun hunting in there. We all spent time in there, and it was further for us to go. We typically hunted around New Zion, but it was further for us to go, but every now and then we would go. And me and Paul were going hunting there one morning, and in true Knowlton fashion. I guess that might be why me and Stephen Dinkins Jr.'s Kendra Spirits. We didn't, we we didn't have anything ready. We had guns. Paul had, I think Paul was Paul was bow hunting at that time, and that's why we went because it was hogs in there. Paul had his bow and I had a 30 alt-6. That's the only rifle I had. So we struck out and we got about the 378, and I said, you know, two hours before daylight, three, maybe three hours before daylight, because you got to get there early, and it's a long ways in there, just in the middle of the swamp. And I said, Paul, I ain't got I don't have any bullets. He said, You got no bullets? He said, We'll stop by Walmart and pick some up. Okay. Well, we went by Walmart, it was closed. Nobody was open. We stopped at every little store along the way. Nobody was open. Baton's grocery, right at the hill of Watery Swamp on 261. Walked into Batten's grocery, and there was a box of 30 out six bullets in there that I promise you had two inches of dust on it. I mean, no it was it was an old white Winchester box. You remember with the orange line through them, orange and black line through them. And we got them. I didn't even look at what size it was. It looked, you know, we didn't pay attention to that stuff back then. You just put the corn out, deer comes out, and you shoot. If he fell, you got him, you know. We went in there, Paul dropped me off way before daylight still. Sit in the stand. He's in his boat, you know, we didn't have cell phones. He's in his boat stand, he carries me to Buck Road. That's the road I was on. And at that time, the biggest eight-point I had ever seen came out, about the time my teeth were just getting to the point where they were hitting together so hard I thought one of them was gonna chip off. You know, when you sit in the, you know, when you sit that early morning sitting, that sun just starts to come up. You almost feel like you might be fixing to get warm, but you're only getting colder and colder. There's a little breeze. My feet felt like there was electricity going through them. That's just how cold I was. And that buck walks out, shot one of those old dusty, crusty bullets at him, and dropped him in the road. I mean, you know, everything was right with the world. It was just a big celebration. But you look back on those stories, you know, if you look back and think about the simplicity of things then when we hunted, it was just that. You know, you get bullets, you go sit in a stand, if deer comes out, you shoot him. And things are still good. Things are things are probably better now than they ever were, but sometimes those um that simple way is just it's it is good to it's good to think back on them and stick to those roots, you know, when you with your hunting approach.

SPEAKER_04

George, you brought up you brought up something right there too, and going back to I I know you're very scientific and we talk about it a lot, but but I really do, and I I just got it. I don't know why it is, but when that sun comes up and you think, like just what you just said, duck hunting, for me especially, so many times, I think, man, I think it's starting warming up. And I absolutely, just to I don't know, it's because I've been outside longer, but I swear to goodness, that first 30 to 45 minutes when that sun starts cracking, it gets colder. I really honestly believe it gets colder.

SPEAKER_01

That is the worst of the worst. That's when you find out who loves it and who just picked it up as a little hobby. You give a man a pair of thin wall boots, regular white socks, and old timey camouflage, you know, you got all this stuff. I don't even know how to say some of the new camouflage they got. I mean, it's it's really it's it's honestly it's incredible how how they've made it where to keep you that warm. But back then, you know, we layered, and some people, a lot of people still layer. Um, but there ain't enough layers. There is not enough layers for that 30 to 45 minutes right before that sun comes up and that cool breeze hits you, and it just feels like if somebody thumps your finger or somebody thumps your toes, it's gonna break completely off. And that's where I was at in that saying just that couldn't hardly hold on. But anyway, yeah, it it is. That's when you find out who really wants to be there, Bubba. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_04

So you carry your big buck down in the roller swamp, which is very next to Riverside, which is near and dear to me, and got a lot of stories from Riverside Hunting Club. And Scott and I have had some pretty good hunting stories down there as well over the years, and had a couple pretty good turkey stories, and we can get another guest on here to do some talking. We got some pretty good turkey stories we can tell from from going down there over the years. We had some pretty pretty fun times down there to kind of talk about those two.

SPEAKER_03

But really good stories, really good Turkey Woods. And the other thing George mentioned, and we've talked about this place before on the podcast uh in the past, but Battons of Wedgefield is, I mean, it's iconic when it comes to that area. Uh matter of fact, when I was 10 years old, I played Little League Baseball and Sumter, I guess it was uh Dixie Youth baseball, and I played for Battons of Wedgefield, and uh and they've been doing that deal for a long time. And Benjamin, my son, and I went in there uh last day of Turkey Season Youth Day, uh just you know three weeks ago, and we went in and got a late breakfast, and um, and I felt like I had I had held off too long from taking him in there. He's looking all around and you know, checking out that white catfish and asking all the questions about the other uh deer they had on the wall, and of course the bragging board is in there, and and then that grill and uh sweet lady on the griddle. I mean, we ate a good breakfast and uh we saw our local game warden and and uh he came over and asked how the Dinkins were doing, and and Benjamin looked at me like I knew everybody in Summer County. And I mean that place is just special, it's just a unique spot.

SPEAKER_01

And that grill. Yep. And the grill. And the grill. For sure. And the grill. We went in there, oddly enough, I I hadn't been in there in probably 12 years. Me and my daughter Ann Grace and her boyfriend Jenkins, the reigning champ of the DMC, and her and his daddy, uh Daniel Andrews, we went, I think that is the crowd that I was with. And we stopped by there, and that was that was just could not pass it up going in there. And I said, well, hopefully it's still as good as it used to be. It's probably even better. I'm telling you, that they have got an incredible cheeseburger, hot ham and cheese, breakfast, you name it. That that little grill, if those walls could talk, I promise you they could tell, they could tell a lot of stories. But that grill, you wouldn't, when you look at the front of that store, you wouldn't think, I better go back there and get me a cheeseburger. But they have got really good food, and they always have. I mean, they just got a good good cook.

SPEAKER_04

And that's like well, so I can't figure out, like, so my go-to in there, like we we eat there a lot, a bunch as far as in the mornings, and and we'll go, like, daddy and I a lot of times will get up, I'll call him and say, What are you doing? Let's just go get a sandwich. And we'll go to Baton to get a breakfast, and I I got it's nothing complicated to get a ham, egg, and cheese on toes. And that ham, egg, and cheese on toes from Baton, I cannot duplicate it at my house. I don't know why. I can't figure it out, but I cannot duplicate it whatsoever. But it'll it'll jam up. I'm gonna tell you that right now, but I just I can't figure out what makes it better. I don't know. I can't I it might be all the years of cooking on that that griddle back there, but it's it's amazing. Yeah, they're coming in.

SPEAKER_02

It might be all those dead animals looking at you while you're eating, it makes it taste so much better. That could be part of it. I know that you know, I I hate to go back and rehash something and go back to talk about the classic, but these guys were talking about something we were talking about saying T about this line. Scope and and the fact of the matter is absolutely if they had not tried to change the rules in the last hour and take the live scope away from you, we were set to dominate that nigga's classic. They went and did that. And I mean, our whole strategy and game plan that we've been working on for weeks was just yanked out from under us. We tried to be a bigger man and just go on with it. But I mean, it's that was that was unfortunate. That screen, what what would that screen have run off of? It had been blinking out.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, he didn't have a battery in the trolling battery.

SPEAKER_01

Separate battery. Don't even try that. That's a separate battery. Why wouldn't you hook that battery up to your mother? That is a that is a Bubba, you know this. That is a 12-volt lithium arm battery. My two that's a 24-volt trolling motor, and we had one decent troll motor battery. The other one was dead. It was, listen, we were crippled.

SPEAKER_02

I'm embarrassed when Bubba didn't know the difference between 12-volt battery and 24-volt battery. That's embarrassing. I hear on this live podcast, he's got to show that they were.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I mean, George, are you running a 24-volt battery or are you running 212s and 10? I've got two twelves in a bank, but you can't, I I wasn't gonna take that lithium battery off of the live scope and stick with that little 12-volt gel battery. That's what I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, are you saying it can't be done or you weren't gonna do it?

SPEAKER_01

I wasn't gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02

I told him not to. I had a complete understanding of the situation. And I said, George, I don't want to risk it. I just need you to sit tight. We're gonna be okay. You're a detailed man. I want to play it safe.

SPEAKER_01

When you're fishing in a 150,000 old boat like I got, Bubba, you don't you don't want to take any chances with someone?

SPEAKER_04

The way you got that transducer on it, too. You might you might get that and buy battery.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, I I don't I don't uh you remember when I told you the story about my daddy's white dove, my bass boat's about the same way, other than the holes. I don't have the holes quite as bad as he does in the edge.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you paid extra for that um mosquito fogger you got on the exhaust of that outboard motor.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't want to I didn't want to overdo it when I got that old boat, but anyway, it's been a good one.

SPEAKER_02

Well, George, I I wish that you could have come on uh on your first return trip to the podcast and really been able to celebrate a victory. I'm sorry that I let you down. You uh, you know, you were our horse. You caught the most fish of our bag, which was plenty as you described it, just not enough to get it done. But uh maybe when you come back, uh, you know, we'll have you back on after next year's tournament. Things will be different. We'll have sorted out scoping rules, and uh we'll be able to receive our due prize in time. There you go. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Good luck. Um there's more to talk about, George. We want to we want to have you back uh for another episode very sh very soon. Uh we want to get back into some more of what's going on in summertime and fishing and where you're gonna be headed. And we know there's some more stories out there that you're gonna help us uh that you're gonna help us share. But I also know that we're kind of wrapping this episode up and we want to thank you for being with us. We want to uh look forward to a word segment with uh my brother Scott Dinkins, who will bring that to us. We want to wish everybody a happy Memorial Day or Memorial Day week, and we'll let everybody know that we're looking forward to being with them on another mostly legal Monday.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, George.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, George. We always love having George Nolton on. Once again, just like I said earlier, a true legend in around these areas and probably all across the country, but we are glad to have you, George, for real.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I enjoyed being with you. No doubt.

SPEAKER_03

All right, well, welcome back to our word segment. Uh this memorial day, mostly legal Monday. Uh as you probably remember, if you've listened to some past episodes, we have been in 1 Samuel Sum over at Chapin Prez, and uh one of the things that I think is worth noting in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel, um, is how he started off poorly and how that only progressed because there was no heart of faith, there was no humble repentance, uh, he was always narcissistic, focused on himself and his own reputation. It started off with uh just being uh fearful, fearful that uh he wouldn't have the respect that he wanted, fearful that um somebody else was going to uh take the attention of the people away. And then that started to snowball. Uh we see uh later on in 1 Samuel around uh chapter uh 13 uh he makes an unlawful sacrifice because he's unwilling to wait on Samuel, the priest, to come. And and so he goes ahead and acts as a priest of God's people, and uh he just steps out of bounds. He he goes beyond the threshold of obedience, and and that just continues. And uh most recently um we were in 1 Samuel 22, and by this point, David has been anointed as the next king. He's risen uh to prominence in Israel. Everybody is impressed with how well he does in battle, and uh Saul is very jealous of him. And he's hunting David and he's trying to figure out how to kill him, and he gets word that uh the priests and Nob have helped David and sustained him. Um now David did lead them on with some half-truths to get what he needed. He didn't tell them everything that Saul was hunting him and that his life was in danger. Um but nonetheless, uh once he left there and word got back to Saul that the priests had helped him, these are the priests. These were men like Samuel, men uh appointed by God to do his work f among his people. And uh when Saul found out he uh sentenced them to death and commanded uh one of his men to kill them, and eighty-five priests were put to death, and men and women and uh children and infants and all the animals in uh the town of the priests called Nob were killed. Um and you might think, well, how does how does Saul go from being anointed king of Israel, the first king of God's people, to killing God's priests just a few chapters later? Uh and you know the point I just want to make is that's how sin works. It takes you from uh a place where you're comfortable. Oh, this isn't that big of a deal, um, it's just one time, it's just this one uh instance, you know, I gotta I gotta rush things along. That's where Saul was in 1 Samuel 13, you know, just you know, wanting to push his own agenda. And and then uh, you know, a few years later, here we are uh doing harm to God's people, uh killing priests, killing innocent women and children and infants. Horrible wickedness uh that Saul was willing to do because his own reputation, his own throne was at stake. And the reality is if we're not careful, we fall into the same traps. Uh the sin that we think is palatable, that we think is okay, we think it's not that big of a deal, little by little it leads us down this path that before we know it, we can't turn from, we can't get out of. Um and so it's just a warning that uh sin is deceitful and that we are easily wooed away from God and his commands. Um and eventually, if we do that enough and our consciences are so seared, we can find ourselves willing to do harm uh to men of God, to people that love the Lord, uh, because we've we've found ourselves in this dark place where we think that's our only option. So um, like it has been said, uh be killing sin in your life, or it will be killing you. Um I know it's not a super happy word uh this week, but I trust it will encourage you, help you to kind of tap the brakes a little bit, evaluate, and see how you can confess some things, turn away from them, and pursue obedience to the Lord and his word. Hope you have a great week and uh look forward to talking with you again soon.

Contributor

Stephen Dinkins

Host
Contributor

Bubba Johnston

Co-host
Contributor

Sandy Sanders

Co-host
Contributor

Scott Dinkins

Co-host