Das Boat

Lake Okeechobee—Florida’s inland sea of freshwater, grass, and largemouth bass. This week, Das Boat dives deep into Florida’s watery heart with a Candian and a Californian. The host of our own Anchored podcast, April Vokey, meets up with big bass expert Oliver Ngy and they try to figure out one of the most notoriously complex and rewarding bass fisheries in the country. Along the way, they discuss the iconography of Okeechobee, America’s obsession with bass, glitter boats, and the founders of Captains for Clean Water explain what’s being done about Florida’s water quality problems.

Returning to a favorite fishing spot from your past can be a questionable choice. What if it’s not as good as you remember? What if everybody and their sister started fishing your spots? What if you’re not as good as you remember? In this episode of Das Boat, Frank Smethurst and his old friend Mustache Rob circle back to some of their old favorite stomping grounds on the Savannah River in Augusta, Georgia. They catch some of the many native sport fish in this archetypical southern river, and set their sights on the east coast’s most sought after migratory game fish—stripers. Along the way, Das Boat gets a major upgrade, and they discuss the Georgia-South Carolina rivalry, southern roots, Bartram’s Bass, and the intertwined history of Augusta and the Savannah River.

Long river trips can take us deep into some wild places aboard a vessel that will carry far more than the basic necessities. In the season finale of Das Boat, Mustache Rob and Frank are back on the Savannah River in Georgia, headed more than 50 miles downstream into water that neither of them have ever seen before. It’s an exploratory mission, of sorts, though the Savannah is far from wilderness, and Rob and Frank’s journey is more National Lampoon than Heart of Darkness. At the terminus of their trip waits Wade Plantation and some heaping platefuls of southern hospitality. All Rob and Frank have to do is bring some catfish for the table and safely pilot Das Boat downstream.