Tag Archives: fishing

Six Miles for Six Inches

October 3, 2025 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

I’m excited to write this post. Not because we are about to tell the story of a giant fish being landed, or because we traveled to some Pina Colada plentiful international location. I’m excited because I am a true believer in full circle moments, and a few six inch fish gave me some major sense of reward this year during a time where quite frankly I needed it as a guy.

As y’all may know, I’ve been fortunate enough to live in GA for about the past six years. Although some excellent angling opportunities exist here, I would be lying if I told you that I frequently didn’t miss the trout fishing opportunities that I was spoiled with growing up in Colorado and living in Utah for three years. To this day, I will scream from the top of the mountain that Utah may have the best Brook Trout angling opportunities in the United States…not exaggerating. With this said, for years I have heard and “known” about Brookies living in North GA and North Carolina, but I truthfully never made a huge effort to go figure it out.

During a few long weekends in the Highlands with my girlfriend this year, we decided to change this and go figure it out. After countless research online (and super honestly spending tons of time fishing some dud areas), we finally found a location that rewarded us with some of the most beautiful Brookies I have ever seen. No phone service…six miles hiking…the kind of brook trout fishing that can make anyone with a soul feel something outdoors. By no means was it like Utah or Colorado where you can stumble upon a casual 50+ fish. day, I found cold water…studly looking fish…and another fly fishing opportunity close to home that I will be returning to shortly.

Overlooking step one of actually finding these fish (this is the hardest part it seems), I also realized that these brookies acted a little bit differently than their western counterparts. Similar from the fact that they sat in super shallow and hard to reach places, but I found that you needed to make your shots count in each spot. I.e., some of these southern brookies were not super forgiving and you needed to get them on the first eat. The standard size 18 Royal Wulfs did the job with amazing takes, and getting to see this fish swim away strong and no worse for the wear was the ultimate reward. Was lucky enough to land a handful of these little guys (including one very nice brookie that was 12+inches) on our major hiking excursion day.

I cannot wait to explore the small streams of North Carolina more to see if I can find some new areas that are more densely populated with these fish, but for now I will gladly be at peace with the ones I encountered this year. No matter how big or how small…it brings peace catching the same species of amazing fish in different locations…a perfect example of the importance of making the effort to make home feel more like home.

Tight lines!

Joe

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Getting Lucky on the Beach

April 17, 2025 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

As every avid fly fisherman knows, God willing, there will always be a couple of days on the water during the year that make you go “damn…it’ll be awhile before that happens again.” These days are to be cherished like gold as they don’t happen often, and many times they will come when you least expect them. I personally have felt that these kind of banner days will often present themselves after you’ve been humbled as of late.

In 2025, I had a day fly fishing from the beach in Southwest Florida that truthfully may never be replicated. In the area for a long weekend getaway, the day started pretty normal…early wake up call, grab a coffee, rigged up a fly on some 20lb fluro that seemed nice, and hit the beach. I lucked out from the jump as the wind was minimal, and water crystal clear. With that said, within a few minutes of walking on the sand I was seeing huge schools of baitfish, with predators lurking nearby…Snook. Although I’ve been fortunate enough to get more familiar with fly fishing for Snook off the beach in the past two years, this is something that is still relatively “newer” to me that gets my heart going. Not only do these fish put up incredible fights and jumps, but they can be tough off the beach…spooky, line shy, and very picky on the retrieve.

Lucky for me on this day specifically, the fish were AMPED up…it seemed that any small mullet imitation was getting obliterated. Leading fish by a couple of feet with a long leader was the ticket. Throughout the day (and another day to follow), easily put a dozen nice Snook to hand DIY’ing it from the beach. Great fun.

However, and as crazy as it sounds, the Snook were not the stars of the weekend in my eyes. While casting into a school of about 6 snook, I noticed two other huge fish that were lurking just outside of the school…I threw a cast, stripped, and had one of the fish start to follow…after a little bit of quick strips to coerce, boom…fish on. The fish immediately when airborne…a huge Gator Seatrout. For those that know, catching a true beast of a Speckled Trout on a fly is one of the toughest tasks in the salt…sure you can catch them in boatloads when stacked up and the fish are smaller, but the true 26+inch trout are beyond smart and picky. I was objectively shocked to see this fish at the end of my line. After a solid fight, and a few close calls towards the wave break, I landed the biggest Speckled Trout of my life…although I did not get an exact measure, my guess is that this fish was 28-29″ inches long. Unreal.

The day could’ve stopped here and I would have been ecstatic. BUT…clearly I had an insane amount of juju and luck on my side, as this wasn’t even the highlight of the day. After a little bit of a lull from the Snook, I got distracted by some Sheepshead that were messing around a really shallow section of surf. Upon watching these fish, I was noticing some dinner plate sized silver flashes moving quickly through the flat. My gut screamed “Pompano” as I have actually never caught one of these fish on a fly, and it was been on my list for awhile. After a long lead through, I started to slow trip and to my excitement immediately saw three pompano raise to chase the fly! I kept stripping and stripping, Pompano slashing at the fly, and finally had a UNIT of a Pompano come out of nowhere and smoke the fly. Line starts screaming…backing almost immediately. Pulling stronger than the Snook and beast Seatrout. After a long fight and a near crucial mistake of leader going between my legs while landing, I landed not only my first Pompano on fly, but the biggest Pompano I have laid eyes on. This was one of those fish that even looked 2x the size of some of the others in the water…as much as I would love to say I will see another Pompano this size on a fly in my life, I doubt it. Stoked would be an understatement and after this fish, I called it a day to find a cold beer.

Not to be dismissed, I also caught a handful of ladyfish and my first ever giant Houndfish on this weekend. The Houndfish was another new species, and an awesome sight fishing moment.

In all fairness…I want to come back to earth here for the end of the blog post. For every day a true fly fisherman has like this, you will have 10 that genuinely kick your butt. You will also have fish that break your heart. Exhibit A in 2025 for me was with my Dad chasing musky in TN for two days..had a huge musky finally eat at the end of our last day that broke off after grinding it out for 15+ hours on the water. Why I bring this up is days like this on the beach wouldn’t be as appreciated without some of those tougher fishing moments. Most importantly, fish aside, days like this where everything goes right make me extra thankful for the time spent with my Dad and friends on the water where everything didn’t go right. Why? Because at the end of the day the stories become memories, the people you are with mean more than getting the actual fish in, and make us better in the end. In summary…have some fun, enjoy the day, and know that it will all wash out in the end.

Tight lines and thanks for reading!

Joe

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Hometown Throwdown

April 3, 2025 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

In case anyone hasn’t noticed it yet…human beings are funny creatures. We have a big, big world around us, but no matter how much excitement or adventure may exist somewhere, it is in everyone’s nature to occasionally have a desire to go back to “normal” at the end of the day. Call it familiarity…call it nostalgia…but it’s wild how you can return somewhere time and time again, and not get tired of it. I think this relates to fishing as well…tons of water to fish, but we all tend to have our favorite spots. For me personally, this is the most true for when I am in Colorado fishing the waters that I literally spent thousands of hours on.

As won’t be a shock to those who are kind enough to read some of my blogs, from a fly fishing standpoint in my mind, Colorado = Carp. Sure the trout fishing is amazing (new post coming soon on that actually), but there’s something about driving 10 minutes down the road and getting into 10+ pound gold. Not only that, but it’s not easy…they make you earn it. In the spring this year, my Dad and I had a kick a$% couple of days “urban angling” around Denver.

Upon arriving in Denver, the weather was abnormally hot for April. I’m talking t shirts and shorts warm. From my years of fly fishing for Carp in CO, warm weather + a lack of recent snow/rain can be a recipe for absolute beauty if you play your cards right. Fortunately for us…this played to be true for our South Platte outings. Big, happy fish sitting in the currents…sifting through the riverbed, obviously a munchy mood. With a 6 weight rigged and a handful of my go-to carp flies in tow, it was time to do some “dragging and dropping”. After sneaking down the bank into a back eddy right by a bustling current, I hooked an absolute brute of a carp and it took me down river. After a 10+ minute fight and a chase through one of the chutes, we landed the fish right before dark, and went to enjoy some cold Coors and Mexican food after.

Returning to the same spot the next day, chaos continued. Similar to the day before, we saw fish immediately, but there were more out and about…tough to beat. In a two hour outing, we landed three great carp and hooked a fourth (all on one of my trusty mop type flies that feeding carp seem to really hone in on). Below are a few pics from the fish, and as you will see they were more than fed and in a great shape.

This long weekend also had a surprise guest for Colorado…some huge Largemouth Bass. I won’t provide exact spots due to the rarity of finding this species of size in the area, but my Dad and I stumbled across an area that had Largemouth bedding way earlier than usual. With that said…the fish were beyond tight lipped. After try and try again, we finally figured out the ticket by sinking a large black wooly bugger to the bottom, and doing some sporadic twitches. Below was one of my nicest Largemouth ever in Colorado, and it made for an extra cherry on top from some excellent days of carping.

Appreciate your hometown honey holes…they made an imprint on who we are. We fished them with some of the most important people in our lives… spent countless days trying to figure them out…and quite frankly probably needed them to reset on occasion. Have to give credit to where credit is due.

Tight lines!

Joe

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Exotic Hopping

March 4, 2025 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

As many of my friends and family know, I’m a huge fan of trying to test the boundaries of what species are possible to catch on a fly rod. Although the pursuit of the “populars” like tarpon, redfish, and striper will forever be engrained into my being, I have found that learning to embrace what else is out there has led to some of my best angling opportunities between the “bigger trips” that take place throughout the year. And when it comes to “I wonder what we can find that will eat a fly…”, South Florida honestly may be the mecca in the United States.

Fortunately enough for me, I find myself in South Florida often with a fully gassed up rental car. My favorite part of coming here is that you can literally find water for every .2 miles you drive it seems like…no matter if you are in a huge metropolis like Miami, or in one of the smaller towns off the Tamiami Trail. This year, I made it a point to “explore” away from my usual Peacock Bass spots, and boy did it pan out…not just for new species, but also finding some of my best peacocks ever.

In 2025, I was blessed to spend a plethora of days around the water in South Florida, but a few quick stories were highlights to me. With my smaller clousers, wooly buggers, and baitfish flies (nothing crazy) I found some great success on a warm day in March. One day while searching for Peacocks, I noticed literal oranges swimming in the water…not exaggerating. This excited me as I knew they were Midas Cichlid and I had never been able to catch one (very spooky usually). After a soft landing of a brown wooly bugger about 6 inches off of ones nose…I slow twitched and boom. After a nice fight, I landed my first Midas Cichlid. About 10 minutes later, I also caught my first ever Spotted Tilapia that was guarding a bed next to a rocky ledge in the water. This day was also accompanied by a handful of nice Peacocks that would only slam a fly stripped at blistering speeds. I also landed a good number of Florida Gar, and even saw some Snook in some predominantly freshwater areas…

A few months later (and once the weather was HOT), I wanted to spend some time going after a land based “monster” Peacock. After a half day of finding some pretty small Peacocks and Largemouth around Miami, I drove 30 minutes further north to an area that a few Reddit threads had indicated had some nice Peacocks. Upon arriving in the area, I knew there were some huge fish around…within the first couple of casts, I had fish blasting my fly right by the bank. After hooking a nice Peacock that got off right before the bank, I threw an EXTREMELY small yellow/green bead chain clouser right next to a rocky ledge, and had chaos break loose. I stripped the fly about 90% of the way in, went to pull the fly line for recast, and a HUGE Peacock surged out of the rocky ledge to inhale my fly. After a run to the backing in my 6 weight and holding on for dear life (as the fish was digging for structure), I landed the biggest Peacock of my life. No exaggeration or fish stories here when I say that this fish was 8+ pounds. Unreal moment. I also want to call out the fact that this fish was caught 2 hours before I had a flight scheduled to take off…moral of the story is “when in doubt, give it a go”.

One last story worth mentioning involves an early fall day exploring a new canal around the West Palm area. I had a few hours to mess around while waiting for some work colleagues to come in, and after some research found an area filled with fish. Initially hoping to find some Peacock, I was surprised to find a canal with a good number of Snakeheads. None of these fish were caught on this excursion (I will be back for vengeance…), but I fortunately ran into some other action. In one area of the canal by a bridge, I saw a ton of different exotics bedding and swimming around. I truthfully had no idea what they were…all I knew if they were beyond spooky and colorful. After several fly changes and lengthening leader, I was able to catch a handful of Mayan Cichlids, but more importantly landed two awesome Viejas Cichlid. These were objectively some of the craziest looking freshwater fish I had ever seen, and put a great bend into the 6 weight considering the overall size of the fish.

As mentioned earlier, I was really fortunate to get out and explore the FL canals this year. Really look forward to more exploring, and making sure that I make the most out of these “exotic” opportunities when they present themselves.

Tight lines!

Joe

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The Others

December 2, 2023 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

For anyone that is a sports fan out there, you are probably familiar with “the others” concept when it comes to a team. For those that might have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about, “the others” is a term that is used to explain role (or bench) players on a team that are still needed to win games. Although “the others” are not the all-star, multi-million dollar, or biggest players that will sell out tickets in the stadium, they are often times the deciding factor in the outcome of any given game (as they will always swing the score by a couple of points, and bring the element of surprise along with them).

When it comes to fly fishing, “the others” are the awesome fish you catch that you were not anticipating to show up and that can save the overall day by making their presence known. For those who have read this blog, you know that I am slightly obsessed with catching all different kinds of species on the fly rod. I firmly believe that fly fishing should have no boundaries when it comes to the type of fish being pursued, and I also believe that many times people won’t pick up fly fishing because of incorrect assumptions that they live somewhere that isn’t ideal for it (i.e. “there are no trout where I live so I can’t fly fish”).

For capping off 2023, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of “the other” fish that I ran into this year in hopes of encouraging line to be thrown wherever you might be. By no means were these all of “the others” (as most outings are accompanied by surprise fish), but these were some coming to top of mind!

Bowfin – A fan favorite of mind. Prehistoric and pull like crazy. On this day I really was fishing for anything, but this guy made the morning special.

Redear Sunfish, Bluegill, Crappie, Green Sunfish, Redbreast Sunfish (in order below) – Sunfish in general are some of the most under-appreciated fish due to their size. Bluegill and Crappie are specifically are one of the most common freshwater fish to find in the US. Always fun running into these guys on a day of searching for Bass on a lake, or throwing small flies into creek systems just to see what is around. I even did some fish “saving” this year as was finding a ton in drying up pools of water at the end of the summer. Redbreast Sunfish are really unique from both a geographical standpoint and their overall looks.

Chain Pickerel – known also as a Slime Rocket, Ditch Pickle, or countless other names. These guys attack and eat flies like a baby Musky or Pike, and get way too much hate considering how fun they are to catch and how good looking they are.

Atlantic Pollock – These fish are a hoot. Ran into a pile of them while Striper fishing in Maine, and they kept the action steady in between Stripers. They pretty much will hit anything small and yellow it seems!

Croaker and Baby Redfish - Was able to get the paddleboard out on some flats for a hour here and there on two separate trips this year, and these guys made it worthwhile. The goal was to find some “big” Redfish up shallow, but the wind and dirty water had other plans (especially challenging with no boat). Regardless, these fish showed up and we appreciate the cooperation!

Bottom line here – appreciate what you catch. Every single fish is a “nice” fish. No need to discriminate or downplay, especially if you are putting the work and effort in to get out on the water (no matter how much time you have or what the conditions are).

Tight lines as always!

Joe

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Carp – Never Out of Style

September 1, 2023 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

Surprise, surprise, we have another post about carp. For those of you upset about it, not sorry. For those of you happy about it, I love you.

But for real and on a serious note, this past year was the definition of *elite* when it came to the carp fishing. Not only did the local waters fish excellent and produce some of our best fish to date, but I also had the opportunity to fish the famous canals around Scottsdale, Arizona and check out the carping scene there.

Let’s start with the Arizona carp. For starters, was there for a bachelor party weekend not focused on fishing, but still made it happen in less than desirable conditions. Best case fished for 2-hours each morning (early) as the hangovers were wearing off for the rest of the gentlemen and scholars at the AirbBNB. It was an unseasonably cold weekend in Arizona, but the fish did not seem to mind at all.

Not having fished in Arizona before, my best friend was Google Maps, and Uber’ing to a local park that had a handful of canals/ponds surrounding the premises proved to be the move . After about a 10-minute somewhat uncomfortable ride with the driver not understanding why I had a fishing rod with me, I entered a quiet residential park with practically no one else there. Literally upon exiting the vehicle and rigging up my 4-piece 6-weight rod, I was already seeing carp surface in the water around me. I also noticed some creek channels extending out of the ponds, to which I chose to explore those as the water was shallow and clear, and saw some fish moving. Within my first 10-minutes, I already was hooked up to a nice carp on one of my specialty home tie flies. Per usual carp fashion, the fish put up a great fight, and I was able to land a second fish shortly after in the same creek. The biggest fish of the morning came from one of the ponds themselves - a fish sunning in maybe 3-4 feet of water. Drag and dropped the fly right on its face, and bam. What a morning and one of the photos I was able to takee from it below:

As for the local carping this year, it continued to be one of my highlights for the summer. Although there were the recurring challenges with river conditions and clarity, when the water was clear and the sun was up, the fishing was unparalleled. Similar to last year, I found that late April and May produced the most fish (as they provided the largest schools I have ever seen – I’m talking 30+ fish in each school), but that fishing remained consistent until early September.

As always, the most effective way of catching these fish was on the micro skiff/stand up paddleboard, and exploring the backwater creeks off of the Chattahoochee river. One “newer” positive this year was that I caught more fish super shallow – i.e. less than a foot of water. Typically I am fishing for floating fish that are still over water that is 10+feet deep (which can be exceedingly challenging with the fly rod, as they can disappear upon desire), but now have some waters where it really is a true “flats” feel where wading is even possible if desired. One area I look forward to testing more in 2023 is trying to figure out the Grass Carp – there are a plethora in the river system that I fish, and although I’ve had some minimal luck, would be a ton of fun to figure out how to consistently hook into these fish. Have some plans to test out dry fly scenarios more with lighter tippet.

Was fortunate to have several outstanding sessions for the carp over the summer, and below you will find some of the best/highlighted fish we ran into. Overall, the favorite flies of the summer consisted of small damselfly nymphs, cottonseed patterns, as well as the occasional “wormy” looking thing when the conditions were right.

Thanks for the read and hope you are searching for some carp near you in 2024!

Bass, Uncategorized

Transitions – Year Round Bassin’

May 1, 2023 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

For those of you who have followed this blog for some time, you will know that I am a fan of A) convenience and B) simplicity. Although the annual trips to exotic locations chasing big fish will forever bring excitement to all of us that love the fly rod, the reality is that making the most of our opportunities close to home are crucial when needing a “quick fix” away from work, life, school, etc. Not only this, but we need to be able to fish whether it’s rain, shine, or lord knows whatever else might be brewing out there. When I lived in Utah and Colorado, trout were my year round local fish to go after. Now that I have lived in Georgia for 5+ years, I have had to learn to treat bass as a year round option, and this past year was paramount in getting more familiar with the winter to spring transition periods.

For a quick summary – Georgia has a plethora of bass species. Everything from Largemouth, Spotted, Smallmouth, Shoal, and even Redeye bass. Although the Shoal, Smallmouth, and Redeye bass are a blast, these typically are “warmer” weather fish that are easiest to catch in Georgia during the late spring to early fall months. So for the “colder” weather in winter and early spring, it’s all about the Spotted and Largemouth bass for me in the local lakes.

Let’s start with the winter (I’m talking late November through end of February). After countless hours on the water (with no boat) exploring the best bass fishing lakes that Georgia has to offer, I have found that there are really three (3) keys to success during this season:

Find the rocks and the sun
Smaller flies > bigger flies
Deeper is better

In the winter, Bass are trying to find any spot on a lake where they can collect some warmth. Even if the water temp is just a few degress warmer, these areas are bound to have more fish than the cooler areas of the lakes. I have found that large boulders and rocks majorly assist in providing some “sunning” opportunities for these fish, and would go so far to say that 90+% of the bass I catch in the winter are associated with large rocks, rock ledges, or rocky points on the lakes. In addition to this, I would say that 75+% of my winter bass are caught on smaller flies (no bigger than a size 2 hook) and on intermediate sinking fly lines. These fish really don’t want to put in overtime to eat during the cold, so make the “meal” of a fly as manageable and convenient as possible to them. Get the fly deeper into the strike zone, and make it a bite sized snack.

Here are just some examples of the beautiful bass I have caught in the winter:

Now for the real fun…SPRING! It is warm, birds are chirping, the sunfish are out again, life is good. Hands down (in my opinion) this is the best time to target bass in Georgia/the south. For those of you that are keen on sight fishing and didn’t want to brave the winter, this is the time for you to dust off the fly rod and get after it. In 2023, the spawn took place earlier than usual it seemed, as I was finding huge Largemouth on their beds by mid-March. With that being said, April was a record for the amount of spawning bass I was seeing, and it actually led to my largest Largemouth I have ever caught (easy 8 pounds).

I tried some newer techniques this year for spawning bass that proved to be productive, and some that also overcomplicated the situation. Similar to how I provided three keys for winter bass, I would say these are three keys for spring bass on the fly:

No such thing as too shallow
Don’t be afraid to Super Size that fly selection
If you see one bass, there probably is a second (or third) that you can’t see

This past spring, I caught countless bass sitting in less than 2 feet of water. Moral of the story here is to use caution by the bank…don’t go clunking up right to the water’s edge as there might be a fish sitting there. You don’t need to be a psychopath and crawl up the bank (like some ridiculous trout guides will preach back West), but definitely give yourself 10 feet of space from the bank to monitor the situation. In addition to this, if you do find an aggressive bass that is sitting on a bed (or is just ravenously patrolling an area attacking sunfish), don’t be afraid to tie on a larger fly. Get their attention, strip fast, and hold on. Lastly, I have found that more often that not the bass will school up a bit shallow in the spring. So if you are sight fishing to one bass that is being spooky/difficult, make it a point to throw some blind casts around it as another might be lurking. OR even better, be prepared for another bass to come side-swipe your fly while you are sight fishing a different fish, as this is how I caught my largest Largemouth ever this year (was throwing a larger bunny strip, olive looking leach thing).

As always, thanks for the read and hope that this provides some insight into how to get on the bass before the dog days of summer kick in. Tight lines!

Joe