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to defer just for a minuteack to

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Misss Slomski who wants to add

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one more thing to her testimony.

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Thank you. I know we're rushing

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through chair just to make

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sure we're following your

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schedule as my, my colleague

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Mark Heffley and I wanted to

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make sure that we did include

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your abandoned boats and we

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wanna to thank you Jeroy Kulik

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for your leadership on the

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abandoned boat process. Think of

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our conversationspresentative

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Murky and Representative

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Harkins, but it, you know, how

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wet talked through I mean it is

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tied to everything that we're

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talking about today, pe from the

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economic development perspective

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in our recreation, which of

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course we're gonna hear from

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my colleague heremarkk Jeeneret,

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but we have the Liberty P

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parkkribbbi Investments

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Amphitheater and there we

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have an issue with a lot of

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these boats that are are

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derelict and abandoned boats

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that were now able to remove and

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allow folks to park there and

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enjoy the best recreation spot

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right Jake on the lake here on,

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on the waterfront. So that's one

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thing I want to really thank you

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for your leadership and be able

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to do that. It's been great to

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work with the fish and Boat

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Commission. Tim especially and

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Ty Saor Cool to work through all

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of these specifics. It's been a

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huge undertaking and I know

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we're upsetting some people, but

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we've had a lot of abandoned

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boats for a long time. we're,

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we're close to 50 abandoned

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boats that we have here in the

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port of

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er ie e and we really thank you

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for your leadership and helping

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us move forward and get rid of

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those abandoned boats. So I

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wanna to make sure we recognize

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you for that. Well you know, and

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I wanna thank everybody who

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really started this and that

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would it started with the

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Pittsburgh Safe Boating

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Councilil coming up with this

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and saying we need legislation

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on this and them going to Tim

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and that's how it all started.

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So thanks to them it's we were

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able to get this done. We truly

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appreciate it and thanks to all

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you members for for your votes

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to move that so quickly through

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the legislature. So we really

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appreciate

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that as well. and not to take up

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too much time, we want to make

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sure we caught that through as

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well. Thank you. thank you.

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So I'm here today in my capacity

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as president and founder of Fish

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USA we are an e-commerce company

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that focuses exclusively on

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selling fishing tackle apparel

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and boating gear for anglers. We

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are located in Fairview close to

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where Walnut Creek is. We employ

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roughly 100 people at our

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facility, all of whom you know,

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work in the fishing industry. So

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we also operate

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a

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a walk in what we call a pro

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shop so we have

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we shipped the majority of our

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product out across the country

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some of it internationally, but

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we do operate a a walk-in

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facility opens 7 days a week for

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customers to come in and buy the

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tackle that we saw. So we carry

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over 80,000 different products

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in our facility and we draw

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customers from not only the

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eriee area but really all over

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the country.

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We also have the ability you can

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order online and then come to

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our store and pick it up and we

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see a lot of people they're

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coming toerie to fish. They

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place an order and then when

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they get here they'll stop at

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the store to pick pick up

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product and

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The,

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you know, we support a broad

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range of types of employment we

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have everything from IT people

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to accounting

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purchasing people, marketing

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people,

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people

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fishing experts who work in our

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pro shop or support our

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customers through like our call

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center and then we also have a

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distribution facility.

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we're excited to be moving to

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Ironworks Square, which is a

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redevelopment project on West

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Wall Street.

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West 1 Hall Street is the old

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industrial corridor oferiee and

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like a lot of ererie that

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area has been in decline as a

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lot of that heavy industry moved

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out anderie's been looking to

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how do we revitalize that old

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industrial corridor

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so the ironwork squares a kind

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of an anchor project for this

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redevelopment project in the

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city oferie

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Part of it is built around the

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old ireriee Maeable iron

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facility. So it's trying to

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retain that heritage of the old

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industrial building but

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modernize it and make it

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adapted to businesses that are

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working today inerriese so we're

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that facility if you drive down

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wall Street you should see it.

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it's on 12th and Cherry

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it's really a pilot project that

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the city ofvi is working on our

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building will be located to the

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west of the building that's

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there and it's still being

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developed but

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we're looking forward to being

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able to

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attract people

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including tourists into that

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12th Street quaror as we move

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back intoeriee from where we are

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out in Fairview.

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we're working with the

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redevelopment authorority, the

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city oferiee and a number of

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other entities to make that

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project

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if I can digress a bit I I so

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I've lived iner my whole life.

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My father grew up

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clean and blue ike at a fishho

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if you don't know ereriee has a

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long history in the fishing

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world.

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ack in the 18h00s and the early

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19h00s, we were a commercial

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fishing port. We were known as

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the freshwater fishing capital

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of the world.

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at one point we were

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producing 800,000 pounds of fish

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out of the port of Lakeeriee. So

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as you look where we are right

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here down at the dock. this was

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all commercial fishing,

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commercial fishing boats,

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cleaning houses, we built boats

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down at the water. It was all

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commercial side of the fishing

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world.

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as I'm sure you know, the, you

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know, between the pollution,

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overfishing, we really that

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commercial industry just over

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time pretty much evaporated.

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Today we have I think,

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00:11:02,459 --> 00:11:02,709
essentially one boat working as

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00:11:04,428 --> 00:11:04,678
a commercial fishing boat out

199
00:11:05,129 --> 00:11:05,379
oferiee. I think we have 3

200
00:11:08,932 --> 00:11:09,182
licenses Canada is a much

201
00:11:11,201 --> 00:11:11,451
bigger commercial fishery on

202
00:11:14,938 --> 00:11:15,188
Lakeeriee than we have, but the

203
00:11:15,639 --> 00:11:15,889
commercial fishing in areas

204
00:11:17,775 --> 00:11:18,025
is almost nonexistent

205
00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:23,130
what we have replaced it with

206
00:11:24,882 --> 00:11:25,132
though is recreational fishing

207
00:11:26,984 --> 00:11:27,234
and that has continued to grow

208
00:11:32,690 --> 00:11:32,940
in the in the area. So as Mr.

209
00:11:34,692 --> 00:11:34,942
Hfffley said, walleye fishing is

210
00:11:36,493 --> 00:11:36,743
probably the most widely known

211
00:11:38,762 --> 00:11:39,012
species that people fish for.

212
00:11:40,998 --> 00:11:41,248
it is really

213
00:11:45,135 --> 00:11:45,385
as Mark has said at other

214
00:11:46,770 --> 00:11:47,020
presentations that he's he's

215
00:11:47,438 --> 00:11:47,688
made

216
00:11:50,441 --> 00:11:50,691
when you talk about the good old

217
00:11:51,375 --> 00:11:51,625
days of walle fishing. those are

218
00:11:52,910 --> 00:11:53,160
today. It's really never been

219
00:11:54,678 --> 00:11:54,928
better. People come up here

220
00:11:58,515 --> 00:11:58,765
I don't know if it can be too

221
00:11:59,183 --> 00:11:59,433
good, but when

222
00:12:01,151 --> 00:12:01,401
we have charter boats that go

223
00:12:02,886 --> 00:12:03,136
out and they're back of the dock

224
00:12:04,421 --> 00:12:04,671
in 2 hours because everybody on

225
00:12:06,657 --> 00:12:06,907
the boat got their limit and

226
00:12:08,425 --> 00:12:08,675
everybody's happy and they're

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00:12:09,026 --> 00:12:09,276
back at the back of the dogs. So

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00:12:10,828 --> 00:12:11,078
it

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00:12:12,663 --> 00:12:12,913
anglers are