The Angler Magazine | December 2018 | Atlanta

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FISHMAS GIVEAWAY VOLUME 23 • ISSUE 286

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Veteran’s Program Announcing Our New

EDITOR IN CHIEF : Ben Martin • camads@coastalanglermagazine.com COO : Tracy Patterson • tracy@coastalanglermagazine.com ART DIRECTOR : Rebecca Snowden • graphics@coastalanglermagazine.com EDITORIAL COORDINATOR : Nick Carter • editorial@coastalanglermagazine.com WEBMASTER : Nick Barna • webmaster@coastalanglermagazine.comw ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: Corporate Headquarters info@coastalanglermagazine.com • 888-800-9794

FRANCHISE DIRECTORY

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Franchise Ownership!

FLORIDA BIG BEND : Mike McNamara • (850) 510-7919 • captmike@coastalanglermagazine.com BREVARD : Chris Milner • (321) 631-1001 • cmilner@coastalanglermagazine.com DAYTONA/NEW SMYRNA/DELAND : Amy Chibbaro • (386) 478-3812 • achibbaro@coastalanglermagazine.com

Chris Chibbaro • (386) 478-9234 • cchibbaro@coastalanglermagazine.com

FLORIDA KEYS : Cliff Lumpkin • (305) 849-9093 • cliff@coastalanglermagazine.com FORT LAUDERDALE : Gene Dyer • (954) 680-3900 • gene@coastalanglermagazine.com FORT MYERS : Nadeen Welch • (239) 595-8265 • nwelch@coastalanglermagazine.com GREATER ORLANDO : Phillip & Giselle Wolf • (407) 790-9515 • phillip@coastalanglermagazine.com

If you’re a veteran, love the outdoors and have been looking for a way to own your own business, we believe we have the perfect fit for your next professional endeavor. We have franchise locations available thoughout the continental U.S. and Hawaii.

GREATER MIAMI : Gene Dyer • (954) 680-3900 • gene@coastalanglermagazine.com LAKELAND & SUMTER : Mary Brasher • (352) 598-4219 • maryf@coastalanglermagazine.com NAPLES : Nadeen Welch • (239) 595-8265 • nwelch@coastalanglermagazine.com NC FLORIDA/NATURE COAST : Cary & Lynn Crutchfield • (352) 372-4237 • crutch@coastalanglermagazine.com NE FLORIDA : Danny Patrick • (904) 742-4696 • danny@coastalanglermagazine.com PANAMA CITY/DESTIN/FORGOTTEN COAST : Randy Cnota • (229) 834-7880 • randyc@coastalanglermagazine.com PALM BEACH COUNTY : Barbara Ryan • (561) 373-8040 • barbara@coastalanglermagazine.com SARASOTA : Phil Prevoir • (239) 257-4684 • pprevoir@coastalanglermagazine.com TAMPA BAY : Chuck Atkins • (239) 464-5153 • chuck@coastalanglermagazine.com TREASURE COAST : Misti & Gary Guertin • (772) 285-6850 • treasurecoast@coastalanglermagazine.com

Our success with helping veterans to learn to publish their own localized fishing/ outdoor magazine leads us to believe that our franchise opportunities are a perfect fit for a wide variety of veteran talents and training.

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SOUTHEAST ATLANTA : Bob & Brenda Rice • (706) 614-8231 • bobr@theanglermagazine.com CHARLESTON : Sam Buckareff • (843) 607-8629 • sam@coastalanglermagazine.com CHARLOTTE/PIEDMONT : Doug Simmons • (704) 361-6189 • simmons@theanglermagazine.com

Juli Simmons • (980) 333-7273 • simmons@theanglermagazine.com

COLUMBIA/MIDLANDS : John Lux • (803) 807-6885 • jlux@theanglermagazine.com MYRTLE BEACH : Mike Masiero • (732) 674-3019 • mmasiero@coastalanglermagazine.com

Now, with our special Veteran’s Program, owning a Coastal Angler or The Angler Magazine franchise has never been easier.

TIDEWATER/OUTER BANKS : Brenda Riggs • (757) 409-7518 • brenda@coastalanglermagazine.com

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WESTERN NC : Debra & Joe Woody • (828) 775-9663 • woody@theanglermagazine.com

NORTHEAST BOSTON : George Regan • (617) 488-2842 • boston@coastalanglermagazine.com LONG ISLAND : Lisa & Michael Danforth • (203) 321-7635 • lisad@coastalanglermagazine.com

If you love the outdoors and have ever considered owning your own business, you owe it to yourself to check out our Franchise opportunities and our new Veteran’s Program.

CONNECTICUT/RHODE ISLAND : Lisa & Michael Danforth • (203) 321-7635 lisad@coastalanglermagazine.com

GULF COAST MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST : Adam Nelson • (228) 627-5903 • anelson@coastalanglermagazine.com

Toby Nelson • (228) 623-1761 • tnelson@coastalanglermagazine.com

ALABAMA/PENSACOLA : Paul Caruso • (239) 980-7738 • paul@coastalanglermagazine.com

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For more information on our franchise opportunities call

(321)777-2773 or email info@coastalanglermagazine.com

WEST MICHIGAN : Phil Belsito • (616) 957-1714 • phil@theanglermagazine.com

INTERNATIONAL VIRGIN ISLANDS/PUERTO RICO : Ace Bassue • (407) 285-9453 • ace@coastalanglermagazine.com COSTA RICA : Mike Erickson • (561) 262-2242 • mike@coastalanglermagazine.com © 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Disclaimer: Coastal Angler Magazine / The Angler Magazine will not be held liable for injuries incurred while partaking in activities described herein, or for claims made against products or services provided by advertisers.

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GIFT IDEAS FOR ANGLERS

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heck out these great gift ideas for the outdoor enthusiast on your holiday gift list.

These local merchants are available to ensure your holiday gift giving satisfaction. We always try to encourage our readers to shop locally. It’s our community and we all benefit from supporting our local businesses. They’re here for us all year long and our personal convenience depends on their sustainability. Tell them Coastal Angler/The Angler Magazine sent you.

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SOUTHEAST

Friends Andy Ball and Brent Milgrom pose with two large red drum they caught at the Winyah jetties.

By Erin Weeks, SCDNR hen Charlotte resident Andy Ball headed to the South Carolina coast for a summer escape he caught a red drum that was tagged 21 years ago.

Since the 1970s, SCDNR biologists have operated a volunteer tagging program whereby recreational anglers can turn their fishing trips into valuable scientific information by tagging the fish they catch and release. Using a specialized tagging device, researchers

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and anglers insert the tag into the muscle of a fish by the dorsal fin.

Harmless to the fish, the tags can remain anchored there for decades as the fish grows.

Andy Ball contacted SCDNR’s tagging coordinator, Morgan Hart, to report the tag number and details of the red drum he’d recaptured. Every time a tagged fish is reported, Hart sends detailed updates about the fish’s history to both the original taggers and the recapturers. It’s a neat way to see where a particular fish has traveled since you last saw it.

When Hart ran the fish’s history, she was amazed. It had been tagged over 21 years prior.

“I could tell right away that the tag report was special,” Hart said. “The tag number was different than anything I had seen recaptured before. Once I realized how long ago it was tagged, I think my mouth literally fell open.

“I reached out to the original tagger, Kevin Mischke, and he was delighted to hear that one of his fish was still contributing to the population.”

Mischke was an active volunteer tagger from 1990 to 2006. In 1997, he’d caught a large red drum at Wappoo Cut, near his home on James Island. Mischke tagged the fish with a yellow, nylon tag labeled ‘A033559.’

When Mischke caught it, the red drum was already a mature fish at 35 inches—meaning it is now likely to be well older than 21 years of age. SCDNR research has shown red drum are impressively long-lived fish, with biologists documenting fish up to 40 years old.

A decade later, redfish ‘A033559’ showed up once again in the records, when angler Warren Wood caught and measured the fish in 2008. By this time, the red drum had grown five inches and migrated to Georgetown, where Wood reported catching it off the Winyah Bay jetties.

And that’s exactly where Andy Ball caught the fish this summer – no larger this time, but another decade older.

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permit for construction of a new artificial reef off Oregon Inlet could be approved within months, and Outer Banks anglers are happy to hear it.

According to a report from the Coastal Review online, the project has been almost three years in the making since the nonprofit Oregon Inlet Artificial Reef Committee formed to apply for funding from the Division of Marine Fisheries. With an $887,000 grant, the stage is set for a proposed two-year project to construct a reef south of the Oregon Inlet Sea Buoy.

The project is being funded primarily through the state’s Coastal Recreational Fishing License Grants Program. The plan calls for a 100- to 140-foot vessel as well as 8,000 tons of concrete pipes to be sunk within state waters less than 10 miles south of Oregon Inlet.

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BLUE RIDGE

By Grant Bobo

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hen the weather turns cold, many pond owners consider the fishing season over and start looking forward to spring. Traditional pond fish such as largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish become less active and difficult to catch.

A solution to keeping your pond productive from an angling standpoint is to stock trout. We commonly stock three species of trout. Brown and brook trout are typically stocked at sizes greater than 12 inches. Brown and brook trout are more predatory than rainbows, so we recommend fishing for them with small spinners or other minnow-imitating lures.

Our favorite species to stock is rainbow trout. Rainbows can be used for many purposes since different sizes are readily available. We stock smaller sizes from 6 to 10 inches as bass forage. It is critical to supply bass with high calorie forage as they prepare for the upcoming spawn. Trout are better forage than bluegill because trout have

Lake Construction

soft fins that will not choke the fish. If you have ever seen a dead bass on the surface with a large bluegill stuck in its throat, then you know what we are talking about.

Additionally, we stock larger rainbows to provide action for anglers. If clients have family coming over for Christmas, we encourage them to get trout stocked, as it will give guests an extra surprise.

We also have intermediated sized rainbows that are perfect to grow up. All three of the trout species we stock readily take fish food, but rainbows in particular respond the best. Mainly clients enjoy stocking 10- to 12-inch rainbows and growing them up through the winter months to finally harvest in the late spring.

It is critical to use high-quality fish food to grow trout. Their growing season is short, so using feed with high protein and fat content will maximize growth. We exclusively use Purina Aqua Max fish food to feed our client’s fish. This feed has 45 percent protein and uses fishmeal as the primary ingredient. Cheaper feeds purchased at local feed stores typically have 33 percent protein and are filled with chicken byproduct.

All good things must come to an end, and trout are no exception.

Once water temperatures reach 70 degrees, they will slowly start to die off. Unlike other fish species, trout will sink to the bottom when they die, so no dead fish odor will be around the pond when they die. If pond owners purchased larger trout, we recommend they start harvesting in late April and May. An added benefit to using high quality fish feed is the trout taste fantastic. There is an old stigma that trout taste fishy if they are raised on fish food. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as many past clients have just as much fun eating the trout as they do catching them.

We have limited quantities of trout, so it is imperative that orders are sent in early.

Grant Bobo is a biologist II with Aquatic Environmental Services, Inc. Contact them at (770) 735-3523, grant@lakework.com or visit their website at www.lakework.com.

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ost new fly fishermen enjoy the process of fly fishing as much or more than catching fish. That’s one of the great things about the sport; even if the fish aren’t biting, you can have fun practicing your casting technique. As a client once said, “with fly fishing, the fish are the gravy!”

This early phase only lasts while fly anglers become more proficient with their casting stroke. It usually ends when the angler is done catching numbers of fish and wants to go for quality fish.

Typically, the “pounds of meat” theory comes into play with big predatory fish like brown trout, which prefer “bigger bait for bigger fish.”

Let’s back up to the early stages of learning to fly cast with small and light flies that are easier to cast. Dry flies, nymphs or streamers in small sizes travel easily through the air because of less air drag and less gravitational pull. This allows for more consistency with the distance and accuracy of the cast.

Bigger flies have a large profile, which appeals to the bigger appetite of bigger fish with bigger stomachs. Also, bigger flies are generally heavier. They have a much faster sink rate that exposes them to more trout that inhabit the floor of the trout stream or river. The trade-off with heavier, bulky flies is that they are cumbersome and require a different casting technique than smaller, streamlined flies.

There is a fly casting technique called a false cast. This is a helpful technique where the angler uses a classic casting stroke with a “10 o’clock to 2 o’clock” range of motion to create a straight path for the line and fly to travel accurately. This casting stroke is repeated mid-air without landing the cast until the caster feeds the appropriate length of line and aims at the desired target area.

False casting is effective with smaller, lighter flies but NOT with bigger, heavier flies. If you attempt your classic “10 to 2” range of motion in your casting stroke, heavier flies will likely hit your rod, or worse, hit your a fishing buddy.

Because we are creatures of habit and our learned muscle memory is with lighter flies, it requires some retooling of the casting stroke to throw the heavy stuff. This new casting stroke is the “windshield wiper cast.” It has a broader range of motion like “9 o’clock to 3, or even 4 o’clock.” It requires the caster to break their wrist.

It sounds ridiculous, but try it if you plan to “chuck and duck” large nymphs and streamers for bigger fish. It’ll put your big streamer where it needs to be more efficiently, and it’ll also save you from chipping fiberglass off your rod or thumping your buddy in the back of the head.

Chris Scalley owns River Through Atlanta Guide Service.

Contact them at 770-650-8630 or through their website at river10:01 PM throughatlanta.com.

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11/15/18 10:02 AM

Enter to Win!

12 DAYS OF FISHMAS New Prizes Everyday!

December 1 - 12

Enter on our Social Media Pages or visit

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11/9/18 11:26 AM 11/15/18 10:08 AM

Photo by Hans-Petter Fjeld

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he Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is calling on Canada to enact new management measures to reduce the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence striped bass population.

“It’s important that Canadian government leaders from across the country understand what’s happening in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and especially on the Miramichi River,” said ASF president Bill Taylor. “DFO has taken incremental steps, but more is needed to restore balance for all species.”

Striped bass are native to the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence and were once considered threatened. All fisheries were closed by 2000, and a recovery target of 31,200 spawning adults was established.

That goal has now been exceeded for eight consecutive years. Recent estimates show between 500,000 and 2-million striped bass spawn annually in the Miramichi.

“We have clearly shown this concentration of striped bass is having severe negative effects on wild Atlantic salmon,” said Taylor.

Since 2003, ASF and partners like the Miramichi Salmon Association have been tracking juvenile Atlantic salmon, known as smolt, in three Gulf of St. Lawrence rivers. Initially, 65-75 percent of tagged smolt survived migration through the estuary of each river. Survival rates on the Restigouche and Cascapedia rivers have remained stable, but a downward trend began in 2011 on the Miramichi, coinciding with the sharp rise in striped bass.

Less than 10 percent of smolt tagged in the Northwest Miramichi River survived to reach the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2017. The lower Northwest Miramichi is where the entire southern Gulf of St. Lawrence striped bass population gathers to spawn each spring. At the same time, smolt are migrating to the ocean.

It's been an unbelievable year and we would like to say a big "Thank You" to all our customers and dealers for helping make it happen!

Let's make 2019 even better!

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS

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DECEMBER 2018 To advertise in the largest free fishing publication in the U.S. with over 1 million monthly readers, call 706-614-8231

PUBLISHER: Bob Rice A Free Publication The Angler Magazine Is Distributed Across The Southeast.

The Angler Magazine Is Published Monthly By B & B Publishers P.O. Box 766 Madison, GA 30650 706-614-8231 www.theanglermagazine.com Reproduction Of Contents In Any Form Is Prohibited Bob Rice, publisher The Angler Magazine Fishing, Boating, Conservation “Find your outdoors here”

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Nick Carter Henry Cowen Dr. Andrew Cox Jim Farmer Jimmy Harris Capt. Cefus McRae Chris Scalley Gary Turner Noey Vineyard O'Neill Williams Rene J. Hesse Jimbo Mathley James Bradley David HulseY WAYNE WOOTEN jay striker wayNe moore ryan kennedy dicklesby kim nunery Graphic Design: Kathleen CARREIRO

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facebook.com/theanglermagazineGA www.theanglermagazine.com HappY Holidays!

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DECEMBER 2018

ATLANTA 1

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Local Rivers & Fly Fishing When The Going Gets Tough

Contributed By: Jimmy Harris www.unicoioutfitters.com Unicoi Outfitters,Orvis 2018 Fly Shop of the Year

While fall in North Georgia pretty much fell flat on its face with summertime temperatures in October and very little leaf color in November, we always know we can count on December to be Steady Eddy. It’s pretty predictable that the average daily temps will be around 50° with lows in the low 30’s. On average it’s going to be relatively mild and great fishing weather. For trout fishing, this is one of our busiest months.

Anglers getting out on the stream in December need to come prepared for winter fishing in order to get the most out of their experience. Here are some tips: • Dress appropriately. This means dressing in layers. Early morning temps in the 30’s mean a good fleece jacket and possibly fleece or polypropylene pants under your waders. To me, polypro underwear is a better option as it’s not that uncomfortable like fleece when things warm up. By noon, you’ll probably be shucking some outer layers so a small backpack is a handy accessory.

• While you may find some dry fly action like midges or Blue Winged Olives, odds are 98% of your fishing will be nymphs. On Delayed Harvest streams, a good tactic is to fish an egg pattern or Y2K with a nymph dropper. Prince Nymphs in size 14 and 16, Pheasant Tails in size 16 – 20 are hard to beat.

• With crystal clear water, you

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may find it necessary to fish longer leaders. It’s not unusual for us to fish 12’ – 15’ 5X leaders this time of year.

• Water temperature is critical to fish activity. If the actual water temp is under 40°, take your time getting to the stream. Forty degrees and up, the switch will turn on.

• You have to be very deliberate about your fishing in winter. In cold water, you sometimes have to bump the trout on the nose to get a reaction. As my friend Jeff Durniak says, “Paint the pool with your casts.” Make sure you have drifted your flies through every square foot of the run or pool.

• Split shot is your friend! Don’t be afraid to keep adding shot until you feel your flies ticking the bottom. That’s where the fish are and you need to make sure you aren’t drifting over their head.

• Unless you’re Euro-nymphing with a sighter, use a strike indicator. Unless you’re just dead set on perfecting that method, you’ll catch more fish nymphing with an indicator. Winter strikes can be very subtle, so up your odds. The new Rio Kahuna LT strike indicators are perfect for helping you pick up those subtle strikes.

• Finally, I never go out during the winter without an extra set of clothes in my vehicle just in case I go swimming. Trust me, it happens. Hypothermia is real and can kill you! I remember one trip to the Chattooga River the day after

Christmas when the air temperature was in the 20’s. I was wading out on a ledge at one of the deepest holes on the river when my feet began to slide over the rounded edge. I had time to prepare myself mentally as I slowly slid into the water until nothing but my hat was dry. After

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drifting about 30 feet, my feet finally touched the bottom and I walked out. I was fortunate. I hiked twenty minutes back to the vehicle where I had a towel and dry clothes. A heater never felt so good! As the most interesting man in the world would say, “Stay safe out there, my friends.”

HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:00 AM

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Contributed by David Hulsey International Federation of Fly Fishers Master Certified Casting Instructor http://www.hulseyflyfishing.com 770-639-4001 December fly fishing trips are usually a time of last minute unplanned quick excursions to nearby waters. This involves throwing a pile of fishing stuff into the truck and hoping you got something that works as you sling gravel out the driveway. These quick sorties are jammed between holiday get-togethers and shopping mall avoiding excuses that sometimes involve taking your wild and crazy uncle, or worse yet, some relative’s kid named Junior who really doesn’t want to be fishing.

Junior will drive you nuts if he’s not catching fish every five minutes. Junior or your uncle also might break the fly rod you let him use. One way to relieve some of the holiday stress is to only let your crazy uncle and Junior use really junky worn out equipment. That way if it breaks you can use the old guilt trip on the significant other to get some new stuff that costs at least four times as much. That’s a well-executed plan to get yourself what you really want for Christmas.

The other way to avoid holiday stress is to take your unskilled fly fishing company to a stream that has lots of eager, unskilled fish in it. In the month of December here in the Southern Appalachians, that means Delayed Harvest regulated streams. These creeks and streams are a wonderful place to find some peace and quiet. Even if you had to bring Junior, he can usually get enough action to keep him occupied

with fishing instead of playing on his IPhone. Regular stockings of nice trout through the fall ensure at least a very good chance of a hookup or two in nearly every pool or riffle.

Equipment needs not to be complicated. Any fly rod from two through six weight will work with a decent floating line on it. Long beautiful casts aren’t usually necessary.

Only show Junior how to roll cast if you want to hold onto at least a few flies for the next trip. If you show him the overhead cast, he’ll be in every tree for a hundred miles. Remember, you are escaping stress, not manufacturing it. A short powerful leader tapered down to 3x or 4x with a big orange Thingamabobber or big bushy dry fly as an indicator will give your uncle something to look at as he fishes. Tie a Y2K bug or Olive Wooly Bugger on for him and plant his clueless self in a decent hole.

Place the kid in the same hole so he will kind of have adult supervision, and you can sneak off to a better fishing spot. You can be gone for short periods or until you catch a couple of fish because they need practice untangling lines and hopefully landing fish. Just be sure you leave the river in time to arrive for supper and festivities which should involve several drinks to help you get to sleep after the hard day on the creek.

If you want to go on your own stress free fishing trip, give us a call at 770-639-4001. You’ll be glad you did! Happy Holidays everyone!

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Local Rivers & Fly Fishing December Fly Fishing Report Contributed By: Henry Cowen www.henrycowenflyfishing.com December 2017 was such a disappointment on Lanier that I can’t begin to even try to relive last year.

However, in years past, December can easily be one of the best months to fish for striped bass on the pond.

As of November, we are slightly below full pool. That means the fish and bait can hide anywhere they want (especially in the backs of the coves).

The blue back herring seem to be down some in numbers, and for the fly angler that is a good thing. More threadfin shad means more surface feeding fish. The pattern of fish on the south end should change as the fish will start pushing further north.

Fish can be spread out as they start searching for food in pockets and creeks. Use your binoculars to look deep into the backs of the creeks to find fish eating small threadfin shad in some fairly shallow water.

The topwater bite will still continue into December, however where they feed on top will radically change. By mid-month you can expect to see fish pushing bait and feeding in between docks in the smaller creeks. Sometimes, they might be at the mouth of the creek, while other times they will be way in the back of the creek.

This is the time of the year that the bird life on lakes can be the key to help finding a school of fish either on the surface or sub-surface. The obvious wildlife to look for are terns and gulls diving on bait being pushed to the top. Terns and gulls will not fly to the backs of the coves, so that is where your binoculars can be very relevant to finding surface feeding fish without having to motor all the

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into the backs of the coves. Kingfishers seen flying around a particular area and squawking while diving on the water is also a dead giveaway.

Herons standing stealthy on a bank is a certain sign of baitfish in the area. If their necks are extended, they are hunting. Look for loons going up and down in a particular area and not straying too far as another hint of both baitfish and stripers.

This time of year anglers need to carry both an intermediate line for surfacing fish or fish running the banks as well as a sinking line for those big schools found on your fish finder. If you encounter that group, then using the countdown method will get your fly to the fish below.

Small flies are still the ticket as the stripers are gorging on 1”- 1 ½” long threadfin shad. My Somethin’ Else pattern is still the best fly to use, but Gummy Minnows or small Polar Fiber Minnows will work too. If you don’t get an eat then size up to a 3” Clouser as that will also work.

Remember to pause between your strips in order to allow the fly to free fall like a wounded shad. That is the money retrieve and may be the single most important technique you can use to trigger a bite!

The dock light bite will be in full swing at this time of year too. If you are willing to wake up an hour earlier or stay out on the lake for 90 minutes after dark, YOU WILL BE REWARDED! These fish are easy to feed and can be found all over the lake (both north and south).

Wishing every one of our Angler Magazine readers a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah. See you on the pond.

oconee on the fly

December Forecast – Confessions of a Fly Guide on Lake Oconee

By Capt. Wayne Moore USCG www.oconeeonthefly.com My wife and I moved to Lake Oconee going on three years ago. I started fly fishing here in 2016, and I heard about “the pump back bite” from fellow guide, Doug Nelms.

This is when water is pumped up from Lake Sinclair at Wallace Dam. That year, from June through October, it was incredible. Shad were knocked off the wall of the dam and hybrids were busting the surface everywhere for the first couple of hours after daylight. In 2017, the same thing happened and I opened Oconee On the Fly guide service.

Customers that never fly fished before were catching hybrids. What a rush!

This year everything changed.

The pump back stopped on June 14th. My best guess is higher than normal temperatures and lots of rain factored in. We have all been anxiously awaiting another opportunity for topwater hybrids and stripers. That is, running and gunning for gulls dive-bombing shad. I actually saw a gull or two this weekend. Here is what is happening now: Hybrids / Stripers – On October 27th I fished early and hit a lit dock above I-20 and landed a nice striper on a black Clouser. This weekend, a front came through but there were some fish rising mid-lake, but they were not taking a fly. There are a ton of shad in water 30 to 40 feet deep. In these areas, lots of small fish can be taken on a spoon and an occasional larger hybrid or catfish.

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By Thanksgiving, the run and gun bite chasing the gulls (which are dive bombing shad) should be in full swing, and December will be great for both the fly fisherman and those using live bait.

Use a 9-foot, 8 weight rod with intermediate line and a 12-pound fluorocarbon leader. For flies, a Henry Cowen’s Somethin Else or a size 4 Polar Fiber Minnow cannot be beat! Fish first and last light unless it’s overcast, in which case you can go all day. Use sink tip line if the fish are not on the surface.

Crappie – All the guides here (including yours truly) are enjoying very good crappie fishing. Long lining jigs behind the boat at speeds from .9 mph to 1.1 mph works well.

Remember, when a weather front moves in, the crappie (and baitfish) will move out of the mouths of coves towards deeper water. If you have a choice on when to go, Henry Cowen (the venerable fly fishing and light tackle striper guide on Lanier) says, “fish the front of the front”.

Final words - As of this writing, deeper lakes here in Georgia have a strong topwater striper bite.

But very soon, the Oconee hybrid/ striper bite will take off and stay strong through the fall and most of the winter.

Come on out to Oconee and get after the hybrids and stripers with a fly rod or light spinning tackle. December will be great for both! Call 706-816-4281 or e-mail me at wmoore1700 @outlook.com and request your dates. If you have never landed a hybrid or striper on a fly, I promise it is an experience you will not forget!

HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:00 AM

Local Rivers & Fly Fishing

Why Be Orvis Endorsed Contributed by James Bradley Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide www.ReelEmInGuideService.com (706) 273-0764

This is a question that I get asked occasionally. It is a question from either those that know about Orvis or those that do not. There are several factors why a guide, guide service, lodge or outfitter would want to be Orvis Endorsed. But, more importantly, why would Orvis want any of these to be an endorsed part of them?

So, you may ask yourself, who is Orvis? Orvis is a family-owned retail and mail-order business that specializes in fly fishing, hunting and sporting goods. Founded in Manchester, Vermont, in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis who sold fishing tackle. It is the oldest mail-order retailer in the United States! Leigh Perkins purchased Orvis in 1965.

His two sons, Perk and Dave Perkins, have been running the op-

eration since 1992. They have committed 5% of Orvis’ pretax revenue toward conservation efforts. Since 1989, Orvis has donated $21 million back into conservation efforts through contributions and customer matches! Last year, Orvis introduced over 15,000 people into the sport of fly fishing with their beginner clinics nationwide.

Why be Orvis Endorsed? It’s a simple question to answer. In business, it’s called branding. Through association, you routinely gain integrity, trust and are known to be in the top of your class or sport.

The good and the bad: The good part about choosing someone Orvis Endorsed is the quality of guide you will be receiving. These men and women have high integrity, excellent people skills, strong work

ethics, high interest in the outdoors, positive attitude, strong physical and emotional health, good organizational skills, good thinking skills and a strong sense of responsibility. These are the men and women that deal in their trade daily. They have a desire for learning, teaching, wildlife conservation and are observant with everything around them for your safety.

There is a dirty side in this business that sometimes takes place. Some are willing to risk using an Orvis Endorsement or Logo without permission or selection. I used to personally think that the easiest way to check up on a guide was to simply read over their accolades. This isn’t always true with some willing to say or advertise to be something that they are not. Orvis has a way of dealing with the dirty part. They will issue a cease and desist

to rogue guides and strongly deal with their endorsed guides who fall short of what being endorsed really means.

Being ex-military, I still strive to “be the best I can be” and likewise, Orvis will continue to strive to have “the very best guides for you that they can”.

You can always go to Orvis.com then click on “Trips and Schools” to see who they are currently endorsing.

James Bradley is the only Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide in North Georgia’s Historic High-Country region. Reel Em In Guide Service has been offering their services to fly anglers since 2001. They have permits for guiding in North Georgia and North Carolina, offering over 6 miles of private trophy waters across Georgia, and operate drift boat trips on the Toccoa River in GA and the Tuckasegee River in NC.

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Local Rivers & Fly Fishing Casting Multi-Fly Rigs Contributed By: Rene J. Hesse

2019

Certified Casting InstructorFederation of Fly Fishers & Atlanta Fly Fishing and Camping Meetup Organizer

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It isn’t pretty, but it is effective.

The flop or lob cast is something anyone can do and becomes necessary in winter months with heavy multi-fly rigs. It is anything but beautiful, however, it is great for getting your heavy or multi-fly rig to the fish. Here is the set up.

When fishing in the winter, we often try to get down deep in the water column, and that requires more split shot and often an anchor fly tied to the end of the line with another fly tied on a foot or so above it. An indicator is often used as well to get a good drift and aid in strike detection. That combination is a recipe for disaster if you try a normal overhead cast. Yes, you could do an oval cast, but sometimes there is little space.

Heavy nymph rigs are usually used at close range, so casting them is often more of a lob than a cast.

So why would I even talk about a lob? Because there is actually a bit of an art to the cast. It starts with the fly in hand, the cast and then the follow through to set up the next cast. When you get to the place for your first ‘cast’, there is usually less than 15-20 feet of line needed. You want to pick lanes of water to present the fly. Notice the lanes that you want to fish, starting with the one closest to you. When you read the water and have the depth figured out, adjust the indicator to about 1.5 times the depth. Re-

member, the fly will not hang straight down, so allow for drag. When you have that in place, you can toss your line downstream to drift out as your rod tip points to it. You want your rod tip 180 degrees from your intended target as your line drifts out straight.

When the line is extended, make a vertical lift of the rod and try to clear as much line off the water as you can.

As you are doing that, think about the target and the lane you want to fish.

Bring the rod and line up over in a smooth motion. That motion should be a small arc, not a rainbow motion.

An arc will deliver the fly to the target without everything piling up. A rainbow motion will have everything crashing down upon itself.

The goal of the lob is to make short casts with multi or heavy fly rigs. Having the fly rig on the ‘dangle’ downstream is more or less the back cast. It needs to be put into place by sweeping the rod to the side or drifting downstream. The forward cast is more of a flop, but by applying the power progressively, we can get the line to extend before touching the water.

Call the cast what you want, a flop or lob, but no matter what you call it, the cast is an important tool in your winter fishing arsenal.

Write to me or the publisher if there is a subject matter you would like to know more about.

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Local Rivers & Fly Fishing Chattooga River

r The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is now upon us. Crowded stores, busy streets, attending Christmas gatherings, and a little nip in the air and we say; let’s go fly fishing? This is a great time of year to be out on the Chattooga or Chauga Rivers to find some solitude away from all the hustle and bustle or make a little holiday gathering amongst friends and family, and catch a few trout while you are there. The rivers of the South Carolina mountains have been heavily stocked now from the South Carolina DNR, and many thanks go out to the folks of the Walhalla Fish Hatchery!

The Delayed Harvest areas are fishing extremely well with many large fish being landed on a wide variety of flies. The large brook trout, have beautiful spawning colors to them, and the rainbows have been averaging 12-16”, with a few larger ones landed as well. The larger browns have been a great pleasure to catch as well, with a great fight to land them. Our guides are putting people on large fish and taking great pictures to send them home with for bragging rights.

As winter arrives, so does the colder months of fishing for us here in Southern Appalachians. Maybe a frosty covering of white blanketing snow across the river banks, pos-

sibly a 60 degree day full of sunshine making us believe spring is near, or just the average temperature day is in store. At any rate, whichever day you may venture to the rivers, the water temperatures have dropped to the mid to high 40’s, and it’s time to fish a little deeper in the runs and seams, as that’s where the warmer water for the trout are, especially if the water temperatures drop any further. At times of higher water conditions, a pinch of weight will be needed to get your flies down to the holding fish.

Colder water temperatures leads to the fish becoming a bit lethargic, and streamer fishing will need to be slower as well. Slowing down your strip and pauses will be the key to success. The use of a sink tip leader will keep the streamers down in the water column, especially while retrieving them back when the water is higher and the temperatures are colder.

If you’re looking for that special gift for the fly fishing person, we can help you with everything from gift certificates, guided trips, to all the fly fishing gear someone could possible want under the tree.

We look forward to seeing everyone out on the rivers. Stop by and see us Tuesday-Saturday 7am5pm, and Sundays 7am-2pm.

From all of us here at Chattooga River Fly Shop, we want to wish everyone and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Captain Wayne Moore - Oconee On The Fly, Inc (706)-816-4281 www.oconeeonthefly.com / wmoore1700@outlook.com HappY Holidays!

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Local Lakes & Forecasts

Fly of the Month

Hot Head Mohair Leech

Lake chatuge

Eric Welch Welch’s Guide Service www.welchsguideservice. com 706-455-2323

by Jake Darling Unicoi Outfitters Jake@unicoioutfitters.com

Hook: Umpqua U301 Streamer Sz 10 or 12 Thread: Black or Olive Ultra Thread, 140 denier Bead: Rip Lips 1/8 Tungsten in Orange or Chartreuse Weight: 12-15 wraps of .020 lead wire Tail: Small piece of Marabou, olive or black in color Body: Leech Yarn, Olive or black in color The Mohair Leech consistently puts fish in the net during the winter months. I prefer to fish this pattern on a dead drift, but it also works well with swinging and stripping techniques.

This pattern offers dormant winter trout the calories that they are looking for during our colder months, and can often get a fish to take when other patterns seem to fail. Tie up a few of these in different colors and I am sure that they will become heavy hitters for you this winter.

Water temperature: 64 degrees, lake level: 5.5 feet below full pool, clarity: clear.

Fishing is getting good. Fall is here, the greatest time of the year to fish. With the lake dropping and cooler weather in the forecast, fishing on Lake Chatuge is fixing to bust wide open. There has been a pretty good topwater bite going on. I’m mainly running around the main body and main lake pockets looking for breaking fish and big pods of baitfish.

The baits I’m throwing are Strike King Sexy Dawg, KVD Splash, Ima Little Stik 135, Whopper Plopper and Cane Thumper. These fish are pushing the bait around in these pockets. After the breaking slows down, I’m following up with a Sebile Magic Swimmer 125 (custom painted), Nichols Flutter

Spoons in bobshell shad and Rage Swimmer in 2.5 and 3.75 on a 3/16 swimbait head, just blind casting till the bait regroups.

After the topwater bite slows down, I start looking for fish off deep points and over brush using my electronics. The baits I’m targeting these fish with is a dropshot with a 6” morning dawn Roboworm and a Z-Man TRD worm on a 1/16 Ned rig hook. This time of year, if you’re not a slow finesse fisherman, you can also catch some good size fish throwing an A-Rig, spinnerbait and RatL-Trap around docks, points and bank lines around the river bends.

Once the water temps get down around 55 degrees, we will start throwing a float-n-fly for spotted bass.

If you are looking for some great fall bass fishing, give Welch’s Guide Service a call. We’re your #1 guide service and we’ve been doing it since 2001. Good luck!

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Local Lakes & Forecasts

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By Brian Lee leebrian16 @yahoo.com Water temperature: 66-70 degrees, lake level: 2-3 feet below full pool, clarity: stained.

Bass fishing is still hot on Jackson. You can crank rocks and points all day and fill the boat. Early morning can be slow with the temps being low, but as the day warms, the fishing does as well. Depending on the water clarity will determine the color crankbait you’ll need to throw.

Spinnerbaits are catching a few fish in the warmest part of the day.

Jigs are productive around wood and docks. Again, water clarity determines the color as well. The weather can slow the bite as it cools off, but any warm days will make the bite even better.

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Local Lakes & Forecasts VOTED

Lanier Stripers

Forecast By: Steve Scott http://TeamLanier.wordpress.com/menu Every month I start out my report identifying the air and water temperatures, because these are so critical to locating stripers. December brings us a combination of ways to locate stripers in that they are just beginning to move from the deep water patterns back into the creeks.

This month I would concentrate on dropping downlines dead center in the creek channels and freelines with trout and blueback herring 100 feet out over the shallow banks farther back in the creeks, especially when the sun hits those areas. Be sure to be on the right side of the lake. The bite here will be over quickly, however, you basically have until 9am.

Water temperatures this month should be in the 54-57 degree range over most of the lake and a little cooler in the rivers up north. While the stripers will be moving to the creeks mid-lake, we should mention that there may be some stripers staging in large bays off the main channel from River Forks to Gainesville Marina. Use downlines here with the bait 2 to 3 cranks off the bottom.

Topwater is another favorite for this month. Be sure to have a 10-12 pound light line and use the ¼ ounce Bucktail jig without a trailer. As the baitfish come up to the surface around reef poles and submerged

points, cast your bait right into the mix but wait a few seconds before making a slow retrieve. You should hook up with a good size striper because the smaller ones are near the surface ready to strike, and by waiting, your bait will sink a little more to the larger stripers waiting below.

One of my favorite ways to fish is using planer boards, directional bobbers and weighted/unweighted freelines in the rivers. If you are far enough north, you can put your boards literally bank to bank. I like a spread of four planer boards, two on each side with the directional bobbers in the pockets allowing the use of a couple freelines out the back about 150 feet out. Make one weighted and the other unweighted. That way they should not cross each other unless you get one on. Remember, striper anglers need to be flexible, adaptable, always improvising, trying new ideas, methods, new patterns and techniques.

Tip of the month: whether you’re downlining, pulling lead core or umbrella rigs, be sure to go over your target from each direction. On my website at www.

TeamLanier.com, you can learn about bait care, electronics and methods for catching stripers.

If you are stumped about where to start, you can use my generic month by month Lanier log, check out current patterns, techniques and more tips.

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DECEMBER 2018

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Local Lakes & Forecasts Lake NOTTELY STRIPER By: Shane Goebel Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service & The Angler Magazine Fishing Team www.bigolfish.com 828-361-2021, 1-844-4-ANGLER

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december 2018

If you like the thrill of a 30-pound striper exploding on the end of your line as if a bowling ball was dropped on it from a two story building, then winter striper fishing in North Georgia is for you. These are by far the most wicked fighting freshwater fish around, and we are very fortunate to have several area lakes stocked with these monster fish. So, after opening all those Christmas gifts, come get your fish on with Lake Nottely and Lake Hiwassee’s #1 striper guide service, Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service. Also, remember all of our December half day trips and Christmas gift certificates are only $200. Check out our Facebook page or www.bigolfish.com for more details.

Lake Nottely is currently about 12 feet below full pool. Water temps are still in the lower 60’s. Lake clarity is clear and stained in the backs of creeks.

Striper fishing has been excellent lately. The bigger fish are really starting to come up in the water column and are headed towards shallow humps and into the creeks.

We’ve already had many stripers in the 15 to 25-pound range. Look for these big stripers anywhere from point 1 to point 9. This is a great time of year to start using bigger bait.

Start off by pulling planer boards and freelines early in the morning.

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Live bluebacks and gizzard shad are working best. Topwater bite has been wicked good and should be getting even better as the water continues to cool, so as you’re pulling baits, keep a Red Fin or a Spook tied on and work those banks and points. As the sun comes up and the day gets warmer, the fish will move a little deeper. Switch to downlines and weighted freelines. Remember, this is the time of year to keep an eye out for seagulls. Where there are birds, there is bait, and where there is bait, there are fish.

We want to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for an awesome year of fishing, and we hope to see you in 2019. Remember, December is a fantastic month for catching a lot of stripers and bass on this North Georgia lake. Give Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service a call and let the area’s #1 rated guide service put you on some of Lake Nottely’s best trophy stripers during the fishing trip of a lifetime. We are Blairsville, GA’s premier full-time guide service, specializing in striped and hybrid bass. We also serve Lakes Hiwassee and Chatuge (in North Carolina), and Lake Blue Ridge.

And for all your live bait and tackle needs, check out Hughes General Store in Blairsville, GA. They carry everything you need for a successful day of fishing and have the best live herring around. So, come fish with the pros for the opportunity to be featured in The Angler Magazine, and let us help you get your fish on.

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11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Forecasts west point

Bass: Fair - The shallow bite remains fair now and will hopefully improve even more, especially with higher than normal lake levels and continued cooler temps. Baits such as unweighted Flukes, Senkos, buzzbaits and Rebel Pop-R’s are catching bass. Try to fish these baits in or near cover or around schools of shallow baitfish. Fish the open water in the pockets with a Whopper Plopper, Rat-L-Trap or an A-Rig. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a jig handy to pitch around any wood cover. It won’t produce a lot of bites, but it’s a good way to catch a bigger fish. By the end of the month, especially if it cools off quickly, the big schools of spots mixed with hybrids, white bass and stripers can be caught on jigging spoons and drop-shot rigs and shaky head rigs on deeper offshore structures.

Linesides: Good - The downline bite with shad or bass shiners has improved as the water has cooled off. Freelining a live bait will also work at times. Most of the fish seem to be holding 20 to 30 feet deep when they are not schooling on the surface and are still moving around a good bit. Expect the topwater fishing to continue to improve and be best very early, very late or on overcast or rainy days as the water cools. Gulls and loons usually show up in November, which makes it easier to pinpoint schooling stripers.

A popping cork rig has been working on schooling 1 to 3-pound fish with an occasional bigger one mixed in. A 3/8 or 1/2-ounce white Rooster Tail, a chrome C.C. Spoon and a number of other small shad imitators have also been producing, and the colder it gets, the better the fishing usually is. As the water cools, a bucktail jig becomes very effective as well. The mouths of most creeks south of the 109 bridge and the edge of flats near the dam have been

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holding some fish. Trolling with mid-depth crankbaits and Alabama Rigs has also been producing some linesides in these same areas.

Crappie: Good - Try tight line fishing with minnows or a 1/16-ounce or smaller jig around bridge pilings, brush piles and blow downs in 6 to 15 feet of water. Concentrate on trees and brush that are close to the old creek channels.

Pitching or shooting docks with small tube or feather jigs around or under the docks is also a very good technique during fall. As usual,

crappie seem to love shade and cover. Cooler temps and the recent rain should improve the fishing even more. Yellow Jacket, Wolf and Whitewater Creeks are still producing good strings of crappie.

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11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Forecasts Fish the Ditches– December on Lake Lanier

Contributed By: Jim “Jimbo” Mathley www.jimboonlanier.com While the outside elements are not always favorable, December and throughout the winter can offer some outstanding angling on Lake Lanier. Big sacks of spotted bass can be taken during these cold-weather months if you approach the lake with an open mind and are willing to try some different techniques and locations. Let’s explore one productive approach to Lanier in December – the ditches.

Ditches: A ditch can be defined as a significant depression, typically narrow in width (2-15 feet), which offers a sharp depth change of 2 feet or more from the surrounding structure. Ditches can be naturally occurring or can be man-made. An example of a naturally occurring ditch would be a creek channel that feeds a pocket, cove or creek arm. A man-made ditch could result from a trench that was dug during the construction of a housing edition near the lake. These features exist in many places on Lake Lanier, and they hold fish during the winter months.

Ditches can be shallow or deep, and sometimes both depending on the length and location of the ditch. The lake will be down about 2 feet from full pool going into December, so I anticipate a normal year in terms of this bite.

Your Search: Use your Lowrance HDS electronics with 3D Structure Scan to find creek arms or pockets just off of the main creek channels that offer a deep vein extending back

into the arm or cove/pocket. The farther the deep water extends into the creek arm, the better. When you enter these areas and are searching for productive water, search for the presence of baitfish in and around the timber which you will find in the deeper water portions of the ditch.

If you do not find bait, you will not find fish. Leave and check other similar areas. Start your search in 40 feet of water in the mouth of the ditch and work your way back. Start fishing when you find the bait.

Technique: Once you find a creek arm that meets the above criteria, you must now determine how you are going to fish these potentially productive waters. Your approach should be determined by the location of the bait and time of day.

Early in the mornings, active fish will often be positioned shallower in the ditch, towards the back and sometimes right in the middle. Your presentation speed should vary directly with the water temperature.

The colder the water, the slower your presentation should be. Experiment with different lures and retrieve speed to determine the optimum strike provoking presentation on any given day. Following are some baits and techniques to try as you explore the ditches on Lake Lanier: SuperSpin – My favorite for this time of year. Cast this bait down the center of the ditches in which you have found bait and fish. Work the bait slowly on the bottom and be

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alert for very light bites.

Make sure to let the fish load up on the bait before you set the hook.

That is the toughest part of this approach.

It is easy to feel the first bite and immediately set the hook. Resist the temptation and keep reeling slowly until the fish “loads up”. Use a boot-tail type trailer as the water gets colder. The vibration of this type of trailer helps the fish zero in on the bait.

Crankbait – When the fish are shallower in the ditches, particularly in the mornings, a crankbait can be an effective search bait. Fan cast the back of pockets and ditches with a crankbait and, as with the Super Spin, work the bait slowly and deliberately. The more the bait bumps and deflects off the bottom and acts erratically, the better. Deep diving crankbaits such as the Spro Little John DD work great for this application, but don’t hesitate to experiment with other options in this arena as well, such as shallow and medium diving baits.

The Spro MD or Little John Baby DD are excellent options.

Jig/Worm – When the fish worm are not as active, a jig or fished in the ditches can be effective.

Work the baits SLOWLY on the bottom.

Make sure to pause the bait frequently and impart some pops and hops in the presentation.

This can be key to triggering strikes. Play with color selection on both the jig and worm.

I like the Chattahoochee Jigs and Cross Ball options for all of my bottom bumping presentations.

Use a Yamamoto Twin Tail trailer on the Chattahoochee Jig and a Zoom Trick worm as a trailer on a Cross Ball.

As the day progresses, particularly on sunny days, the bait

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and fish will move into the deeper portions of the ditch and will relate to the available cover, such as brush or standing timber. Presenting a Chattahoochee jig, drop-shot worm

by Lanier Baits or jigging spoon to these fish can be effective as well.

Make sure to experiment with different places and approaches as the lake fishes differently each day.

Stay flexible and enjoy more success.

Good luck and I’ll see y’all on the water! For more information or to book your winter trip, contact Jimbo on Lanier! 770-542-7764. Jimbo’s Website: www.jimboonlanier.com.

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Local Lakes & Forecasts

When Snook Turned Into Snapper By: Gary Turner The rod doubled over and it was all Jack could do to hang on to it until his big brother Jimmy got over to help him. Then our friend Jacob grabbed on too. Jacob was on the front grip of the rod, Jack in the middle reeling for all he was worth and Jimmy on the rod handle. It was quite a sight as they worked as a team reeling in something from the dark blue bottom 115 feet below. They managed to get the fish up for a bit but then the rod pulled down really hard. Jacob was pulling up, but it just bent deeper. The fish turned and headed back, so they gained line on the reel as he neared the boat again. With a magnificent pull, the line suddenly went slack.

At first it was thought the line had broken, but as Jack reeled it up there seemed to be a little weight left. Sure enough, out of the water emerged a jack crevalle head with the body bitten clean off. It seems their fish had been sharked! The fight may not have lasted but about 10 minutes, but man it was exciting!

I went on a business trip to central and southern Florida recently and thought I would visit a few customers and maybe squeeze in some fishing! While I was there, I stopped to see a customer and we toured the facility and talked about Purge Right purging compounds and various other business topics. Then I asked if he fished. He said yes, and I told him I wanted to catch some peacock bass and Mayan cichlid. He informed me that the canal across the street from them had both. That was great news!

Prior to coming to Florida, I had messaged a longtime friend, Chris Dean, who lives down here and told him I was planning to fish on this trip. He said he would like to go with me. We met at the canal and Chris’ son Jack caught the first Mayan cichlid. Then Chris caught one, and then I did. (Yes, it’s kind of like bream fishing but much more colorful.) We had a blast until it started getting dark. Chris did get one hit from something big, but it broke off

the line so, in our opinion, surely that was the peacock bass.

That evening over dinner we talked about possibly going fishing with Chris’ son, Jimmy. Chris finally got Jimmy on the line but Jimmy said his boat was in the shop.

My face sunk as the dreams I had of catching some giant snook vanished from my mind like ice cream on a hot day! My mind had been racing full of giant snook and then my subconscious heard boat and shop.

At that same moment my mind was racing, Google, guides, phone…

I spent the next half hour texting and calling guides, but with no luck.

Nobody had any trips open the next day for peacock, snook or anything else. Later Jimmy called back and said he could take us to some bank spots he knew where we could catch peacock or snook in the morning.

Things were looking up, and I went to sleep with visions of fish dancing in my head.

The next morning I checked with Chris to get the plan. No word from Jimmy yet, so I called on a couple of customers and then headed to Chris’ house. There we went to the nearby dock and looked at mullet schools of all sizes swimming by. Seeing fish makes you need to FISH! Still no word from Jimmy, so we went over to West Marine for a little retail therapy. Jimmy calls and says he has a friend, Jacob, who said we can go snook fishing on his boat!

Fireworks were going off in my head!

We loaded the boat, Jimmy, Jacob, Chris, Jack and myself, and headed through the mangrove jungle. Jimmy caught a tank full of bait as we made our way to the fuel dock. As we passed the inlet, we noticed the waves didn’t look too bad seaward. It was decided we would ride out and see how it was.

We started fishing and the first fish caught was the jack crevalle that was sharked! Then we caught several snappers, triggers, cobia, amberjacks, a remora that latched onto the side of the boat when we were

trying to release it, and an African pompano. That was my first African pompano. Wow, it had such an iridescent sheen and cool long dorsal fin.

We ran out of bait and headed back into the mangrove jungle to see if we could grab some more bait and a snook or two before dark.

Jimmy caught more bait, and we started casting to the snook. We had several hits, but none of them hooked up. All in all, that was one fun afternoon. We parted ways,

vowing to keep in touch and do this again soon. I headed back to Georgia the next day daydreaming of my next business trip to West Palm.

I’m not sure what next month’s article will be on, but remember, if you have an empty seat on your boat that needs filling, shoot me an email and maybe it will be about fishing with you! You can reach me at gary@purgeright.com . Please remember, if you are not going to eat it, don’t kill it

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DECEMBER 2018

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Come see what’s making waves for 2019! With hundreds of boats, thousands of marine products, and smart new technologies on display, there’s no better place to shop, compare and save.

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The Atlanta Boat Show Returns January 10-13 The 2019 Progressive® Insurance Atlanta Boat Show returns Jan. 1013, 2019, bringing more than 20,000 boating enthusiasts to downtown Atlanta to see the biggest and best in boating for four nautical-themed days.

WHAT: 2019 Progressive® Insurance Atlanta Boat Show WHEN: Jan. 10-13, 2019 Thursday-Friday, Jan. 10-11, 11 a.m.9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

WHERE: Georgia World Congress Center, Hall A, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd., Atlanta, GA 30313 For the Show’s 57th year, visitors to Hall A of the Georgia World Congress Center will find nearly 700 new boats, including houseboats, and enjoy interactive features and activities

for families, boaters and anglers of all experience levels, including: • $5-$5-$5 Boats & Brews Happy Hour: Red Hare Brewing will offer special brews to enjoy while “cruising” the Show. Thursday and Friday take advantage of $5 after 5 p.m. deals with $5 tickets, $5 valet parking and $5 drinks.

• Wake Up on the Water: The lake can literally be a step outside the front door when home is on a houseboat. Explore luxurious houseboats at this year’s Show and see how they can be customized to tastes and needs.

• Nautical Knowledge: Lanier Technical College returns for a special Career Day on opening day where prospective students will learn how to become boating and industry professionals, and get a first look at

the new Hall County Campus and state-of-the-art Marine Technology program.

• NEW Touch-a-Boat Tour: Junior skippers can tour the Show floor, climbing aboard a variety of boats along the way. Kids can talk to captains, snap a pic at the helm and learn the ropes of life on the water. Each skipper in training will receive their own Atlanta Boat Show passport to collect stamps at each of the 10 stops, with prizes for those that collect them all.

• Excel with the Experts: From tried and true methods to the latest techniques, professional fishermen, sailors and boaters will host seminars on a variety of topics for beginners to adept anglers.

• Deals & Steals: Many of the dealers will be offering their low-

est prices of the year, so that just as temperatures start to rise, boats will be ready to launch.

Make plans to stop by Georgia’s biggest boating display. For tickets, times and more information, visit AtlantaBoatShow.com.

TICKETS: Ages 13 and older: $15 at the box office; Youth 12 and under: FREE (when accompanied by a paid adult) • $3 off tickets purchased in advance online • All active, veterans, retired military, and law enforcement personnel and firefighters receive $3 off admission at the box office with valid ID. CONNECT: Online: www.AtlantaBoatShow.com, Social: follow @AtlantaBoatShow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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DECEMBER 2018

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Local Lakes & Forecasts Lake blue ridge

SEMINOLE

Forecast By:

by Paul Tyre paultyrefishing@yahoo.com Water temperature is 66 degrees with the water stained.

Hurricane Michael sure put a beating on Lake Seminole. Most of the standing timber on the lake was blown down and a lot of vegetation on the flats and near the shoreline was pulled up and washed up on the shoreline from the high winds and waves.

The bass fishing was slow the first couple of weeks after the storm but has steadily been getting better as the bass continue their fall feed for the winter. If you’re planning a trip to Lake Seminole, don’t leave home without your spinnerbaits and crankbaits. My favorite spinnerbait is a Strike King Tandem 3/8 ounce white/chartreuse with silver and gold blades fished on a steady retrieve over around the grass.

The spinnerbait is a great shad imitator and has been producing the best on cloudy and windy days. Crankbaits have been producing well, especially in the square bill variety. A Strike King 1.5 square bill in citrus shad is one of my favorite crankbaits to fish on Lake Seminole in the stained water. This square bill has a great hunting action to it and deflects off cover well.

As the water temperature continues to drop, the hybrid and striper fishing will get even better. Some nice ones have been caught recently on Alabama rigs on the main lake.

The crappie have been starting to bunch up and are holding in 10 to 12 feet of water adjacent to the river channel and are being caught on minnows and jigs. Wingate’s Lunker Lodge suffered terrible damage during Hurricane Michael, but that didn’t stop the campers from crappie fishing. We’ve seen some nice ones crossing the docks.

Now is the time to start booking your guided fishing trips on Lake Seminole for Christmas gift and spring. To book a trip or for more up-to-date information, please call me, Paul Tyre, at (850)264-7534 or email me atpaultyrefishing@yahoo. com.

By: Shane Goebel Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service & The Angler Magazine Fishing Team www.bigolfish.com 828-361-2021, 1-844-4-ANGLER Escape the holiday madness and head to one of the best smallmouth and spotted bass lakes in North Georgia. The temperatures may be cold and bitter, but this beautiful mountain lake in Blue Ridge Georgia offers some awesome fishing possibilities from trophy smallmouth to hard fighting spotted bass and walleye.

Currently the lake is down 8 feet below full pool, and water temps are in the low 60’s. Water clarity is clear on the main lake and slightly stained in the creeks The smallmouth and spots have been feeding strong. There has been an excellent early morning topwater bite all over the lake. Work rocky points, ledges and shallow areas that have been holding bait. These guys have been hitting just about anything you can throw at them—Spooks, Torpedoes, jerkbaits, and buzzbaits have been some big producers.

Live bluebacks on planer boards and weighted freelines have also been working well. The fish should move deeper through mid-day. Try downlining bluebacks and large bass

minnows to hook up with the larger smallmouths and largemouths that have been clinging on the bottom of points.

Now that the water temps are getting cooler, the walleye are starting to come up from the deeper water column. These Lake Blue Ridge walleyes will head out of the channel toward the river and shallow ledges.

Look for these fish in the 20 to 30 feet range. Good December techniques to target walleye are slow trolling jointed Shad Raps and live bluebacks. With walleye being so sensitive to light, the early morning and dusk bite is going to be your best chance catch these boys.

We want to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Give Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service a call and let the area’s #1 rated guide service put you on some of Lake Blue Ridge’s best fish during the fishing trip of a lifetime. We also serve Lakes Hiwassee, Chatuge, and Nottely.

And for all your live bait and tackle needs, check out Hughes General Store in Blairsville, GA. They carry everything you need for a successful day of fishing and have the best live herring around. So, come fish with the pros for the opportunity to be featured in The Angler Magazine, and let us help you get your fish on!

Lake SINCLAIR

Lake Sinclair is down 1.26 feet with the water stained and the temperature in the low 70s.

Bass fishing is good. This lake warms fast once the sun comes out and this is a good time to use a Lucky Craft spinnerbait. Try a Weedless Wonder head and a Zoom trick worm in red glitter or June bug. Shad Raps will work as the bass are feeding on shad in

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the pockets. Use the Lowrance Structure Scan technology and you can spot the bait balls up to 200 feet away. The bass will be close by.

Try a Spook or Sammy in the mornings on seawalls and grass beds near the mouths of the pockets. Also, run a 3/4 ounce Rat-L-Trap down the center of the pockets for fish that are schooling on the baitfish near the creek ditches. Flip docks in the Little River area with a Texas rigged Zoom Trick Worm in June bug or black/red for fish in the main/sunny part of the day.

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11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Forecasts Clarks Hill Striped Bass, Hybrids and Crappie

by Capt Tony Shepherd and Capt Rocky Fulmer Little River Guide Service lrguideservice@gmail.com (706) 210-3474 Fall fishing for hybrids and stripers has been terrific. Most of our catches are still coming on down rod herring just off the main river channels, but

with the surface temperature at 63 degrees and dropping, the turnover should be complete and hungry fish should be predictable and cooperative throughout the winter.

Give us a call at 706-210-3474 and let the professionals put you on the fish or visit our website at www. littleriverguideservice.net.

Competitively priced full-day fishing charters for all levels of experience, equipment, bait, tackle and fish cleaning provided.

Fish from the most comfortable, safe and stable boat on the lake.

Little River Guide Service is a three boat operation targeting stripers and hybrid bass on Clarks Hill Lake.

Capt Tony Shepherd and Capt Rocky Fulmer.

(706) 210- 3474

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Local Lakes & Forecasts lake lanier striperS Forecast by: Clay Cunningham www.catchingnotfishing.com 770-630-2673 It’s been a fun November here on Lanier and I’m hoping the topwater bite continues into December. Over the past few weeks, the Sebile Magic Swimmer has been hot in the 110 and 125 size in various colors and even caught a few fish on the 145.

The new colors are working great on the stripers and spotted bass. Be sure to throw this bait on 10-pound Trilene Big Game or Trilene 100% Flourocarbon. Match this to a 3000 Penn Conflict II on a 7 foot medium Fenwick rod and you are good to go. All you have to do on the Magic Swimmer is cast and retrieve at a moderate speed. The lure does the rest.

As the water cools this December, look for the fish to move into the creeks. They are actually already making a move toward the creeks now. How deep the fish will be in the creeks is hard to say. The weather is

a big factor on how deep. Last winter the fish stayed shallow and fed on medium shiners. Hopefully, this same pattern develops this December. If the medium shiner bite develops up shallow, be sure to rig up small hooks and light line. In a nutshell, match up a 7 foot medium light action Shakespeare Striper Rod with a Penn Squall 20 Linecounter or the new Penn Fathom II Linecounter with 15-pound Trilene Big Game. Then add a five foot leader of 10-pound Trilene 100% Flourocarbon with a Spro Power Swivel and a Gamakatsu size 6 light wire Octopus hook. These hooks are small but incredibly strong and sharp. Look for gulls, loons or schooling fish to give away the key areas. Then pull these baits with the trolling motor about 1 mph around the surfacing fish.

Curious to see if trout makes a comeback this year. The last two years it has been medium shiners. Do not be surprised if trout becomes the bait of choice again this winter. Every year is different. The fish may move deep and trout be the bait of choice. If

they do, all you need are Capt. Mack swivel sinkers and some 2/0 and 3/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hooks to rig up a Carolina rig. For details on the Carolina rig, talk to the guys in the local tackle shops like Hammonds

Fishing and Oakwood Bait and Tackle.

The boat traffic has vanished and it is time to catch fish. The peace and solitude on the lake in the winter is hard to beat.

“As the water cools this November, look for the fish to move into the creeks. They are actually already making a move toward the creeks now.”

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HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Forecasts

Cover the Entire Water Column

By Capt. Cefus McRae Nuts & Bolts Fishing Series

By this time of year, the majority of our Southeastern lakes and impoundments have ‘turned-over’; meaning both the surface water and deep water have mixed together providing oxygen throughout the water column.

As a result, fish can now move freely at all depths and become more scattered compared to their summertime haunts.

As anglers, we have to adjust our tactics to this phenomena, or we’ll simply go ‘fishing’ instead of ‘catching’. Let me share some of the tactics you can use to help narrow down the search for fish and potentially increase the number of fish that stretch your string.

1. Find the kitchen. Game fish still have to eat. The fact they can move throughout the water column means bait can also move comfortably all over the lake. Put your sonar on its widest beam, 80 khz, to see the widest swath of subsurface area possible.

Now is a good time to get more familiarized with the SideScan features of your sonar as well. You can see bait, structure and game fish as far as a couple hundred feet from the boat.

2. Use search pattern lures like crankbaits and spinnerbaits that let you cover a lot of water quickly. If fish are there and ready to bite, they will let you know.

3. A week or so after the turnover, most fish will get back to their normal fall patterns, so definitely hit the places you found to be productive in the fall.

4. Because there’s available oxygen and relatively consistent temperatures throughout the water column, fish can (and will) go to deeper water zones including ledges, roadbeds and standing timber. So mark those on your chartplotter and fish both the deepest spots as well as the sharp inclines to shallower water.

And while you’re there, drop a Capt.

Mack’s Super Spoon down to entice a bite.

5. Cover the entire water column. Some baits like small shad and herring will congregate in mere inches of water, and game fish know this is a prime area to corral their meals and fill their bellies. Backs of creeks can be excellent catching.

6. Similarly, deep channels can

be productive staging zones as the fish acclimate to their new-found territories, and now is a great time to troll deep. Even though you may be finding fish in 15 feet of water, it’s not uncommon for the monsters to be hanging deeper. So dust off your downriggers and deep diving plugs and drag them for a few hundred yards or so. Umbrella rigs can also be quite effective.

7. Look for the birds and nervous water. When you see whirling gulls actively doing aerobatics over the water, quietly maneuver your boat within casting distance or troll around the edges of the excitement.

8. Overcast, nasty days can be your best fishing. Low pressure systems tend to put fish on the feed, and they can be active almost all day long if the skies are overcast.

9. Your return is proportionate to your effort. Big lakes like Lanier, Murray, Hartwell, and Clarks Hill offer plenty of area for

fish to move around. You need to do the same until you locate the honey holes. Mark those down because they’ll probably be in the same places this time next year.

10. And for the most contemporaneous knowledge of what’s happening and where, stop by your local tackle store and simply ask. Most of the time you can get reliable intel from these folks because us anglers just can’t seem to keep a secret.

Learn to cover the entire water column and understand the likely places to wet a hook, and you’ll have more productive days in the cold days to come.

D

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Local Lakes & Forecasts

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Coping With Transitions

By Billy Darby In the Deep South, December is the month to expect fish to be scattered from deep to shallow and back again within just a few days.

The water has been in a cooling trend for most of November, but it is the freezing cold or even the teens that December brings that plummets the water temperature to frigid. Sudden and dramatic barometric pressure changes that fish have not experienced in months can alter their demeanor.

All game fish movement is dictated by the many variables that Mother Nature imparts on us with unexpected severity. Water temperatures and oxygen levels play a big part in any particular species’ comfort zone, including prey. Flash floods or heavy rainfall in concentrated areas will cause water clarity and P.H. factors to jump like a ping-pong ball. Almost all weather related frontal systems are followed by strong, cold northwest winds which rapidly change the water surface and subsurface temperatures.

Excessive rainfall can create higher water levels with more generation

time on electricity producing impoundments, which disturbs the norm for the ledge holding patterns.

Fish holding structure also becomes askew with aquatic vegetation diminishing and only sparse patches remaining in areas that were previously matted. Fish that were relating to this mentioned structure are sticking tightly to the remains or migrating to a different holding pattern. Prey are desperately searching for cover. Predator and prey alike scatter to the far reaches of big reservoirs and even in small lakes in search of food and tranquility.

It is during December more than any other month when anglers must be versatile and adapt to the changes at hand. Changes in type lures, lure sizes, retrieve variations and even colors is mandatory for success. It is not so much as “match the hatch,” as not much is hatching in December, as it is with matching wits against Mother Nature and whatever species you are pursuing that proves them superior.

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Forecast By: Capt. Robert Eidson First Bite Guide Service 770-827-6282 eidson6260@att.net www.firstbiteguideservice.com Linesides fishing is very good!

The fall bite is here, and it looks like it’s going to be a good one.

The north end of the lake is still producing some nice stripers along with good numbers of white bass. The bigger stripers are eating gizzard shad fished on planer boards and freelines both right at sunup and again at sundown. Look for these fish from Little River up to Fields Landing and as far south as Kelloggs.

The hybrids and white bass are really starting to school and are

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blowing up in the mouth of the creeks on the south end. Good starting points are Clark to Stamp Creek. There are also some good schooling activity in the main channel from the dam to the s-turns. These busting fish will eat almost anything you throw at them.

When these fish go down, they will still bite threadfins and small gizzards fished on downlines as well as spoons. Bigger bait is the key to catch these bigger fish. Striper Soup has plenty of fresh shad of all sizes in stock.

The sea gulls are starting to show up and will make finding the fish a little easier in the up coming months.

Troller’s keep pulling your Mack Farr u- rigs 60 -120 feet behind the boat at speeds between 2.4 - 3.1 miles an hour.

HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Forecasts All I Want for Christmas…

By: Ryan Kennedy YouTube: Ryan Kennedy Fishing Instagram: ryankfishing ryankfishing@gmail.com A 12-point buck and a shiny new truck. A new Hoyt bow, and a bass boat ready to tow. A house on a piece of land, and even a brand-new tree stand. You make the payments and I’ll use the goods. Why are we still talking? I should get back in the woods. Just leave my presents under the tree, and before you even ask, yes, they are all for me.

As an avid outdoorsman, I don’t think I have ever had much trouble coming up with a hefty Christmas list. If I let my wheels really get to turning, the list will be long enough to reach from my house straight up to the North Pole. Most of our loved ones can have us grinning ear to ear with a one-stop-shop at Bass Pro Shops or Cabela’s for Christmas, but there is so much more to this season than the gifts under the tree.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love getting my hands on the latest and

greatest in the outdoor industry as much as the next guy, but one thing will never change. The shine of new gear will wear off eventually, but the memories will never fade. When I think back on my most cherished memories in the outdoors, I think of unforgettable times with friends and family hunting and fishing. I wouldn’t trade the memories of fishing with my father after church on Sundays out of an old V-Hull for anything in the world. Sure, it wasn’t the fastest or shiniest rig on the water, but if that old boat could talk, I would sit there for hours just to re-live some of the best times of my life.

Outside of the fishing memories, my favorite memory of hunting isn’t even a special kill, but rather my dad showing me how to field dress my first deer. I have gone back to that memory on every harvest since then, and it never fails to put a big grin on

my face while I’m cleaning my deer.

I am so blessed to have been able to grow up with God fearing parents that raised me and my brother in a way that opened our eyes to the Lord’s wonderful creations all around us.

I’m keeping this article short and sweet as I reflect on the memories and people that made me the man I am today. So, I want to thank my brother for being the best friend I could have ever asked for and for always being there for me in the good times and the bad. I want to

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thank my mother for being the most kind-hearted woman I have ever met and for her never-ending love and support that she has given to me and my family. Finally, I want to thank my father for being the hardest working man that I will ever know and for being willing to sacrifice anything for my family. I love you all!

Christmas gifts are great, but there’s nothing like family. I wish each and every one of you a Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year.

GOD BLESS!

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Contributed By: Jay Striker www.jaystriker.com Many have asked my thoughts on all of the changes taking place in the fishing industry this year. The changes I speak of is the new competition bass fishing trail developed

by Major League Fishing (MLF) called the Bass Pro Tour (BPT). Major League Fishing has changed the way bass fishing is operating. Some of the biggest names in the sport have committed to the new tour, and it’s exciting. This type of change does not take place every day. If I had to describe what this does to the fishing industry, it’s like inventing the light bulb. Let’s look at some of the ways MLF is different, how it is good for the sport and how other competing trails can rebuild.

MLF is different in many ways, but the essential part of the concept is that the stress on the fish is reduced significantly. The idea works like this; when a fish is caught, it is weighed and released right away back in the lake. The fish is scored by the official and recorded in a score tracker. The score tracker is announced each time an angler catches a fish to other competitors.

The competition is stiff, and it consists of some of the top anglers in the world with names like Iaconelli, Van Dam, Reese, Daniels Jr. and Vinson.

Another big thing is that the Bass Pro Tour has no entry fees. This is a big plus for anglers that compete at this level.

MLF Bass Pro Tour made their entry to the dominant platform of bass fishing out of necessity. Let me explain. As a tournament bass angler, it is really expensive to compete and win enough money consistently to earn a decent living, especially with the increase in prices and the decrease in payouts on the FLW and BASS circuits. To me and many other anglers, we have to ask if traveling all over the country, paying high entry fees and expenses is a good business move. For many, that business model is no longer sustainable, and that’s why I think the MLF Bass Pro Tour will be a welcomed tour. The Bass Pro Tour gives what professional anglers have always wanted and that is to compete for prizes in

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which the fisherman did not have to pay and get paid even if you don’t win. Fishermen now can honestly go to work and earn a living without the added stress of having to cut a check at each event. It’s one of the biggest perks of the new BPT format.

If BASS and FLW have not learned from this move that MLF has made, then they will be in big trouble. Although BASS has always enjoyed the fact that it had the best anglers in the country with the best TV shows and the best locations to fish, it has now found itself having to put together a new marketing plan to attract talent back to its ranks. If BASS wants to recover from this setback, it would be in their best interest to now lower their fees, pay more places, and start recruiting new anglers to the upper ranks. We have a ton of high school and college students coming into the picture. This is a good time for FLW and BASS to lower fees, drive up their numbers, and provide an experience in fishing, and not just be a pressure cooker for those who can compete in a win type format. If BASS and FLW don’t change their business model, they will soon become obsolete. Or even worse, they may have to merge to win against the powerhouse that is happening in MLF Bass Pro Tour.

Having the MLF Bass Pro Tour is one of the most significant moves this sport has seen and it took the industry by storm. It is apparent that the storm was much needed to bring light back onto the anglers and give them a platform so they can do a day’s worth of work for a day’s worth of pay. I hope that this new format that MLF brings to the table is a new standard moving forward. MLF is different, it’s less stress on the fish, and if BASS and FLW have not learned from this move by MLF and start a rebuilding process, they will soon end up as obsolete as Blockbuster.

I look forward to watching many of my friends compete on tour.

Please take to some time to follow me on social media www.jaystriker. com.

HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Forecasts Lake MARTIN Provided By: David Hare Alex City Guide Service 256-401-3089 As I write the forecast for December on Lake Martin, I actually just got off the water and had very productive striper day before the rain storms ran us off the water. The photo of my Hummingbird Helix 12 that’s posted here with this article is showing a massive school of stripers and bait that I was fishing in today.

This is a very good example of what you need to be looking for in December to have a successful day on Lake Martin. These fish ranged from surfacing on top to being very deep.

I caught stripers out of this school today using topwater, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and then even trolled some lures thru them just to see what all they would hit. They wore out everything I approached them with.

I know I didn’t mention my favorite which is live bait, but I actually was just proving a point that when the bite is on, other ways of fishing for stripers will work for you. But I promise you that very seldom you’ll

see our guide boats out without having live bait ready and available for the ultimate trip of a lifetime.

This month keep a keen eye out for fish on top by watching for them to bust the top, birds diving on baitfish, or an occasional bald eagle swooping down on a fish. Don’t overlook the diving ducks feeding on baitfish, and you’ll find huge schools of stripers and maybe even schools of spotted bass.

December is one of my favorite months for not just quality stripers but huge quantities. In a short six hour trip last December, I had a group of clients that boated and released 67 fish (stripers and bass) in 3 1/2 hours. It was as exciting as it gets. We had numerous December trips that we boated and released 40 plus fish. Get out of the house and go have some fun this December, and it’ll make you forget about all the stress your day to day life may have.

Save time on your Christmas shopping this year and get your favorite person, boss, or better yet your family, a gift certificate from Alex City Guide Service. Call or text me and I’ll handle it. Merry Christmas to all of you!

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Local Lakes & Forecasts Lake Eufaula

carters lakE

Forecast By: Eric Crowley Lake & Stream Guide Service (706) 669-4973

lakeandstreamguideservice@gmail.com

Water temperature: 64 degrees, lake level: full, clarity: 8 feet.

The striper and hybrid bite is picking up with the cooler water temperatures, and we are starting to see fish moving into the shallow water chasing schooled up pods of baitfish. Look for fish moving into the back of the creeks and of the river in 30 to 50 feet of water.

Planer boards with live trout, shad or alewifes are a great choice.

I like to fish my bait anywhere from 50 to 75 feet behind the board with no weight or a very small split shot.

Pulling from the backs of the creeks out towards the main lake at 1 to 2 miles per hour has been the ticket.

We’ve seen several nice hybrids in the 10 to 12-pound range, stripers up to 15-pounds and lots of green fish mixed in. This time of year, you don’t have to concentrate on the early morning bite with the cooler water temps, as the fish will eat early midday and right before dark.

The artificial bite is still good was Captain Mack’s umbrella rigs and Chipmunk jigs pulled 125 to 175 feet behind the boat. Working these artificials from two and a half to three and a half miles per hour has put a lot of fish in the boat in the last few weeks. Look for the shallow water bite to pretty much take over in the next month.

Have fun and stay warm.

“The striper and hybrid bite is picking up with the cooler water temperatures, and we are starting to see fish moving into the shallow water chasing schooled up pods of baitfish.”

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By Capt Sam Williams hawk184@earthlink.net 334-687-6266 Water temperature: low to mid 60’s, lake level: 188.29 msl, clarity: slight stain.

The water is slowly rising, the shore cover is still present and the baitfish are continuing to hold under these areas. The creeks are still hot early using popping frogs, spinner and buzzbaits. Following up a miss on the topwater missed hit with a quick Sinko presentation has been paying off. Blue/green and watermelon are a good choice of colors.

The deeper fish are doing well on Carolina rigged soft plastics, jigs and deep cranks. With the cooler water, the bass are more active and hitting well.

Crappie are still suspended on deeper cover at 10 to 18 feet. Minnow tipped jigs are a good choice.

Catfish are getting active on jugs with cut bait. Bottom fishing with worms and shrimp are doing well.

Work the drops in the creeks and the river ledges. Panfish are always hungry around the shore cover and blow downs. This gives the bank fishermen a good opportunity for a mess of fresh fish for the supper table.

Bass fishermen, remember the

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advice from the Georgia DNR biologist earlier this year. We need to remove the spotted bass from Lake Eufaula. There is no longer a minimum size limit on spots, as well as some of the smaller largemouth.

They have become over populated with the catch and release. This will help us grow bigger bass. We also have a great opportunity to help Auburn research by getting involved in the Swab A Hawg program. Pick up a swab kit at most bait shops in the Eufaula area and swab the tongue on all the largemouth you catch four pounds and bigger. The info is in the kit as well as a stamped envelope to send in your swab. You will be entered into a monthly drawing and a grand prize for the annual drawing.

The results from this study will help both GA and AL DNR go after funding to stock Lake Eufaula with the Florida strain of largemouth. These Florida bass will grow faster and live longer, resulting in much bigger fish.

The program has been successful on Lake Jordan for several years. Let’s help in these efforts to make our fishery better.

Please remember to check out www.alabamachildrensclassic.org for your opportunities to support our efforts to support our veterans, our children and Niemann-Pick disease research for terminal children.

God Bless and good fishing.

HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Tournaments Lake Oconee

The lake is full and clear over most of the lake with a light stain up the rivers. The temperature is 65 to 68 degrees. Bass fishing is slow but improving. A buzzbait at first light will still produce for the first hour of daylight. Soft plastics fished under docks and around wood structure in the mouths of the coves mid-lake will produce during daylight hours.

Crankbaits fished around bridge riprap will also produce when Georgia Power is pulling water in the afternoons. Texas rigged worms fished around wood in the rivers above I-20 have been producing on windblown banks.

Striper fishing is good. The strip-

ers are starting to show up around the river bend area of the lake. The live bait bite has started. Down lines as well as flat lines will produce. Fish are also showing up in the mouths of the coves. Use your Lowrance to locate the schools of bait and the stripers will be close by. Now is the time to go bait hunting. Find large schools of bait and the fish will be close by. The sea gulls have not shown up as of yet.

Crappie fishing is fair to good.

This is the best fishing on Oconee right now. Long lining (trolling) will produce some nice catches. You will need to run your jigs about 10 to 12 feet deep. Down lining crappie minnows into tree tops and on ledges on the main lake at 10 feet deep will also produce a lot of fish. Use your Lowrance to locate the fish in the tree tops and then drop your bait down to the fish.

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Local Lakes & Forecasts Kim’s Kitchen

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Consider the beer marinade. Because the enzymes in beer break down fiber, it makes for a powerful tenderizer for meat and fish, while its hops and sugar combine to create a bittersweet flavor. Because the water in beer keeps food moist and its sugar caramelizes in reaction to heat, using beer as a baste adds a nutty sweetness, deep-brown color, and slight crispiness to almost anything roasted or thrown on the grill.

Beer makes a great cooking liquid, too. The northern French and the Belgians use beer, a little bacon, and chopped onion to slow-simmer brisket into succulent submission for the cheap, classic, and soul-satisfying beef carbonate. The Germans use it in cakes, soups, and for poaching bratwurst. And bakers everywhere substitute beer for milk or water in breads, coffee cakes, and doughnuts because the bubbles help leaven the final product.

But the great thing about cooking with beer is that with a little intuition it’s hard to screw up. That tang in your seasonal pumpkin ale? Pair it with grated cheddar to make cheese fondue. Those sweet notes in your Upland Strawberry or Lambic? They make a fine addition to barbecue sauce.

Just trust your taste buds. If there’s one category of flavormemory most guys have in spades, it’s the one for Sierra Nevada, Bud and every other brew we’ve been savoring our entire lives.

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HappY Holidays!

11/14/18 8:01 AM

Local Lakes & Tournaments Cloud Fishing

Contributed By: Noey Vinyard

End of Summer Signals Time for Change The whitetail fawns born this spring are losing their spots and their coats are darkening so they will blend in better with their surroundings. The bucks have scraped off their summer velvet and are leaving their mark on every sapling they come across. The young hawks are sharpening their hunting skills, and the migratory birds are starting to hear the whispers from their southern haunts. The chubby groundhogs are getting themselves even fatter, preparing for a long winter sleep, and the squirrels are busy gathering nuts and thickening the liners of their nest against the winter’s cold.

It’s a time of change. It’s a time the blossoms of summer are replaced by a different kind of beauty.

The days are getting shorter, and the temperatures have made the weekend family outings to the beach a thing of the past. If you are an avid hunter, then some of your weekend is already spoken for, at least for the next few months or so. It’s a lot harder to take the family hunting than it is fishing, so it’s a time of year I have to work harder on spending time with my family. If you find yourself in the same situation, maybe I can give you some ideas.

If your kids own a video game, which most do, you can share hours with your children playing games they enjoy. It is been proven that video games will not only help a child sharpen their mind, but increase their hand and eye coordination. And it certainly more fun to play a video game inside than playing tag outside in 30 degree weather.

This time of year, the library can really help you out. If you and your children enjoy books about the outdoors, I would highly suggest authors like Jack London

and James Herriot. You might be amazed at how much fun it can be for a family to read these kinds of books together and even more fun discussing them at the dinner table.

Winter is also a good time to catch up on family-oriented movies you may have missed out in the hustle and bustle of summer. One of my favorite nights of the week is movie night, and a rainy, cold day is another excellent time for movies. One thing to keep in mind when you’re trying to find something to do with your family is not to plan the whole day for them or think that you must keep them entertained all the time.

Something to think about though is the fact that just because you and your family are in the same house does not automatically mean you are spending time together. People can be in the same house for a whole day and not spend any real time together at all. Thirty minutes can go a long way, and if you make the effort to make those minutes count with your kids, you might be surprised at just how much you enjoy them.

Play tea party with your daughter for 30 minutes. Take 30 minutes of your day by helping your son build a model. Try talking with your spouse for 30 minutes. Not one of your everyday chats, but one of those talks you used to have when you are first getting to know each other.

Yes, fall is here and winter is just around the corner, and the blooms and fireworks of summer are replaced by golden leaves and snowstorms. There’s a special beauty to winter, just as there is a special beauty to messy days spent indoors. You just have to look for it. See you next month, Blue Ridge.

“It’s a time of change. It’s a time the blossoms of summer are replaced by a different kind of beauty.”

HappY Holidays!

DEC2018 ATL.indd 33

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Local Lakes & Forecasts lake lanier crappie

Lake Burton

Forecast by: Capt. Wes Carlton Georgia Lake Fishing 770-318-9777 www.georgialakefishing.com Water temperature: 61 degrees, lake level: down 2 feet, clarity: clear.

Bass: The bass bite has been steady over the last few weeks. We have been catching some really big largemouth and spotted bass. The shallow topwater bite has been great!

We have been starting our morning off in the backs of creeks throwing swimbaits and jerkbaits. Herring color Sebille swimbaits have been the best lately. We have been following up the swimbait cast with a Spring Mcstick for those skeptical fish. After an hour or so of fishing the creeks, try working long points at the mouths of creeks.

This bite should continue over the next Forecast By: Dan Saknini, couple of weeks until we see those 50 Lanier Crappie Angler’s Club. degree water temps. www.laniercrappieanglers.net Brown Trout: The trout bite has been really good the last few weeks with a lot of fresh stocked brown Water temperature is in the trout that the DNR fisheries stocked! upper 60’s, but with colder weather Try working the backs of creeks with combined with cold rain, I suspect a white or black Rooster Tail. A fast it will drop quickly. If you are retrieve works best with the brown fishing in the northern lake areas, trout. Don’t be surprised if you catch you will notice even cooler water a brown in the 5-8 pound range. We temperatures and a change in the have caught several big fish lately up water color. We are experiencing the in the shallows. Look for the trout to typical fall pattern a few weeks later slowly make their way towards the in the year, but fishing conditions main lake over the next few weeks. The are good to excellent. trolling bite should be turning on in a Stand-alone brush piles are still our major targets. The ideal couple of weeks.

Walleye: The walleye bite has been brush piles are currently at twenty STORE IN toTHE AREA thirty five foot depths. Your a LARGEST little slow but OUTDOOR should be picking up foot in the next few weeks with some cooler downscan electronics can help you determine whether fish are holding water temps

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Bobby Garland in different colors, Crappie Assassin, Jiffy Jigs and tube jigs are all working equally well for us. If you have a favorite jig, just try it. Chances are it will work. If you are fishing with someone, try using different jigs and see what’s working best at that location. Expect the bite to continue getting stronger as the LARGEST OUTDOOR STORE IN THE water temperature drops.

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Local Lakes & Forecasts Looking for Holiday Gifts for that Outdoor Person in Your Life?

Dr. Andrew Cox

It is December, and many of us are busy searching for Christmas gifts for family members, friends, acquaintances, and associates. We may spend hours fighting the crowds around malls and other stores looking for the perfect gift. The frustrations associated with searching for gift ideas takes the joy out of the holiday season.

You can ease some of the holiday season frustration through some simple holiday planning and gift giving strategies. For some of your angling or hunting friends and acquaintances, you could consider handcrafted gifts. Such gifts could include food items that you have perfected over years of preparation.

Food items such as beef or deer jerky, preserved fruits and vegetables, preserves and jams to mention a few items, can make good gifts.

These gifts are good for angling and hunting friends that enjoy snacking while pursuing their sport.

Making and providing your handcrafted flies, jigs, and other lures such as spinnerbaits and plugs are other gift ideas. These can be made in hard to find colors or sizes, and you can place these handcrafted items in a nice box for presentation purposes.

If you allow time for searching, selection, and shipping, the internet can be a highly useful and effective holiday gift search engine. Searching the on-line catalogs of tackle and outdoor outlets such as Tackle Warehouse, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Amazon and similar retailers can suggest potential gift ideas for the outdoors person. Some smaller outdoor retailers can also be identified through internet searches that sell specialty outdoor equipment. Such online searching will save countless hours and expense spent in searching outdoor stores in person. You will most likely find a better selection of items online than found in person at area retailers. This is not a strategy for last minute shopping, however. You have to allow time for shipping unless you are willing to pay the extra expense of overnight delivery.

Lastly, consider shopping at locally owned angling or sporting goods stores. Many times these are small businesses that are the foundation of America’s economy. They seem to be having a difficult time these days competing with the large, national, so called “big box” stores, as well as online sales that have cut into their market share. Though prices may be somewhat higher, there are advantages to shopping at these smaller outlets. Customer service is almost always excellent. Staff are knowledgeable and can provide advice on special fishing situations or tackle needs. Many times they carry tackle and product brands not found at big box tackle outlets. Over the course of my travels, I almost always browse through the small “bait and tackle” stores perusing their tackle inventory. Though they may have a small inventory, sometimes one can find classic, left over or discontinued stocks of lures and similar products no longer available at the big box or online sales outlets.

Unfortunately, gift giving and purchases add to the stresses associated with the holiday season. Maybe some of the ideas presented within this article may lessen some of those worries and stressors. You just might be able to find the perfect gift for that sportsperson in your life this holiday season; maybe even a gift that they will treasure for a lifetime.

Author’s Note: Dr. Andrew Cox is a contributing writer to outdoor publications and newspapers. His writing interests specialize in angling and travel, human interest, and general fishing technique oriented topics. He is a member of the Georgia Outdoor Writer’s Association. He has been fishing the waters of Georgia, Alabama, and north Florida for over forty years.

He has also fished the waters of most states within the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and several Caribbean islands. Dr. Cox financially supports his fishing habits as Professor Emeritus at Troy University, Phenix City, Alabama. He may be contacted at andrewtrout@aol.com.

HappY Holidays!

DEC2018 ATL.indd 35

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DECEMBER 2018

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L TA AS

CO

Wall of Fame

Win A Free Angler Magazine Cap! A Angler Magazine cap will be given away each month for the best reader submitted photo!

Tony Adams with a big Eufaula crappie

Rick Hall caught this big 1.72 pound crappie from Lake Lanier Audrey and Steven Meyer with a big rainbow caught at Nacoochee Bend with Unicoi Outfitters

Guide Eric Crowley with a big Mountaintown Creek rainbow

Jason Moore caught this 9 lb, 12 oz largemouth bass on a Red Eye Lipless in a Winder, GA farm pond

Jim Harvey with a big carp caught on a private Johns Creek Lake

WINNER!

Ron and Glenda Yarbrough with the North Ga Crappie Anglers with a big 2 pound Lanier crappie

DEC2018 ATL.indd 36

Young Charlie Bowen with an arm full of big redfish caught in Venice, LA

11/14/18 8:02 AM

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MCTG-3575 Coastal Angler FP LO4

Report provided by FishingNosara

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or much of the U.S. it is time to don winter coats, sweep the chimney and winterize the boat. As the temperature plummets, it’s easy for the mind to wander toward thoughts of warm sun and a beach escape.

For the fishing crews in Nosara, Costa Rica, the forecast for the next 10 months is perfect sunshine and clear fishing weather. Best of all, this is the time of year when big dorado provide plenty for the Christmas dinner table.

Here in Costa Rica, our fishing pattern resets each year. Ever since the rainy season ended in early November, we have seen large

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schools of dorado stacked up like cordwood. Also, there are swarms of sailfish and the occasional marlin stalking these mahi-mahi meals.

We expect this feeding pattern to continue until late-March when the dorado will be replaced by schools of yellowfin tuna moving in from the north. Gangs of spinning dolphins will show us the way to these tasty ahis, and once they show up the tuna bite will strengthen until our end-of-season in early September.

Our offshore marlin, yellowfin and dorado all follow schools of bait that move from north to south along the Pacific coast.

Conversely, our inshore fishery doesn’t depend on pelagic bait migration patterns. Instead our secluded port of Garza Bay is fed by local mountain rivers. When the cool, nutrient-rich river water collides with the warm, fast-moving saltwater of the Pacific, conditions are perfect for localized swarms of baitfish to form.

This “homegrown” bait supports a ravenous population of big roosterfish, broomtail groupers and massive cubera snapper. It’s not unusual for these monsters to weigh upwards of 60 pounds yet still ascend the water column to strike on the surface.

Roosterfish are in an especially catchable mood after a cool evening’s rain floods the estuary with fresh baits.

Inshore or offshore, all are ripe for the catching, and captains of FishingNosara have posted excellent catches ever since the season started. Right off the bat, angler Brian Stafford, of Jacksonville, Fla. and his fellow firefighters nabbed a big batch of dorado on the 32-foot Wanderer. Catching these big beasts on the first day of the season is a great sign of what we imagine will be a “fishtastic” 2019 season.

It’s always a great time be thankful for friends, family and the blessings in life, but with Christmas Day right around the corner, it is the right time to give the gift of fishing.

If you have a youngster in the family, get them a tackle box and a starter reel. If you are already an avid angler, remember that Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals are great for expanding your arsenal.

And, if you are ready to challenge yourself to catch the baddest fish on the planet, come on down to Nosara and pay us a visit.

11/15/18 10:08 AM

By Nick Carter

I

used to work with a woman who spent Saturdays fishing kitchen refuse from a pretty little brook that ran through her front yard.

Apparently there was an old lady upstream who didn’t own a garbage can. She would just toss trash out the kitchen window and into the creek.

To me, anyone who could do such a thing, especially to a creek that held trout, was the most despicable form of human garbage.

Mariann, the lady I worked with, was the first to explain that old timers picked up their habits in a time before the garbage man came around to empty the curbside bin. In remote areas of the mountains, standard practice was to pick a hollow and unload the back of the

pickup.

It’s been a while since I’ve visited the West Fork of the French Broad, and the garbage might be long gone, but I remember being amazed at the things we found in that gorge. Someone, or even a small community of someones, used one particular bend on Silverstein Road as a regular dump. It must have been fun to watch a clothes dryer or a water heater tumble down the ravine.

It’s testament to the bounty of the fishery that we continued to fish there even after my brother had the rear window of his SUV shot out while he was down in the gorge.

That was years ago, though. These days the river receives a little more traffic from anglers, and there has been a concerted effort to clean it up. The fishing remains good, as the West Fork receives light stockings of rainbow, brook and brown trout to supplement a population of holdover fish and some wild browns.

There are excellent mayfly hatches on this river, and a dry-dropper rig can yield numbers of standard hatchery fish as well as a spattering of wild 8- to 12-inch browns. We’ve also hung into some big 14- to 18-inch fish throwing streamers.

The gorge section is a little difficult to access via an unmarked angler’s trail. There are some areas where the wading is difficult, too. Although Silverstein Road parallels the river, the water is down in the bottom of a steep-sided gully. There is easier roadside access at a few pullouts upstream of the gorge. Once, while I fished this flatter section in waist deep water, a big old furry beaver swam right between my legs. I’m not lying. It was startling.

Silverstein Road (SR 1309) is a northward turn off U.S. 64 west of Rosman, N.C. There’s a convenience store and a self-storage place at the intersection. Bear right to stay on Silverstein when the road forks, and continue about 1.5 miles to the bridge and pullout parking.

For GPS coordinates to access points and detailed maps of all the region’s best trout water, check out “Flyfishers Guide to North Carolina & Georgia.” It is available on Amazon or by emailing the author at nsc8957@gmail.com.

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outh Carolina’s Santee Cooper lakes of Marion and Moultrie offer world-class fishing for multiple species, and winter is prime time for incredible striped bass action. The two lakes are impoundments of the Congaree River between Columbia and Charleston. They are connected by a 7-mile-long diversion canal and offer more than 160,000 surface acres of prime fishing water.

Kevin Davis owns and guides out of Blacks Camp located on the diversion canal, which gives him direct access to either lake.

“Because of our outstanding forage base of threadfin and gizzard shad, the December striper fishing is off the charts good,” Davis said. “Anglers can enjoy sensational surface schooling action as well as excellent live bait fishing opportunities when the surface action slows.”

Davis said the fishery has rejuvenated to an elite level because of striper regulations that have enabled the resource to grow.

Limits of stripers are often caught, and many days anglers catch and release scores of additional fish. The current regulations allow anglers to keep three stripers per person within a 23-to-25inch slot limit, plus one of the three can exceed 26-inches.

“The lakes are absolutely loaded with fish in the slot limit size,” Davis said.

Linwood Thornhill also guides out of Blacks Camp and has been chasing schooling stripers for decades.

“The large stripers get considerably more active from Thanksgiving through December,” he said. “Anytime of the day can produce schooling action, but typically the best is early and late. But on cloudy days we may see topwater action all day.”

Thornhill diversifies his lures for schooling stripers because the fish have an ever-changing preference. He uses Rockport Rattler jigs with plastic trailers, as well as 1/2- or 3/4-ounce bucktails.

He varies colors until he hits the daily pattern working chartreuse jig and trailer patterns, white and white and various jighead and trailer colors.

Capt. Leroy Suggs, another guide out of Blacks Camp, said December is one of his favorite striper months.

“We typically use live blueback herring when live bait fishing.

We’ll mark stripers on the graph along humps and ledges and drop baits to the depth fish are marked, or just slightly above,” he explained. “Stripers will readily come up for bait, but seldom go deeper.”

Suggs said December fishing has another good twist on Lake Moultrie because most years huge schools of menhaden are found near the Pinopolis Dam and can be caught and used as bait.

“The menhaden migrate into Lake Moultrie via the lock and fish lift from the Santee and Cooper rivers that flow into the Atlantic,” he said. “I prefer them about the size of a small bream, about three fingers wide. Menhaden are excellent striper bait and also tempt huge catfish to load on as a bonus.”

For more information, contact Kevin Davis at Blacks Camp at 843-312-3080 and check them out online at www.blackscamp. com.

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DECEMBER 2018

SOUTHEAST

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11/15/18 10:55 AM

Photo courtesy of IGFA hose interested in destination fisheries have probably heard of the fantastic fishing, scenery and hospitality experienced on Mongolian taimen trips. Well, there are taimen in Russia, too. And Russian rivers have a reputation for producing the largest taimen on the planet.

Taimen are known as the largest, meanest salmonids in the world.

They look and behave somewhat like brown trout only on a much larger scale. Fishing for them might be the world’s ultimate freshwater fly rod experience.

Angler Guido Rahr, III got to experience taimen in a big way in September, when he hooked into a pending IGFA record for fly tackle taimen. He caught and released the 83-pound, 4-ounce monster on Russia’s Tugar River. If approved, it will replace the existing 71-pound, 2-ounce record for the heaviest taimen on a fly rod ever recorded by IGFA. The IGFA all-tackle world record for taimen was also caught in Russia. In 1993, Yuri Orlov landed the 92-pound, 8-ounce record on Siberia’s Keta River. He caught it on a Blue Fox spinner and 17-pound-test line.

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COASTALANGLERMAG.COM • THEANGLERMAG.COM

11/15/18 10:55 AM

r spread FRESHWATER

By CAM Staff

E

very few years a new technique explodes on the bass fishing scene. Many of these trends just fade away, but some endure and become a part of every bass angler’s arsenal.

The technique of the moment is the Ned rig. It is excellent for big numbers of spotted bass and smallmouths.

It’ll catch largemouths, too. And it really shines when the fishing gets tough.

On post-frontal days in winter, when bass are deep on vertical structure, it’s time to rig up a Ned and go to work. It is the perfect technique when bass are looking for a meal that is small and slow moving.

A Ned rig is a miniature soft-plastic stick bait threaded on a light 1/8- to 1/32-ounce mushroom-style jighead. A drop of superglue holding the 3- to 5-inch worm to the jighead works wonders for making this rig durable.

When fishing at winter depths, light line should be matched with a light spinning rod with a supple tip. Go as light as you dare, with 4- to 8-pound-test braid finished off with a fluorocarbon leader.

When fish are active, a Ned worked steadily along the bottom is deadly. When they are sluggish, it’s better to let the jig sit on the bottom, allowing the bait’s vertical tail to do the work with the slightest shake of the rod tip.

It’s not the most exciting way to fish, but it catches fish—sometimes when nothing else will.

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Photo courtesy of The Cooking Channel

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hose who have seen his show “Man Fire Food” will recognize Roger Mooking as the iconic host of what has become the ultimate look at extreme outdoor or fire/smoke based cooking.

Each week Roger introduces us to passionate and inventive outdoor cooking aficionados and an array of epic custom-built apparatuses designed to cook everything from 200-pound sturgeon to whole cows on a massive homemade spit. Roger’s visits give us insight into the innovative extremes outdoor cooks utilize in their pursuit of perfection. If you’re an outdoor cooking enthusiast, “Man Fire Food” is a must-watch program.

We recently caught up with Roger to discuss the show’s success and rich content.

CAM: Roger, your show has become a must-watch series for anyone who mans a grill. Why do you think your show has become so popular?

Roger: Over the course of the last 7 seasons, we’ve seen an amazing array of outdoor and flame-inspired cooking devices and techniques featured on the show. If you love outdoor cooking, then you’re probably going to like the show. People just love being outside with loved ones. Backyard barbecues have been a longstanding tradition; in fact, you could say that tradition may even date back to the most primitive use of fire itself. There’s also something very special about slowing down and taking the time it demands to tend a hypnotizing fire and be immersed in the full experience, and getting to eat at the end of that entire adventure. The smells, sounds, sights of nature and breaking the hectic pace that a lot of us live at… it’s needed.

CAM: So, you think cooking outdoors is somehow satisfying a primal urge?

Roger: When I look back at some of the massive cuts of meat that have been prepared on previous episodes, it does seem like fire and food is primal, and I think we would all have to agree that cooking with wood, coals or heated rocks bridges a gap that is satisfying to those primal instincts.

CAM: What can we expect to see in future episodes?

Roger: Humans all over the globe have been cooking with fire for many millennia now, and cultures all over the world have different ways of cooking with fire. I would like to explore extending the borders of the show to feature more places outside of the U.S. CAM: What advice would you offer the average outdoor cook?

Roger: Just to enjoy the whole experience. I think the average outdoor cook is a more experienced cook, or else they would be a novice indoor cook. It takes a different level of attention to detail and mindfulness to cook outdoors because you have to deal with many other variables like wind, rain, keeping the fire going, how hot or cool is the fire, what are the hotspots, how much wood/charcoal do I need to add at a particular stage, bugs trying to get you, and all sorts of other things that you simply don’t have to worry about in a modern day North American kitchen with electricity and good shelter. Also, use the smoke as a seasoning advantage. You don’t need to add all kinds of stuff if you start with a freshly caught fish, some salt and a bit of good wood smoke; the work is already done, you just have to make sure you don’t get in the way or don’t burn the darn thing. It’s the magic of simplicity.

CAM: How do you select the places that we see on the show?

Roger: There is a very dedicated but small team of amazing people who find, research and vet all the potential locations for “Man Fire Food.” The winning candidates have endured hours of interviews and a barrage of questions as exhaustive as possible. The variables are so unimaginable to the viewer, and if we all do our jobs right, you have no idea how much work went into what looks so simple on TV. We’re always interested in looking at unique “Man Fire Food” subject matters. If any of your readers think they qualify, they should email: Contact@rogermooking.com.

“Man Fire Food’s” new season premiered Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 9 p.m. on The Cooking Channel.

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FISH & FISHING

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FISH & FISHING

m

Feeding Strategies MARK SOSIN What appears obvious may be deceiving. Most anglers erroneously believe that when predators corner a hapless school of baitfish, they simply open their mouths and swim through the prey, gorging themselves in the process. It doesn’t happen that way. A predator must isolate and attack one specific victim at a time.

That’s not always an easy task.

A frantic school of baitfish sensing predators can appear as a shimmering mass of silver with each individual member of the school constantly changing position. Selecting a tasty morsel to ingest can frustrate even the most sophisticated gamefish. That’s one reason why you’ll find predators lurking under a pod of bait. The instant their intended prey strays from the pack, they strike.

When you think about it, you can understand that any gamefish searches for a victim that is isolated, disabled or looks different from the others. Feeding is a tradeoff. Success centers on expending as little energy as possible for the food value received. Unsuccessfully chasing prey for long distances keeps a predator lean, hungry, and tends to slow it down.

The easiest way to get a strike when you locate a school of baitfish starts with a cast into the middle of the school. It doesn’t matter whether you are fishing an artificial lure or a natural bait. The retrieve should work your offering toward the fringes of the school in basically the same direction in which the school is swimming or at a 45-degree angle to the basic direction. As your bait or lure eases toward the edge of the school, it is easier for a predator to isolate. And, it looks slightly different than the baitfish in the school.

Some live bait fishermen squeeze a minnow before casting

92

it or drifting it so that it will be disabled. Clipping a fin or two also impairs swimming motion.

The injured fish will have trouble swimming, and that means it will send out vibrations that attract the attention of predators. These frantic movements to obtain equilibrium frequently trigger the strike.

Even during the anticipated feast of locating a school of baitfish, certain factors come into play. As water temperatures drop, a predator will not pursue its prey as fast and as far as it would in warmer water. When you are fishing a chum slick and fish are feeding on the chum, it is much more effective to fish an offering without retrieving it. A dead drift works just fine. I’ve seen that produce inshore and offshore including tuna and sailfish.

I once had an opportunity to watch scientists monitor the behavior of a school of bluefish in a massive aquarium as they attacked a school of minnows. By chance, I focused on a minnow that did not move, even when attacked by a bluefish four times. Each time, the bluefish broke off the attack because the minnow did not behave as it should. On the fifth pass, the minnow moved and it was eaten faster than you can read this sentence.

Finally, if you are trolling and see a school of small fish on the surface, approach the school slowly so as not to scare them. Ease alongside the school and work the fringes or establish a position ahead of the baitfish. If you prefer to cast, keep the boat away from the school and make the cast into the school. As you retrieve your offering and it begins to clear the fringes of the school, you should get a strike.

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Photo by Jose Fernandez. $500) or a freediving class ($400-$800).

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AUTUMN SALES EVENT JUST IN TIME FOR THE FALL BOAT SHOW SEASON Your Suzuki Marine Dealer has exceptional deals in store for you when you purchase a new Suzuki outboard from 25 to 350 horsepower this fall. Get Suzuki’s 3-Year Limited Warranty plus 3 years of Extended Protection at no extra charge.There are Instant Savings on select models, and Low-Rate Financing is also available.

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Gimme Six Extended Protection promo is applicable to new Suzuki Outboard Motors from 25 to 350 HP in inventory which are sold and delivered to buyer between 10/01/18 and 12/31/18 in accordance with the promotion by a Participating Authorized Suzuki Marine dealer in the continental US and Alaska to a purchasing customer who resides in the continental US or Alaska. Customer should expect to receive an acknowledgement letter and full copy of contract including terms, conditions and wallet card from Suzuki Extended Protection within 90 days of purchase. If an acknowledgement letter is not received in time period stated, contact Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. – Marine Marketing via email: marinepromo@suz.com. The Gimme Six Promotion is available for pleasure use only, and is not redeemable for cash. Instant Savings apply to qualifying purchases of select Suzuki Outboard Motors made between 10/01/18 and 12/31/18. For list of designated models, see participating Dealer or visit www.suzukimarine.com. Instant Savings must be applied against the agreed-upon selling price of the outboard motor and reflected in the bill of sale. (Suzuki will, in turn, credit Dealer’s parts account.)

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