Almost six years ago now, I moved to Georgia to pursue a job. Pretty wild to think how quick time can fly, and how every year brings its own unpredictabilities that can bring both challenge and joy to life. With that being said, I’m a believer that wherever you live, it is crucial to have a handful of consistent people and activities to look forward to in order to maintain internal peace. Since moving to Georgia, I can say with confidence that one thing each and every year keeps me amped up for 6 months: Carp Season.

As those that are kind enough to follow this blog know, I’m a huge fan of the carp fishing opportunities in Georgia. I’ve fly fished for carp for nearly my entire life (and in countless places throughout the United States), and I can truly say that carping here is among the best. Not only can the numbers of carp here be unparalleled, but the sheer size of some of these fish is insanee. To emphasize further, the largest carp that I have seen in my entire life have been in Georgia.

In 2024, the word I would use to describe the season would be “unreal”. I caught my largest common carp ever this year, and several amazing, very large fish were brought to hand. In between these fish were countless other terrific carp that kept drag screaming, smiles on faces, and paddle boards getting pulled around.

Due to the sheer amount of carp outings had throughout the year, I’m not going to do a “play by play” in this post, but instead go through some of my biggest lessons learned and highlight a few specific fish outings.

From a lessons learned perspective, these were the three common themes throughout the year:

• When in doubt, have a “grub” fly ready. Although I have a handful of patterns that I’m confident a carp will eat, my hand-tied grub patterns this year produced the most amount of fish. They can be deadly with a “drag and drop”, and there were some difficult days in which this was the only fly the carp would be open to.
• Don’t be stubborn on leader/tippet size. I traditionally am a fan of 15lb tapered to 12lb fluoro, but found that my landing rates on BIG fish increased this year on straight 15lb as I could horse some of the fish that were attempting to take the fight into structure. The heavier tippet may lead to less eats on tough days, but it’s worth it if you have a better chance to land large fish.
• Don’t overlook an early evening paddle/outing. Although the majority of my carp days were mornings (lower wind, less people on the water), a few of my most productive sessions of the season were between the hours of 3pm-6pm. Lesson here is give it a go whenever you can.

From a highlighting of a few fish/outings perspective, these were the big three:

• As mentioned earlier, I caught my largest common carp this year. This fish slowly slurped a grub fly and proceeded to put up the craziest fight I’ve had on the paddle board. This fish was absolutely 25+ pounds.
• I caught my first, large Koi/Carp hybrid this year. The spawn was an extra sight to behold this year (hundreds of carp going crazy), and for about a month you could catch the non-spawning fish in thee midst of the spawning fish. Wild to watch.
• Earlier this year, my larger Bote board when out of commission (we had a great run). In the interim of purchasing a new one, I did a few carp outings on my much smaller paddle board. I landed a huge common carp on this board that dragged me all over the place for 10+minutes, and I had to get out to land it without falling in. Good news was that it took me close to a shallow flat!

Cannot wait for Carp Season 2025 and always grateful for these fish! Long live the carp.

Tight lines!

Joe Petrow

Although I believe that every birthday should be a day to reflect, celebrate, and make some time to do the things that bring you joy, there are a few birthdays that seem to have more “weight” to them. For me this year, I hit the big 30 (and my girl friend hit the big 29) and we decided to add a little extra flare to the birthday travel plans. We landed on Cabo and I selfishly was salivating at the thoughts to throw some line and see what happens.

Having never fly fished in Cabo before, I didn’t fully know what to expect other than the content I have seen online surrounding Roosterfish, Mahi, Jacks, Tuna, Marlin, etc. Although I made sure to book an afternoon from a boat for one day during the week, I was most excited about the chance to find some fish from shore.

Upon arrival at the hotel in Cabo, the water was gorgeous. Deep blue, relatively calm, lots of rocks around – I thought it was going to be easy to hook some snappers, groupers, and other reef species around the rocks. Upon fishing for hours the first two days, my assumption proved to be majorly WRONG…only had some action with a few very (very) small reef fish. With that said, we had our half day charter coming up, so wasn’t horribly concerned about us finding some fish at some point.

For the spirit of full transparency, the half day charter was extremely difficult and a bit of a cluster. The winds in Cabo this week were brutal (especially in the afternoon) and we were met with consistent 25-30 mph gusts and significant waves while on the boat – this obviously limited the number of areas in which we could throw a fly line. In addition to this, with my girlfriend in tow, I knew as soon as we launched that there was no way we would be spending 4+ hours in the conditions. With that said, we were able to get the fish monkey off our back this day by catching the largest Jack Crevalle of my life. There was a school of about 20 fish, and it absolutely hammered a big white baitfish fly made with bucktail/white hackle. Put a crazy bend on the 10-weight, so not complaining!

The day after our charter, I made the decision to abandon the rocky areas I was previously targeting and go scout a public beach that was a further walk away. What a decision that panned out to be as it was like a light switch turned on…

Although the wind was still howling, I immediately saw bait fished being blitzed on 10-feet from the shore, and was hooked up on my first cast with a larger white/chartreuse clouser minnow. New species! Gaffttopsail Pompano – these guys don’t get very large, but put up quite the bend in the 8-weight. I caught about four of these guys (in addition to some smaller Green Jacks and Jack Crevalles) rather quickly, but the weird thing was that the fish I saw blitzing were not pompano…they looked like tuna. Curious as to what was crashing bait, I down sized my fly to a very simple white baitfish pattern, and immediately was hooked up. Skipjack tuna! An unreal fight for their size, and was catching fish after fish for about a 30-minute period. Easily landed over half a dozen.

After the blitz was over, this is when things got interesting. I slowly started my walk back to the hotel and saw a 10-15 pound fish swimming 60 feet off the beach. ROOSTERFISH…seemingly just gliding through the waves. I rushed to get a cast in front of this…strip strips strip…holy cow the fish is following…all the way up to my feet…denied. What a bummer. but it happens. MORE IMPORTANTLY – I found Roosters. Within the next 15-minutes, more fish arrived. A pack of 3 fish and a few more singles. I had a handful of great throws that led to the same result of the roosters chasing it all the way in but not committing. I also had just as many “yikes” throws that the optimist in me still wonders if I would’ve caught one of these bigger roosters had I not been a slacker. After getting humbled by these fish for a couple more hours (and being rather sad that we would be heading back home the next day), I headed back to the hotel to celebrate my girlfriends birthday with some great food and margaritas.

The last morning of the trip is where I was blessed with the perfect ending. I decided to wake up super early and see if the roosters were still along the beach before needing to head to the airport. I had never caught a Roosterfish on the fly before, and really was itching to check this one off my species list. While targeting the larger fish the day before, I noticed that several small baby Roosterfish were zipping around the wave breaks, so I decided to rig up a smaller whit and red deceiver fly and just focus on getting one of these guys. Upon arriving to the beach, I saw a baby rooster zip and zag right by the shore…put a throw into the wave breaks…and finally! Rooster on. Although this Rooster was in no way a giant, it meant everything and put up quite the battle. I made sure to just snap a quick selfie with this fish and get it back in the water quickly so it could grow to be the giant it deserves to be.

What a trip and what a time. I cannot wait to chase Roosters again in the future, as they really are an amazing fish that I’d like to spend the time getting to know better. The moments when the hard work pay off is makes fly fishing so rewarding, and I’ll never forget the memories made this trip for my 30th. My first drink as a 30-year old was a cold margarita with my girlfriend on the beach, and my first fish as a 30-year old was a Rooster on the beach. Can’t beat that.

Tight lines!

Joe

As most serious fly fisherman can relate to, the fish you frequently target can often evolve throughout the course of your life. Some fish you grow up with, and some fish join the journey later in life – both have a special place in your heart. For me, Striped Bass (specifically in Maine) were one of those fish that I really started to become ecstatic about later in my twenties. Over the past couple of years, I’ve continued to dedicate the time (on both the water and fly tying vice) to learn more about how to catch Stripers, and our annual trip to Maine in 2024 led to some of the best encounters I’ve had with these fish.

Similar to pervious years, we ventured to Maine in late May, and were met with the best possible weather conditions (not an exaggeration). Super sunny skies, warmer temps for the early summer, and low winds. Although Stripers typically prefer some clouds/wind/elements to really turn on the feed bag, the sunny conditions on this trip really allowed some terrific opportunities to sight fish. To mix it up from previous years, I wanted to do two things this trip when it came to fishing: throw bigger flies and find new water. Although I had a few terrific spots that produced fish on my usual clouser/smaller baitfish patterns, I really wanted to throw some larger bucktail patterns and explore my “spot” horizons. With that said, I was optimistic that this could be a fishy weekend, as I was able to catch a nice striper on a larger bucktail fly (in one of my usual areas) on the very first evening in Maine. This fish was sitting in a HEAVY outgoing tide and hammered the fly only about 5 feet from the trip of the rod, and put up quite the fight. After a few quick shots, the fish swam off strongly and I went to go celebrate with a blueberry beer.

The next day ended up being a day that really one that dreams are made of when it comes to throwing some fly line. My girlfriend and I slept in a bit, picked up some donuts, and arrived to a new fishing area that I wanted to check out by about 10am. I had my same larger bucktail fly on from the evening before, along with an intermediate sinking line to help get the fly down if current was present. Within about 30-minutes of walking the beach and jetty looking for fish, I couldn’t believe my eyes…there was a school of about 25-35 striped bass circling the beach about 80 feet off the shore. I sat and watched these fish slowly get closer to the rocks/shore, and tried to keep my heartbeat down and fly line ready. The school of fish settled in about 60 feet out and I let out a long cast…let the big fly slowly sink…did some quick sporadic strips…and the fish were on it! Four to five fish started chasing but not committing, until finally a BIG striper came up and engulfed it. Striper on! The fight that ensued became utter chaos from the rocks, and I was able to fortunately land this fish for an awesome picture. This was my largest striper to date, and I was extremely grateful for the moment.

For the next hour, the school continued to patrol the area, and I was able to land 3 more fish (had another get off by the rocks). All of the fish were extremely nice, but not as big as the first one). Similar to the first fish, these stripers were all over the larger fly – just had to adjust the strip based on the body language of the fish. I threw to one specific fish multiple times, until finally I ripped the fly as fast as I could and then it finally hammered it. You could tell that the sunny conditions definitely had these fish a little skeptical to eat, but the sheer number of fish in the school kept them aggressive enough (and competitive to beat each other to the fly) where it didn’t prevent fish from being caught.

As for the final day of the weekend, we returned to the same area, and was able to land one smaller Striper and hook another. The large school was no longer there, but I noticed some fish sitting in the fast current a little bit closer towards a river mouth. Had a few very nice fish (including one possibly bigger than the first day) chase the bigger flies in, but not commit. I ultimately down sized the fly to focus on the smaller fish I was seeing, and this proved to work.

As always, can’t wait for the next trip up to Maine and continuing to put the time in to go after these awesome fish.

Tight lines!

Joe Petrow