{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Permit To Think","title":"Tom Bie & Paul Puckett","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":5404,"description":"Permit to Think — Episode 34\nTom Bie & Paul Puckett\nHost: Mike Dawes, Westbank Anglers Guests: Tom Bie (Editor at The Drake magazine) | Paul Puckett (Artist and Illustrator)\n\nEpisode Description\nSome of the best fly fishing stories start in a shop, not on the water — and in Episode 34 of Permit to Think, host Mike Dawes sits down with two guys whose careers trace straight back to Westbank Anglers. Tom Bie, founder and editor of The Drake magazine and a former Westbank guide, and Paul Puckett, the sporting artist behind decades of fly fishing illustration and the Flood Tide apparel brand, reconnect with Mike after a chance run-in at Westbank's 40th anniversary party sparked the idea for this episode.\nThe conversation traces both guys' start in Jackson Hole — Tom guiding scenic floats and fishing trips before launching The Drake in 1998 (dreamed up, fittingly, while working as a lift operator at Deer Valley), and Paul talking his way into a job at the original Dallas Westbank Anglers store before eventually landing in Jackson himself. From there it's a wide-ranging look at what made — and still makes — that shop culture so magnetic: the tight-knit, competitive-but-supportive community of guides, artists, and writers who passed through Westbank's doors, and how those connections shaped both of their careers.\nMike, Tom, and Paul also swap recent trip reports — tarpon and permit fishing in the Florida Keys and Mexico, and Tom's latest run on British Columbia's Dean River for big, ocean-hardened steelhead — before digging into Paul's evolution as an artist, from painting anglers' trophy fish for cash in the Westbank shop to his signature simplified, drippy compositions today. The episode wraps with a few can't-make-this-up shop stories (Dick Cheney's fishing license, presidential Secret Service detail included) and a genuinely interesting take on where fly shops, print magazines, and hand-painted art fit into a fishing culture that's about to be reshaped by AI.\n\nAbout...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/0bzaZgJtisA6jx5urcfJxZrU4wFucPzSZR-7z0HX3nE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzI2NjE4LzE2Mzg1/NDQ2NDAtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}