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Podcast by a Panhandle Surf Angler for all anglers of any level. We will talk weekly to guests that are anglers and also industry professionals. I want you to walk away from this podcast with some knowledge either refreshed or new for you to become a better angler. Though it will start in the Panhandle of Florida, it will be around the entire United States so we can all learn something about fishing in different regions.
Speaker 1 (00:00:01):
This episode of Finding De Most Surf Fishing is being brought to you by the Kids Can Fish Foundation. Go over to kids can fish.net and take a look at the awesome things that they're doing with these kids outta the St. Simon's Island, Georgia area, and hopefully beyond with the clinics, camps, all these things that they're doing for the kids, all the money and donations that you do. 'cause They are a 5 0 1 C three charitable organization. Go back into the organization to help these kids get out and go fish. If they're going out to do a surf fishing clinic, they're leaving with a Rod Real combo. They're leaving with good stuff at cast nets, they're leaving with a new cast net. That way they know what they're doing, how they use the gear, and they're all set with a lot of fun pieces all put together. Every year they host the annual running of the Bulls tournament in October, and it's a ton of fun. And the money that goes to that same thing right back into the organization to help these kids all get out, go fish and learn. We have the addiction, it's time to pass it on to the next generation. And like their awesome, awesome unofficial logo is more tackle boxes, less X boxes. I love that Kids Can Fish done that.
Speaker 1 (00:01:33):
Welcome back everybody to a new episode. And this week we are getting on the old digital airplane and we're going international. Yeah, we're going down to Mexico, we're gonna Cabo. And I've been there a couple times on Disney cruises, which is a lovely time. I mean, it's a lot of fun. I've done some really cool other excursions. And after all the things that I've learned while surf fishing and following people through social media and YouTube and all that I missed the boat on some probably the best fishing I possibly could have. Well, let's double it up one more. Recently scrolling through and I came across a channel called Cabo Surf Caster, and I'm like, what's this? And Wess has been doing this for a long time. It's really cool to see. And all of a sudden I'm seeing he's catching Rooster Fish from the surf. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. I thought this was something you could only get in a kayak. What the hell? And then it just kept getting better. And another catch and another catch and a different species. And this, I'm like, fury just rage from missing out on all this opportunity. Well, thankfully Wess is coming on the show, so this week that's right, we're talking with the Calo surf caster, Wess himself. So without further ado, welcome to the show, man.
Speaker 2 (00:02:40):
Hey, how you doing? This is it's good to be on here. I I ended up I just got done fishing on the beach and I got home and got your message, so that's awesome to be able to get on here with you.
Speaker 1 (00:02:52):
Dude, I'm so pumped. And congratulations on all the cool things that you're doing down there in just so much success in all those years of knowledge and putting things together and making this happen. Seriously, congratulations on being that frigging successful.
Speaker 2 (00:03:08):
Ah, thanks. No, it's been, it's been a fun journey and it's definitely changing and in quite a few areas, just the fishery down here and also the fact that everything on social media just seems to be shifting and, and how you have to create content and stuff, which is it's, it's fun and difficult to keep up with at the same time. But but it's been good. Yeah, we've had a good time doing it,
Speaker 1 (00:03:34):
Dude. It is, it's true. Before we even get into the questions mm-hmm. , the whole social media game has really just, you gotta hit this wicket, this wicket, this wicket. Okay, now you're okay. And then if you miss one of those right back to the bottom of the algorithm, it's like, what did I do wrong? ?
Speaker 2 (00:03:50):
Yeah. No, I, I feel like we just gotta a handle on it and things are starting to change again. But but yeah, right now it's all about videos, short reels, and pretty much what I've found to keep up with it is picture people's brains being the dumbest, laziest things you can possibly imagine. And then create something that will keep the interest of the laziest, dumbest brain person ever. And that that, that's what's selling on, on social media, which, you know, kind of sucks for us. I like doing longer form videos and more storytelling and more adventure type stuff, but it doesn't get eaten up at all on social media. So you gotta make 15 to 32nd reels and make stuff exciting, interesting flash in the pan, and that's what gets seen. So yeah, I still like to make my own stuff on the side longer stuff that people actually wanna sit down and watch for a little bit and I'll keep doing it.
Speaker 1 (00:04:51):
Yeah. I've been told by a couple people that hey, you know, you're doing long form content, it's not gonna be seen. And I'm like, I don't care. I'm doing long form content. This is what I do. I'm telling people's story.
Speaker 2 (00:05:02):
Speaker 1 (00:05:02):
Good for you. I mean, it's, and that's one thing I love about podcasting in reality, it's actually, it's doing well. I mean, I, I wish I could say that, oh, I'm not doing this. It's doing quite well and the downloads are wonderful and hey, thank you to all of you that do that. I appreciate you and we love you, but it, it's, yeah, man, I agree. The old poop doom scrolling quickly, the quick thumb swipe it, it's definitely the catch on man. And it's a hard frigging thing to harness to pack in that much knowledge in 30 seconds to one minute, Uhhuh . It's just impo a borderline impossible.
Speaker 2 (00:05:31):
Yeah. Yeah. That's why it's, that's why it's pretty much useless for, I mean, that's what you call it, doom scrolling because it, it adds nothing to your day except a Oh, whoa, that's cool. You know? Yeah. So yeah, you don't learn anything. It's, yeah, it's just a cool thing. I, I filmed a lot of videos this morning. I got, I've got probably content for 10 videos this morning that I filmed, and it's like, yeah, it's, it's amazing stuff. Great. But it only lasts for 10, 15 seconds.
Speaker 1 (00:06:01):
.
Speaker 2 (00:06:02):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (00:06:03):
It's really painful. It hurts to hear it. And I'm like, I get it. And I totally do. Oh, man. Alright, so let's get into the podcast questions. Let's start at the very beginning. Tell us your story and what got you into Phish
Speaker 2 (00:06:15):
Oof story. Start the, at the beginning, I'd my parents moved down here to Cabo before I was born. So I ended up growing up down here my whole life. And it was a completely different world when I was a kid down here. There was about 10,000 people that lived here in Cabo at the time, and now we're somewhere right around 400,000. So that much growth in, in my life has just changed how things are a hundred percent from the fishing to town, traffic, hotels, you know, all the craziness. But then I, I ended up I always, always really liked fishing. I was, I was fishing with my dad when I was really young, probably four, four or five years old. And and then kind of went from there. We used to fish, just cut bait and light tackle around the rocks and catch all kinds of stuff for fun and growing up.
Speaker 2 (00:07:20):
And then also along that, in that same timeframe, I ended up getting into spearfishing as well. So I, I did a lot of diving, a lot of free diving spearfishing, and that was a good way to grow up, you know. And then when I got to be about 14, 13, 14 I had a buddy of mine who came over to the house one day. It was, I remember it well, because it was in June and it was Father's Day, so I think it was like around the 16th or something like that. And he came over to the house and he goes, Hey, you know, take me down to your beach to go, go fishing. The everything's lining up the tide's right, the water temperature's, right, there's a temperature break off your point down here. And he's like, it should be really good right now.
Speaker 2 (00:08:04):
And I've walked outside, looked out, and it's probably blowing 20 miles an hour, and the waves are huge down, down on the beach. And I'm just, I'm looking at it and everything looks kind of gray, the water looks green. I'm like, what are you talking about? It looks terrible. I'd never fish on a day like that. Like, it just, you know, didn't look like a fishable day at all. And he goes, nah, the tide, this, this evening is gonna be really good. We need to go down there. Just take me down there. And we're like, ha, all right, let's go. So I went down, I had, my setup was about I think it was a nine foot rod, just a little. And, and I was using it still for, for bait. So I had 12 pound mono on there and a little, little spinning row.
Speaker 2 (00:08:50):
And we get down there and wind's blowing, waves are big, and there's a big school of mullet right in front of us on the beach, and they're just flipping on the surface out there. And he goes, here, tie this lure on. And he gave me a big, it was a ranger, one of the Roberts rangers, the top water. And he goes, he goes, here, tie this on and cast it through the school reel as fast as you can and, and just keep doing it. About the second cast through, I see the whole school just part in half and there's probably a hundred bait fish flying through the air. And a big rooster fin comes right down the middle. And my lure was coming right down the middle of that school and everything just parted. And my lure was left in the middle, and the thing just came right down the middle and smashed my lure right in front of me.
Speaker 2 (00:09:34):
And it was like, whoa, no way. You know? And, and he runs over laughing and he goes, enjoy it while you can. It's not gonna last long. And, you know, he goes, you're gonna lose that fish right away. It'll, it's gonna spoil you. And and I fought this thing, it got down to almost the knot on the reel, and, and then it ran down the beach. And so I chased this thing down the beach and probably about a mile down the beach, I ended up tying this thing out and landing it. And it was about a 50 pound rooster fish, and on 12 pound mono with a little, little surf rod, we got it up and I took pictures with it. And and he goes, all right, we, let's get it back to the water. And what, this is the biggest fish I ever, I'm not letting this thing go.
Speaker 2 (00:10:24):
What are you talking about, ? He goes, nah, no, nah, we don't keep rooster fish. We, we throw those back, you know? I'm like, well, how am I supposed to, you know, we got a picture of it, throw it back in the water. Ah, all right. You know, I was like, so disappointed, you know, at that age, I was like, you keep everything you catch, you know? And so we got it back in the water and went home and turned out we, I took the picture into the taco shop and Minerva, who owns the taco shop down here, she goes, well, you didn't catch it on that rod, did you? And I go, yeah, no, that's my, my rod. He's like, well, no one's ever caught one and registered anything on 12 pound tests that would've been a world record. And I was like, ah, shoot, well, gimme a second.
Speaker 2 (00:11:03):
I I'm gonna go do it again. I know right where they're, I'm gonna go do it . And so I went back out the next day through the lure, same thing. It came up, ate the lure, took off, and in about 30 seconds he goes, binging bing. It goes all the line. I go, oh, that, that's what they do. . From then on, I was hooked on catching bigger fish off the beach on lures, and then I got a bigger setup, got a bigger reel put instead of 12 pound mono, switched up to 20 pound mono. Now we're, now we're talking heavy stuff, you know. And then I got over the course of that year, got spooled and broken off multiple times after that. Then I was hooked and it went bigger and bigger and better equipment from there. And that's kind of the, the transition from there.
Speaker 2 (00:11:50):
And then I started guiding when I was about 17. And I've been guiding ever since this be 18 or 19 years now, be 35 next month. So it's been a good way to make a living. Good way to get up in the morning and start your day is on the beach. And, you know, if you get to take people and have them experience that and have them get on their first rooster or their big jack crl or, you know, we got so many cool fish that it's, it's really fun to, you know, you gotta like, you gotta like people to be in this business, and you gotta enjoy getting people on fish. And some of that's trained and some of it's by nature, you know, I, some of it I had to like give up, you know, fighting my own fish and settle with hooking 'em, which is super fun. I mean that now, now it's gotten to the point where I really enjoy it. So, and then that kind of catches us up till now. I mean, I've been doing that ever since. So,
Speaker 1 (00:12:51):
Wow. I mean, that, that's one way to get an addiction. And I can only imagine seeing that rooster fin saying, okay, that bait is mine. Dude, that must've been intense.
Speaker 2 (00:13:02):
It was, it was wild. I still, I still remember almost everything from that day. I mean, it was, that was one of those ones seared in your mind, you know
Speaker 1 (00:13:13):
Way to go. I mean, you just basically are like, yep, this is it. I mean, that, that doesn't get any better than that. Holy crap, dude. Like I am, I'm giddy for you. So I can only imagine that you
Speaker 2 (00:13:23):
Put bait fishing away pretty quick after that.
Speaker 1 (00:13:27):
. Yeah, I can, yeah. I don't see there any reason for anything after that one. Okay. So you do have a lot of different type of fishing down there in Cabo. So what, it sounds like you primarily do the surf, but what type of fishing do you like to do?
Speaker 2 (00:13:42):
I mean, I, when I get days off, it's fun to go out on the boat. I got buddies who got have boats down here, and it's, it's fun to get out. I really like trying to chase Yellowfin with lures, casting them with spinning gear from the boat and, you know, get out in the school's of porpoise or find 'em feeding on the surface out there and casting stuff at 'em and seeing 'em hit on the top. That's super fun. And they're actually, it's happening right now. Unfortunately, tomorrow we're getting hit with this big storm. And my buddies were out yesterday and today, and I couldn't get out with 'em today. And they were booked on charters yesterday, and they slayed 'em. I mean, they just, they lost multiple hundred pounders on poppers on the, and it was just, you know, it was dying. Of course,
Speaker 1 (00:14:29):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (00:14:29):
Yeah. And now we got the storm tomorrow coming in and it'll be kind of garbage for another week or so. So,
Speaker 1 (00:14:36):
And you guys have some beautiful water in Cabo. I mean, granted, like I said, I've only seen it from the tourism side, and you, you see it daily, but boating, fishing, surfing, swimming, scuba, all of it. Perfect. And excuse me I, I can only imagine the paradise pieces you have, and you have such a great fishery for so many months, I mean, borderline year round, and I know we're gonna talk about that a little bit further in here, but mm-hmm. , it's, yeah, I can, I, I can, I feel your pain, and I couldn't be able to go out with friends and catch tuna . Yeah, man. Yeah. What is your favorite thing about fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:15:13):
Hmm. That's an interesting way to word that, because it's not, what is your favorite type of fishing, or what is it favorite thing about fishing? I think that's changed over the years. I think especially, you know, being a guide and being, being the person who gets people on phish and tries to make that experience happen for people. That part of it has translated to me into trying to get very specific moments on video and like in a, in a really cool way. So I really like that about Phish. It's almost, you know, for me it's almost as good as the, you know, the hooking up on the phish itself. And as, you know, being even behind the camera or capturing that moment, you can go back and watch it if it's, if it's shot the right way, you can go back and watch it a hundred times.
Speaker 2 (00:16:10):
And it, it's, it's good when you get home too. And, you know, then being able to be creative with that and turn it into something that, you know, you can show people. And it's all the little things that we as fishermen really enjoy about the sport is like, you know, when, when bait's blowing up and you can, you see it start to happen and your mind just keys in on it right away. And, you know, I've been, I've stared at the waves in the water my whole life and probably spent more hours on the beach than anywhere else. And it gets to the point where like, I know exactly when and how those things are gonna happen sometimes. And if you get a camera on that and can be right there and turn it into slow motion and then show somebody how it, how it happens, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:17:01):
That's just, I like showing people all the things that get me excited about it, you know, because I've caught all I've, I mean, I've caught all the fish and I've caught 'em about as big as I'm ever gonna get 'em, and, you know, so yeah. I know you, some of our questions down the road are gonna be, you know, what's next and stuff. But yeah. That, that'll lead into what I'm excited about. But you know, this, this is what gets me excited on a daily basis is kind of the, the being able to capture it and re repeat it, replay it and get those moments and kind of string 'em together into something really cool. Tell a story
Speaker 1 (00:17:37):
Wow. And your videos do that. So if you guys haven't seen his stuff, when you go back and take a look, you'll see exactly what he's talking about. Your videos are very, very good about that.
Speaker 2 (00:17:48):
Thanks. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:17:50):
What has been your favorite or craziest catch ever?
Speaker 2 (00:17:56):
Huh? I'd say I got a couple. I, so one, I guess I have to have to lead with the, the world record snook that I got about two years ago. That was, wow. That was like kind of the, the top and, and like, you know, you, you have a claim to something, you know once you get a, an all tackle record, that's, that's a big one. It, it broke a 20 year old standing record. And so that, and it was actually, the experience itself was one of the, the least rewarding
Speaker 1 (00:18:32):
Oh, no.
Speaker 2 (00:18:33):
Things ever. I, I didn't even know what I had hooked because it was in the evening and it was dark, and I thought I had hooked a rooster fish and that we were gonna release it anyways, and it was too dark to get a picture of it. And so, and I hooked it on really heavy line, and I, we had already hooked a couple of 'em and, and gotten good pictures, and I was like, all right, I'm gonna horse it in. We'll get this thing off of here and get outta here. We got, we gotta get back. It's, it's like eight 30 in the evening and sun's down. And so I had, I had a hundred pound braid, and I just locked it down, walked backwards on the beach, held my spool and drug this thing up on the beach. As hard as he was pulling , I was like, you're not gonna break a hundred pound in a straight pole. So I just walked backwards on the beach till he was up on the sand. And the whole thing probably took, I don't know, four or five minutes and turns out it was a 51 and a half pound snook, and you came up on the beach and beat the world record by, what is that? 40% free by four pounds. So , that's
Speaker 1 (00:19:37):
An official win right there.
Speaker 2 (00:19:39):
Yeah. And it was just like, you know, wow. If I had known what it was, I probably would've babied it, fought it forever, drug out the fight, and been super careful, and then probably lost it in the waves last minute because I was being too careful. Yeah. But , but yeah, that's an interesting one. Real quick, a couple other ones. I'd a really big Berra snapper. It was the, I think the year before that that I got on my own was ended up 73 pounds. And I got down, I was all by myself. I was standing about 20 feet up on the rock and hooked that guy up in the rocks, and I landed him up through the rocks in the surf. And when I got him into the rocks and he was laying in the, in the mossy rocks in the, in the water, I was hoping the wave would throw him up a little bit further.
Speaker 2 (00:20:27):
Right When I got him there, the line broke and, and I was 20 feet up on a rock. So I basically threw my rod, ran down the rocks, jumped on this fish in the whitewater as the next wave came up and wrestled them out of the tide pool. And that was an amazing catch, my biggest snapper ever. And the Pacific Snapper record is actually only 78 pounds, so I was pretty close to a world record on that one, and that's pretty wild. Then the other, once, once in my lifetime catch was a a golden phase leopard grouper, which is an amazing fish. If you guys have never heard of it or, or seen it, you should look it up. It's, it's kind of like a like an albino version of, of a species. It one out of every, I think they say like, out of every 3000 or something comes out that color and it's bright golden orange.
Speaker 2 (00:21:24):
I mean, it, it looks like, like a tangerine, and there's not a scale out of place on it. Every bit of the fish is that color. And he was about 15 pounds or so, and just looked like a, like a giant bright orange grouper. And yeah, I couldn't believe it. And I, I've only seen him diving a few times before in the wild, and I got one to hit a lure off of an island way up in the Cortez side. And just super blown away as I was holding it, I remember thinking like, I don't want to let this guy go yet. Like, I wanna spend more time with him. And I, I got a little bit of time in a tide pool, keeping him alive and, you know, just, you're just admiring him. He looks like some mythical creature, you know? And then I jumped in the water with him to let him go, and he took off like a bullet, and it was, it was really cool. So those are probably, I mean, a few of, a few of many really cool catches, but yeah,
Speaker 1 (00:22:24):
That's pretty awesome. , man. Yeah. You've had some good stuff there then. I mean, that's, I mean, I'm not saying it's a full life, but man, is that a lot of really cool memory building.
Speaker 2 (00:22:38):
Yeah. Yeah. This, if I ever, if I ever doubt it, all I have to do is go back through my phone and just start scrolling back through and yeah, I, I think I have like 40,000 pictures on my phone and three quarters of 'em are phish pictures. So
Speaker 1 (00:22:51):
, I get that , I think everybody will listen.
Speaker 2 (00:22:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22:58):
Well, this is gonna be a hard question then. I, I don't know if you're gonna have an answer for this, , what is a bucket list fish you want to catch?
Speaker 2 (00:23:04):
Ooh, that's not, not super hard. I got, I got about two or three that are, that are right up at the top of that list. Okay. One is I would like to catch a, a nice sized wahoo from shore from, ooh, land-based position. And it would, it, so I guess that same in that same realm is a wahoo or a billfish, big Billfish or Yellowfin tuna. So those, those three fish are on my list of ones that I, I would really like to get a big one from shore. Just, you don't hear about it very often in the world. So
Speaker 1 (00:23:47):
That was gonna be my next question on that one is like, is that a capable, is, is that a an occurrence, a common occurrence, or an uncommon down there?
Speaker 2 (00:23:54):
No no one's ever done it down here. I don't, yeah, I don't know anyone who's landed billfish or, or wahoo from shore. There's a couple guys who've gotten some yellowfin. I've caught some small ones. Nothing, nothing big, but it would be nice to get one with some weight behind it and have a, have an amazing fight with it, you know? But yeah, yeah, some of, some of those things, I mean, the, the billfish category you know, I've stayed up at night trying to figure out how I would land it if I hooked it. You know, there's there's different scenarios, like one of the smaller medium ones, yeah, you could probably, probably stop it, but if you get into something bigger that's like, okay, now what are we gonna do? How are we gonna, and so yeah, that, that's a, those are some bucket list fish right there. That's
Speaker 1 (00:24:46):
Fair. I mean, that, those are some serious notorious ones That's great. That,
Speaker 2 (00:24:50):
Or there's, there's a, a dog tooth tuna is another one. I'd have to go to the other side of the world for that, but that's another crazy fish.
Speaker 1 (00:24:59):
But dude, it's important. Like in our world, it's always good to have goldfish. It's like, all right, you know, you can catch the same thing over and over and that's fine and dandy. Mm-Hmm. . But there's just, there's something about catching the unicorns that just makes it the, the end, the never ending pursuit.
Speaker 2 (00:25:13):
. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25:16):
Good stuff. Alright, so we're gonna start moving into the tips and trick. Actually no, I lied. We've got one more question in this category. Is there a dream place that you wish to go fish sometime?
Speaker 2 (00:25:25):
Ooh. Yeah, there's a few and I'm, I'm planning on trying to get to 'em in the next year to two years. So I got, I mean, Oman's a big one for a lot of the big fish over there, the GTS and Yellowfin tuna. Oh,
Speaker 1 (00:25:46):
, Oman is nice fish.
Speaker 2 (00:25:48):
I, I would have a blast over there for sure. So that's definitely one on the list. And then yeah, I think that probably there's some places in mainland Mexico, I'd like to go a few places off of South America that I'd like to go. Madagascar would be an interesting one too. That New Zealand new Zealand's a good one for the, those huge yellow tail they have over there. Hmm. Where else? There's actually, and I haven't done a lot of research on it, but there's actually some really good really good places off of Japan. So you don't really think of Japan as like a huge, like, you know, area to go shore fish, but I know a couple guys who have gone over there and done that and caught some really crazy fish. So it's a big dog tooth, tuna run through there as well. So,
Speaker 1 (00:26:43):
See, I would've thought Japan would've been a great place to go for shore fishing, but
Speaker 2 (00:26:48):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (00:26:48):
I'm weird like that. I'm like, yeah, where there sand, I wanna put my toes. I never,
Speaker 2 (00:26:51):
Never really considered it till I Yeah. Ran into somebody who, who had done it out there. So,
Speaker 1 (00:26:58):
So funny you brought up Oman. I was there, I got set, I was there on a deployment and we hung out at the embassy. We were there for a couple days and I wasn't into surfing like I am now. And like thinking of like, as soon as you said it, my butt hurt meter went up about 20 points. So . Yeah. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, Oman is a beautiful country. That's a real cool place to visit. I really enjoyed that place.
Speaker 2 (00:27:21):
Yeah, that would be, that'd be cool. Hopefully I can get out there one day
Speaker 1 (00:27:24):
I'll be, I'll be following your channel watching . . Well, we've nailed into this one for sure. So we're gonna move into the tips and tricks here, but before we do, we gotta get into the paycheck. Let's do, that
Speaker 1 (00:27:42):
Is the first bait check of the episode. So make sure you're out there checking your bait. It's been a little bit, we're a little bit further in than we normally are, but hey, it's always important to make sure you get that. If you haven't caught anything yet, bring it back in. Switch it up. Maybe you gotta go top to bottom, maybe you gotta change up, maybe mul it, who knows? Change it up. You gotta catch fish. This bed check is being brought to you by the sinker guy. And then over to the sinker guy.com and take a look at everything. Chip's got going on in the sinker guy garage. You need rigs. He's got you covered Sinkers. Well, yeah, it's in his name. He is got Sputniks, a whole bunch of 'em. You need a special size reach out to him. Chip might be able to hook you up. Terminal tackle beads and tools all in the shop. So the sinker guy.com, quick shipping, great customer service, and great products. I use it and I can definitely endorse it 'cause I love this stuff. Good. Alright, so now we're moving into the fun part here. Now you've been, oh, your whole area, you've got holes, obviously you've got honey holes, you've got spots that are, and yep. I know this produces, I know this is good, but if you were to think about it, how would you do this? How would you plan your fishing trips?
Speaker 2 (00:28:41):
Hmm. Usually I based off first off of weather conditions, knowing, knowing how different spots are angled here at the tip we have, like, there's such difference in weather from the inside the Cortez side to the Pacific side. And you know, when you're going every day, you kind of know where the, where the bait's been hanging out at. And then from there you kind of go with weather. So how's the wind coming down? Usually because we have a big mountain range down the middle of the Baja, we get the wind comes down and splits either one side or the other. So if it's windy on the one side, it's calm on the other usually, and vice versa. So you pick your spots depending on how you wanna fish that weather. And some of the beaches have, you know, big hill on one side of 'em, so it blocks some of the wind coming down from the north and you have a protected area on, on the inside of that that you can fish.
Speaker 2 (00:29:41):
And then also some, sometimes it's the other way around, but also what we get here is we get a lot of change in the sand level. So the beaches will get a lot of sand added to 'em or subtracted off of 'em. And so it's important to kind of know which spots, if you're going for fish that are gonna be targeting off of structure, then you wanna know if those spots are gonna be uncovered or covered up with the sand because it could, that beach could change 50 yards, a hundred yards different. A lot of the spots could be covered up with sand one day or one week or, or something. And then the next week, you know, all those spots are uncovered and there's fish using it for structure and cover and bait fish coming into it. And so it, it has a lot to do with how the weather's going, what the currents have done with the sand.
Speaker 2 (00:30:34):
Also. water temperature's a big one. And I think this one applies probably anywhere you're fishing. If you've ever heard all the guys talk about, you know, oh, there's a temperature break or a temp break or, you know, something like that. Usually what that refers to is you got cold water meeting warm water somehow, and it could be a matter of just a couple degrees different but wherever those, those two currents or temperatures meet is typically where you'll find a lot of the bait fish. And and you know, once you find the bait, you find the bigger fish. So that's, you're always looking for that bait. And here, especially late spring, early summer, we have a very drastic temperature change. So coming up from the Pacific side coming down we have really cold water coming down, which is, you know, really cold for us is in the mid upper sixties.
Speaker 2 (00:31:31):
And then out of the Cortez side, you'll get water that meets it, that'll be in the, you know, low to mid eighties. So, and that can meet so drastically that it'll be the difference between one beach to the next. And I mean, within a, within a half a mile you can have a 15 and at times a 20 degree temperature difference within a half mile. And so that translates into like a lot of bait coming into one area. And it, that's, that's where you're gonna, if you're on the, if you're on the cold side of that temperature break, you could be in absolutely no fish at all. And if you're on the really warm side of it where it's just been even for a while, you could also be in no fish at all. But if you get right on the spot, it could just be one of the best days you've ever had.
Speaker 2 (00:32:24):
So paying attention to that, looking at it. And certain times a year that temperature line moves overnight, it'll move to the next beach up and it'll move back to one. So you're constantly looking for that. I mean, even with the satellite, I mean, I subscribe to some, you know, satellite temperature sites online and, you know, pay money for updated images for that. But even with that, you know, they take three images a day or something and I still go out to the beach and the first thing I do is run down in the dark, stick my feet in the water and you know, right away , you know, it's like, nope, we're at the wrong beach. You know, it's, it's ice cold, the water's ice cold, let's get back in the car, you know, we're done. It's not even worth staying here. And so there's, there's things like that, that's how you, you kind of gauge where, where the fish are and, and what conditions you wanna fish in. And so that's, that's one way I, I kind of look at things,
Speaker 1 (00:33:19):
Dude, that thermal, I I, that's no joke down there. You ain't kidding. Yeah. And that's impressive that I didn't realize it moved like that. I figured once you got it outta the sea of Cortez, once you got around the hook around, even with the tide movement, you were getting the bleed off. I didn't realize you'd have such a shift north and south.
Speaker 2 (00:33:34):
Yeah, no, and it's usually that break tends to be around the corner on the Pacific side, which is, I mean, that, that's what's good for us is because we get all that migration of bait coming through there and it sticks on some of the really good beaches over there.
Speaker 1 (00:33:49):
Yeah. And you're the first person to ever mention that about the the sand cleaning off and covering the structure and the, the move back that haven't really heard that very much in any of the other episodes we've talked about. So that's very, a very a, a a, a real cool twist. 'cause Normally, yeah, I mean, you sand moves up. We, we all know it's sand moves. You get new breaks, you get new holes, you get new cuts, you get all that fun stuff. But to, to hide structure and expose structure for fish life, that's definitely a, a tough one. And with your water clarity too, I mean that really, that really makes a huge difference. 'cause You can see, I mean, you know how that goes, but Yeah,
Speaker 2 (00:34:26):
And there's times, there's times a year where you'll literally be standing on dry sand where you were catching fish a month ago. I mean, that's, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:34:38):
. That's nuts, man. Yeah, that's absolutely crazy. Okay, so that's what you plan your trips. Okay. So you've let's pick up from basically where you just said there with your feet in the water. 'cause I think that's gonna matter into the next one now that you've decided, all right, this is the beach I'm gonna fish. How do you select the spot to start fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:34:56):
I first thing in the morning, first thing you're looking for as it's starting to get light in the morning is any kind of beta activity. So especially this time of year, from late spring to through summer the bait fish are mullet and they're, they're big, they're 1214 inch fish. And so that's big bait, big fish, you're, you're looking for big stuff, chasing them and anything that's chasing 'em is a big fish. So those guys, you're looking right up in the waves. You'll see them getting chased, singled out, crashed on, and you know, sometimes you can see 'em on the surface. They'll be, you'll look down the beach way far and on a calm day where there's no wind, you'll see 'em kind of rippling on the surface, or they'll mullet tend to flip naturally. If you've ever been around a school of mullet, they, they'll just sit there and kind of flip on the surface and while they're resting and they make a noise also, that it's kind of like a popping, like a popping noise that you hear.
Speaker 2 (00:35:56):
And you know, you get so queued in on, like looking and listening for these things over the years that, you know, I can drive my truck down the beach and if I kind of stick my head out the window, you can hear when they're popping in the surf, in the dark out there. Oh wow. . So there's, there's times I'll drive by in the, in the dark and I, I mean, I wouldn't even be looking at the water because it's dark out and you'd just be driving and all of a sudden I hear him pop, pop, pop, and then you just stop the car and you're like, all right, we're here. You know, this is it. And you get out and as it gets light, there's the whole school of bait right in front of you and, you know, stuff starts going off. But that's, I mean, you, you wanna look for bait first.
Speaker 2 (00:36:34):
I mean, that's always the, the best thing sometimes if that's not working, you wanna go fish some structure, then go down to one of the corners or rock piles where you see structure around and switch up your lures go from instead of on the big sand beaches, fishing like top water or or faster jigs and stuff on the big sand beaches. Then you switch over in the rocks to stuff more like stick baits or paupers or swim baits that you can work a little bit slower and twitch and work more natural around the rocks and hope for some reaction strikes around the rocks. That's a good way to do it too.
Speaker 1 (00:37:09):
Really cool. Add in there what you did rock fishing versus sand fishing. Mm-Hmm. , that's I'm not saying I picked that up from you, but I, I may have noticed something in your videos. I'm like, why is this, I see what you're doing. Very, very cool in the knowledge. All right. So we've got those pieces there. Now is there a certain tidal swing swing that you prefer to fish or anything like that? Or does tides not matter to you? What do you look at there?
Speaker 2 (00:37:39):
No, you do, you do get you definitely have some, some good changes with, with more tide movement. Fish tend to feed more aggressively with more extreme tide motion. So and that happens around the extremes of the moon cycle. So you get a full moon or new moon and your tides are more pronounced. If you look at a tide chart during like a, a new moon or something, the days like the one or two days leading up to it and one or two days after you would get the tide swings are way up and then way down and then way up. And then you get into the midpoint in between, which is, you know, half moon obviously. And then your, your tide swings are just kind of very gradual. The, the highs aren't very high, the lows aren't very defined lows. It's just kind of a, a little squiggly line across there for your tides.
Speaker 2 (00:38:30):
And that tends to be kind of the worst part in the cycle for fishing is when there's very little tide movement around a half moon. So you either wanna choose one or the other. And a lot of people are like, well, you know, full moon fish feed at night and they're not gonna be hungry in the morning. And you know, there, I think there's some truth to that, but it tends to happen more offshore and the blue water stuff where fish are just always swimming and always, I think in shore all the bait rushes into the beach right early in the morning. And that full moon doesn't, doesn't make a difference on how fish feed, they just go off of the tides. So it's, it's better to be on one extreme or the other full moon or new moon around those tides is best and one hour either side of the, the extreme of the tide, whether it's the high tide or the low tide. And I kind of prefer high tides. So an hour leading in the hour after those are good times to fish.
Speaker 1 (00:39:28):
Very interesting. And you bring up some really cool points there with the difference in the moons. 'cause Normally full moon fishing always just me off. 'cause I don't have a lot of luck. It's like every time I go out full moon fishing, I've, they've been eating all night and you know, I was sleeping, I'll admit it with my failure uhhuh, but you know, you try to get 'em in the morning and the day they're like, bro, I'm full. I'm just gonna lay here man, . But with the way the title swing works, that's a really cool, new, new nugget of knowledge there. Very nice. But you brought up one, and this isn't on your list yet but you brought up a really good question about nights. What are some effective strategies for surf fishing at night and what kind of safety precautions should anglers take during that nighttime fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:40:09):
So, yeah, that's an interesting one. I, I don't do a lot of night fishing as it is, mostly because a lot of the fish that we're targeting especially if you're going for a form with lures, are very visual feeders. And I, I haven't had a lot of success fishing lures at night. Which I know on the east coast of the US they've, yeah, I mean that's, that's kind of the key key hours going for stripers or something like that on the east coast and all those guys fish at night and most of the time they don't even think about going out midday . Yeah. But but yeah, the nighttime stuff, I know a lot of guys down here who are successful with it, but when they're fishing cut bait and, you know, pyramid sinkers on the bottom or throwing out chunks of mackerel or skipjack or they'll get into sometimes some snapper. But you know, I, they end up fighting a lot of stingrays and puffer fish and yeah, yeah, the sharks like little sharks and stuff, but it's kind of, I don't know, that never really was too interesting to me. I guess I didn't Makes sense. Yeah. I didn't like sitting around forever and waiting for the bite.
Speaker 1 (00:41:25):
Yeah. It doesn't sound like that's your type of fishing, like your, your type of fishing is. Yeah, I've been casting all day. It's up and active. You're an active walker and I, I love that and I've noticed that like you, I don't see you out there with the beach cart lugging the monsters, setting the sand spikes. No, you're a mover. And I, I think it's really cool. It's an important too because, you know, you can go change anything in a moment's notice, but I yeah, I was wondering if you did that at night. I was like, bold lake fishing, different species come out to play.
Speaker 2 (00:41:50):
Yeah, I mean, some of the guys do good. One of the, one of the fish that they do good on that I actually don't hardly ever get on lures is triple tail down here.
Speaker 1 (00:42:04):
They get some Oh, okay. They
Speaker 2 (00:42:05):
Get some really big triple tail down here at night on bait, just sitting around and, you know, I, I've almost been tempted to go out and do it just to knock, knock it off my list and get a big one on on that. But it's, it's still, it's one of those things I'm like, oh yeah, that sounds so just like a dumb way to like frustrating way to fish, you know, I, I don't know, I'd dealing with bait and sitting around, I don't know, it's just one of those things for me, I'd rather try and catch 'em. I've, I've hooked him twice on lures and lost them both times on the way in. 'cause They jump and they're a squirrely fish and yeah, I I actually on one of 'em, I had a camera tied on my line and so I got the underwater footage of him biting the lure and the whole fight and watched how I lost him .
Speaker 2 (00:42:52):
Oh. Which was pretty wild. It, it was crazy to me how much the hooks traveled around on him. And I, I caught him on a stick bait and I had one hook in the corner and one hook on the, on the side of his cheek. Then the one in his mouth came loose and he was only hooked by the cheek and he started shaking around, he hit a rock and it bumped it and the one who was in his mouth stuck to his forehead and then the one that was on his cheek came loose. And then I was pulling him just from his forehead and then I ended up losing him off of his forehead one, which was never one of the original hookups on him. So just crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:43:30):
That's a hell of an after play though. I mean, what, which cam system were you using?
Speaker 2 (00:43:34):
It was, I just tied one of those little water wolf cameras on there. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (00:43:38):
Yeah, I know what we're talking about. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:43:40):
Yeah, and they're, I mean, they're kind of a, kind of a hokey camera cheap. I wish that, I wish some company would come out and do a really good one of those. I know, I think Weston is doing one similar, but, you know, it just seems like a good quality. One of those would be such an addition to the film world of Phish, not just the, you know, they, they're doing it so that you can cast it out on a pond with bait and just let it sit on the bottom and you can look at your bait. But for an active casting added video content, that would be a really cool thing if you could get in higher quality and something like that. But, so there's
Speaker 1 (00:44:18):
A couple well, we can talk after the show. I know one, I have one in my brain that's telling me it might be right up your alley. But like I, I hear a lot with especially in our community, the the Go Fish cam Uhhuh is a big one here. And the only issue I have with that one and the one that I have, which I'm not gonna talk about here on this podcast I'll talk about another time because I haven't got full troubleshooting done with it, is, you know, it's great 'cause it's neutrally buoyant, which it's like, okay, that's fine and all but they're four ounces. Yeah. So, I mean, you're already hucking one thing out. Yeah. And it's like, all right, how much do I wanna see if I can make this rod go on that much weight? Yeah. So yeah, it's, I
Speaker 2 (00:44:59):
Did, I actually did throw around the, the Go Fish cam for a little while.
Speaker 1 (00:45:02):
Oh, did you? Okay. Did
Speaker 2 (00:45:03):
Some footage with it. I, I liked, I liked all the footage that I got. That was actually most of the stuff not ever connected to the fish as soon as I hooked fish with it. For some reason or another the it seemed like the, the automatic light sensor on it wasn't keeping up with the if you had a fish that had any kind of shine to it and it's shown it was just like this giant white, shiny thing in the screen and, and it didn't compensate for the it was like their, their light sensor or something on the, on the camera. So then it was just like, you're just looking at this big, like shiny silver thing going and there was no definition in the video, which is kind of a little disappointing on that. So I, I quit using it actually because of that. Maybe it, maybe it's a glitch they've fixed since then, but you know, it was back in the day when they first kind of started coming out with it and I was, I was actually excited to use it, but I know the water wolf, even though it was lower quality video, did compensate better for that, that particular thing.
Speaker 1 (00:46:12):
Yeah. I think the water wolf was pretty light too, if I'm not mistaken. It was like a what, two ouncer or something?
Speaker 2 (00:46:17):
Yeah, it was, it was super light and then but it was only, it only recorded seven 20 p Ah, so when you're trying to mix it in to like either 10 80 or four K stuff, then it
Speaker 1 (00:46:28):
it doesn't like that.
Speaker 2 (00:46:29):
Yeah. It really looked low quality .
Speaker 1 (00:46:33):
Yeah, that hurts. Yeah. So let's talk about the lure. So you've mentioned a couple different ones. I mean, you've mentioned poppers, stick baits. What other kind of lures that you like to use for your fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:46:45):
Typically when, when I'm going out, I'll have at least this time of year, about three, three styles and then, you know, multiple, you know, different lures or brands or models around the styles. The stick baits are, are a big one. I really like fishing stick baits a lot just because they're very versatile. You can work 'em faster and if you need to, you can skip 'em up on top. And then if you really wanna slow 'em down, you can go really slow and just like slow twitch 'em and they'll swim back and forth and look very natural. And especially some of the custom made ones are, you know, they're so natural looking now they look you can match some of the baits so well with them. That that's a good one. And they cast fairly decent. And then another style would be, you know, then you go from your stick baits that are kind of subsurface to surface lures and, you know, skipping lures.
Speaker 2 (00:47:42):
And those tend to be a really great tool in your surf fishing bag, so to speak, because they cast really far, they tend to be some of the better casting lures. Real streamlined, got some weight to 'em, something that's, you know, two and a half to four ounce. And you can launch 'em a mile out there and then real really fast and have 'em skipping across the surface and they draw in fish from out further. You can cover a lot of ground with them. Usually what I'll do is walk a big sand beach and just cast, I'll cast, do a full cast and I'll walk 10 steps while I'm reeling in or something, make another cast way out there, walk another 10 steps as I'm reeling it. You know, you're kind of covering, systematically covering a beach and you can get out. I mean, with some of my better ones that are weighted just right for the, the setup I'm throwing, I can get about 180 yards out of a cast.
Speaker 2 (00:48:43):
And so you're covering a lot of, lot of water as you walk down a beach and you go two, 300 yards down the beach casting every 10 steps and you've covered a lot of, a lot of ground. And that's a good way to do it. And then, you know, then you have, I, I'd say poppers kind of fall under that same category a little bit except I prefer something like the, like the g t I creams that are more of a surface lure that you're, you're kind of smoking in on the surface mainly because, well one poppers take a lot of work to to to work 'em. I mean, once they do 10 or 15 casts on a big popper, your arm's about to fall off. And so there's, there's that. Then the other is if you have fish actively feeding around you on the beach poppers tend to be just a pain in the butt because you see a fish come out chasing, you make a cast, maybe your cast is a little bit off and you land behind the fish and the fish is still going and he's going all the way up to the shore chasing this bait fish With a popper you don't have, because it's grabbing water on the way in, you don't have enough time to smoke it in quick and get another cast on that fish with any other surface lures or stick baits.
Speaker 2 (00:49:57):
You can pop it up to the surface and real really fast and come in with it and get another cast on it really quick and have a chance at that fish. And so poppers tend to be kind of a, you know, a hindrance when you have a lot of, lot of activity going on. But they're also a good tool for drawing in fish when you just need the biggest meanest splash in the ocean. You know, you, you're trying to turn the heads of all the fish out there. You can, you can make a big splash with some good popovers. So there's that. Then another time of year we use a lot of jigs like sardine type jigs. We'll even take some of the smaller vertical jigs for like offshore fishing stuff that's in the three ounce range, like a hundred gram, a hundred gram stuff and looks like a sardine or something like that. And those also cast a mile. You can let 'em sink down to the bottom on big sand beaches and then jig 'em up fast from the bottom and get bites from the Sierra mackerel that we get down here. And that's a really good one. So I'd say half the year we fish jigs and stuff like that. And then the other half were stick baits and pops and surface stores.
Speaker 1 (00:51:10):
Very cool. Okay. That makes a ton of sense on the different fish too. And I, I like the knowledge piece. This is actually a perfect time. We've been going 50 minutes and now we need to get another one done. Oops. A little behind.
Speaker 1 (00:51:29):
This is your next bait check of the episode, and hopefully you've caught a bunch of fish in this knowledge. Hopefully you've been like, all right, I'm done with this. I'm throwing on all lure, man. This is just getting me better. And you're just gonna start playing different games. 'cause There's a ton of little cool nuggets right there. Just dropped, especially on how to cover more beach. Hopefully you guys picked up on that. This paycheck is being brought to you by Ninja tackle, ninja tackle va.com. Great website for getting your hands on those rods from seven footers up to 13. You guys know I love the seven footer for the days where I'm throwing really close to shore my kayak, stuff like that. I have two ninja daggers that are 12 inches. I've got my eight six and I'm throwing metal on and other lures, I'm throwing that all out there. Love that set of products. You need reels, rigs, bait. He's got it all in there if you're into shooting and firearms and firearm accessories, ninja tactical, lots of great other cool pieces in that side for you to take a look at. Always good. Matt's doing great things and he is got great customer service and he's there to take care of you. So ninja tackle va.com.
Speaker 1 (00:52:23):
Okay, so now we've really crushed into this man. I don't you target so many different fish though. You don't. Do you go out with a, Hey look, I'm catching roosters and roosters only, or do you kind of go with a range of what you want to target?
Speaker 2 (00:52:36):
Part of it depends on the time of year there. There we definitely have specific seasons for a certain fish. The roosters and jacks tend to be together most of the time. So it's, there's a time of year where it's kind of roosters jacks and, and really big needle fish. We get these needle fish that are like five foot long and wow. Huge. I mean, they, they look like a small marlin or something, but, and they're, they're kind of, they're fun everyone. A lot of people see 'em as like a nuisance fish, but when you get into the really big ones, like, you know, we caught one a couple weeks ago that was 20 pounds and I mean, that's a big needle fish. Yeah, huge needle. Yeah. That big around. And you know, it has a head that's as wide as my hand when you go to grab 'em across the back of the head.
Speaker 2 (00:53:20):
And they're, they're cool fish. I mean, granted, you know, roosters or kind of what everyone wants to go for, but so one time a year is, is kind of those roosters jacks and needle fish. And that's the about end of May through we'll, we'll still have a couple roosters hanging around through September. And so we're coming up to, to the end of the season right now for them. As soon as the storms start rolling through, they kind of move on. So that's the season for, for the roosters. Then we get into the fall where it's like October, end of September, October, November, even December. And we have a good shot at catching a dorado from the shore, or mahi or dolphin fish, you know, like, depends where you're at, what they call 'em, depends on
Speaker 1 (00:54:10):
What, what area of the world you're in exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:54:13):
. But but they come in, in the fall close enough to where you can cast to 'em from shore and get 'em on top water stuff. So you're skipping those GT ice creams or, or jigs too. You get, you get jigs and smoke 'em across the surface and you get some good bites on, on mahi. You don't land a lot of 'em because they're really good at jumping and shaking out the hook, and that's just kind of a signature move for 'em. But they are very fun to hook up to and they're fastest as lightning when you're chasing. You can't outrun 'em by reeling as fast as you can go. So that's, that's a really fun one that time of year. Then we get into December and about mid-December, so all the c r m MREs start showing up, the water cools down and they're a fun one because they are also very good to eat.
Speaker 2 (00:54:59):
They're some of the best eating fish dinner, and they look just like a Spanish mackerel on the East coast. But they're different. They're, they're a different different variety I guess. And they have super white meat, not oily, not fishy, and Oh wow. Some of the best eating fish will Yeah. You'll ever have. So, and you can have mornings where you get into a lot of 'em. Like you'll, you'll get 'em, they're a quick bite, super early in the morning, but you can get 'em back to back on cast. I mean, you can literally cast 15 times and catch 10 fish, you know, I mean, it's there, there can be mornings like that and they're, they're super fun. You keep 'em, they're in the macro family, you're not in danger of wiping 'em out. So you can keep as many as you want. There's no limit on 'em.
Speaker 2 (00:55:42):
And that's, that's all with jigs that time of year. So metal jigs early morning and, you know, bite is pretty much done by about eight 30 or so. They're, they're done and outta there by, by that time. And so that's, that season lasts from about mid-December through I'd say beginning of April or so. And, and then, you know, another month goes by and then you're back into the, you know, cabra snapper, the Colorado snapper, and then the rooster fish start showing up and you have an overlap with them. And so it's, it's a year round thing. I'd say probably our slowest time of year is, is starting about now, where we get the really hot water in our water is almost up to 90 degrees and most of the areas around here, it's 88 to 90 degrees and the fish start to move out to deeper water. And so it's not quite as productive until we get some of those storms clear out some of the warm water.
Speaker 1 (00:56:41):
Okay. Yeah. Warm water does never, in my opinion, it's not a good combination with surf fishing. So you want that mid-range where you're gonna get plenty of customers to come in and get after it. Mm-Hmm. , what do you do when you go fishing in a brand new place?
Speaker 2 (00:56:59):
Brand new place. I mean, I guess you kind of take a little bit of your knowledge from home, wherever you're used to fishing and you start there, you, you translate it into that and then you, you know, obviously, you know, I like talking. So , you start talking to people in the area, start you know, talk to some of the locals and, you know, ask 'em, ask 'em what they've seen. Does doesn't mean that they've caught that fish or the way that you would catch it. Just ask 'em, you know, what are those, what feeds around there? What's, what's the possibility of of getting stuff? So I'd that's, that's a big thing. I've gone, I went to Australia. I fished Australia a few years back, and it was fun going out there and taking what I knew from here. And, you know, I went out there and the guys told me half the stuff I was doing for out here wouldn't work out there. And, you know, don't, don't take it at face value, you know, go, go ahead and do it yourself. You know, I, I found a couple things. They, they laughed at me because I had a 12 foot rod and all of them, they all use like seven, eight foot, eight foot stuff, eight and a half max. I mean, they'd, I even had a nine foot rod and they're like, oh, that's too long.
Speaker 2 (00:58:22):
. And so I got out there, I'm like, well, you know, screw that. I'm still taking my 12 foot rod because that's what I catch fish on. You know, that's, that's what I know how to fish with. And we got out there camped on these islands way offshore, and sure enough, morning time came around, we were on the rock as gray light was coming around, and you could see a big school of fish out in the distance in this, in this bay kind of coming in. And it was, they have a long tailed tuna out there and it's kind of, kind of looks like a, a skinnier version of a blue fin tuna.
Speaker 1 (00:58:56):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:58:58):
And they get up to, I don't know, I'm not sure what they got up to. I got one that was about 40 pounds. It was like 35, 40 pounds. And they, they came into a certain distance and my buddy who was out there was, he was casting with his eight foot rod trying to whip a jig way out there and, you know, not making it out there. And I'm like, well, that I could, I could overshoot that whole school right there,
Speaker 1 (00:59:24):
Hold my beer
Speaker 2 (00:59:26):
. Yeah, exactly. So put a jig on and whipped it way out there. And it was like, it was like like nah, that was right away, hooked up right away. So anyways, that was, that was a fun one to, that was a fun one to disprove them on, on that he didn't think I'd be able to land it. It, it was no problem. So that, and I went to, I've, I've fished Florida a few times, which is not too dissimilar from, you know, what we do here, but I wanted to get a big tarpon and I had been going back for years and to the same spot, trying to get a big tarpon off the dock. And, you know, everyone said, ah, you can't land it from the dock, you can hook it from the dock, but you have to hop in the boat and chase it down in the boat.
Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
And I took my surf rod, same one, I've caught all my big fish on down here. And, and they go, nah, you're gonna pull the hook on that, that that rod's too long. You're just gonna pull the hook on him. And nope, sure enough, it was second, second attempt. I pulled the hook on the first one. I'll, I'll, I'll be honest, I did pull the hook on the first one second attempt, got the hook in it, and this thing went nuts, jumping everywhere. I had to put a ton of pressure on him and everyone was yelling at me to get in the boat and I didn't, didn't want to get in the boat. So I stayed on the dock and I managed to turn him around and the thing taped out to between 180 pounds, 200 pounds, he was a big fish. Woo.
Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Yeah. That's, that's not tiny,
Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
No land landed it, got it up there with my, with my surf rod and felt pretty good. So all that to say, you know, go into the area, ask a little bit about it, get a feel for it, but then, you know, do what you know and, and what you, what you're comfortable with and what you trust and you know, that, that always, you know, like they say, you're gonna catch fish on the lure you have the most faith in. Yeah. .
Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's the one you're gonna tie every time too. It didn't never fail.
Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Yeah. I don't fish crocodiles too much, but I know some guys that, you know, fish crocodile lures and they have so much faith in those things and they go out and they've out fished meat a couple days on the beach with their crocodile lure, and I'm like, shoot, I don't fish 'em that much, but, you know, you're
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Yeah. It gets me in trouble having some favorites. I shouldn't, but I really do. It's like, you're still good.
Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
And then you feel really bad when it flies off. Okay, man. Gotta go buy another one of those. Yeah. Oh man. Gets, gets you good. Oh, okay. You've, dude, you crushed this, that, thank you so much. You've just been nailing this one for the tips and tricks and knowledge. Now let's get into your business. Let's talk about guiding. I mean, you, you started off an interesting point there in the beginning. You know, your buddy came by and that's when you caught the monster rooster here. And that, that would've been like the set match for me. Like, yep, this is what I'm doing, but what got you to say, all right, that's it. I'm gonna be a guide.
Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
It was actually someone else down here. There was a a guy who started running a taco shop down here, and a lot of, a lot of people come down here know Janssen Lus, and it was Stephan who way back in the day, I'd hang out in his taco shop and we'd just talk fishing half the day. And he goes, oh, you should start taking people out. You know, I used to guide, don't do it anymore. And you know, I you should take people out. I I'll send people your way. That. And I was like, ah, I don't know if I wanna do it for work. You know, I I like doing it for fun. Done. I'm not sure if I want to turn it into a job. And, and, you know, he kept, kept pushing for it and I was like, ah, all right, well, you know, shoot, I'll buy a couple setups yeah, I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
And so then it was like one of those, you know, I'd take one person out a week or something like that, or a couple people out a week and not, it wasn't a very big, big deal and just a little bit of extra money on the side for gas and lures. And then it I think it really started taking off of, then, then I got married and then it was like, well, if I want to keep doing this for work, I actually have to turn it into a job and like actually advertise and take it serious and like actually make money if I want to pay rent, you know? So yeah. Then it, then it was more and more serious. I started, I advertised a little bit more, and then the whole social media thing kind of took off. I remember before it was all, you know, you just printed pictures out and you had, you know, printed your Kodak or your pictures out at Costco, you know, and you showed people here, here's a stack of pictures, you know, flip through those.
Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
And then it became, you know, you started posting stuff on Facebook and on Instagram. I, Instagram even came later. I mean, that was, that was quite a bit later. But as soon as you started doing that, then you start getting all this attention. And I remember it was like, I never took out a person that I hadn't met in person before, like, at the tackle shop, or it was like a direct, a direct contact person. And like, I never booked people ahead of time, which was interesting. It was always like, I'm standing in the taco shop, meet someone, Hey, you wanna go out Thursday? I got rim Thursday, you wanna, you know, and then it switched from that to now I'm booking people online before they even come to Cabo. And that was like a huge deal. And, and that's just about the only way that it happens now. So yeah, just, just an interesting journey and how stuff changes. And now I don't advertise at all and you know, most of the time I'm looking for a day off and it's nice to have just a, a day that you're not, you know, on the beach, that you can go out and either fish for yourself or, you know, fish on the boat or do something a little different. So it's changed for sure. The success
Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Yeah, yeah. You know,
Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
That's great, dude. I mean, seriously, that kind of, that, that's phenomenal with the growth. I mean it's, and to be able to get it through word of mouth business or people who've seen you and then they know like, yeah, this guy's legit, you built that and you've just created this monster. And it's doing well. It's all, I mean, it's all on your back and all that hard work and it's paid off so well and your, your stuff is going to be a fun consistent
Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Yeah. If you're consistent for year after year, then, you know, it just turns into something .
Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Yeah. Kind of does. Who knew ? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
Well, what comes with going on a trip with you?
Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
So if you get to get out of tourist Cabo, which is kind of cool, I think that's, that's a big thing that kind of gets overlooked because everyone who comes to Cabo, you know, it's just always the party scene or downtown or the, the marina. And it's, it's neat to get away from all of that and get up on some of the, some of the beaches where some days we never even see anyone else. You know, you're out there, you're all on your own. And so we get up there, we meet actually right now because Mexico is no longer doing daylight savings. Time change now. Really good. Yeah. Good for them.
Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
I mean, I'm fully on board with that.
Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Yeah. It's kind of crazy. So now, I mean, because we chase the light in the morning now, instead of meeting people at five 30, now I meet people at four 30 in the morning, which is, that's always a fun conversation to have with someone who's on vacation. It's I'm gonna see you at the dock at four 30. And they're like, say what? ?
Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Yeah, that's what
Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
I said. Yep. So yeah, so we, we meet at four 30 right now and we've been fishing till around 10, 10 30 in the morning. And most of that action happens earlier in the morning, that first light, all the activity. And some days it pushes through the morning longer and we're chasing fish longer. And it's, it's cool because now we you can actually scout for fish with drones, which is neat. So we bring a drone along and on those really big, you know, multiple miles, sand, beaches that you don't know where the bait is or what's going on, you can fly the drone down the beach and be like, ah, one mile down the beach. That way there's a school bait, it's got four roosters on it, let's go. And you can run down the beach and go target those, those exact fish. Which is just a neat thing nowadays that we can do. And, you know, all the years included and I'd say it just brings sunscreen and a bottle of water and you're pretty much good.
Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Nice. So
Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
Technology has made things somewhat easier sometimes. Mm-Hmm. .
Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
So what do you do or what do you normally target with a charter? Is it kind of, Hey, look, this is the species, this is what we're doing? Or is it just, Hey, customer wants this, this is what we're firing after?
Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Nah, it's pretty much like, this is what's going on. Because if, if you go into, like, you know, if you're not in rooster season, and like 95% of the people coming down like, ah, I wanna catch a rooster fish that's on my bucket list, you know, it's like, well, there's not really rooster fish around right now, so I mean, why don't we go for, you know, whatever's going right now, you know? Right. And that way we're not just casting it water. So I mean, it, it is, it is definitely what, what's there, let's go catch something. What, regardless of what it is, it's gonna be something cool. Probably something that, that one's they haven't caught before. And even if it is, it's probably gonna put up a good fight. So yeah. I, I think that's what everyone's after in the end is some action anyways, so
Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Probably
Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
. Yeah. Now The's the drug right now, surprisingly enough, even in the middle of Rooster season, you can go out mornings and like I went out this morning, probably saw some of the most activity that I've seen all year. It was crazy, you know, right before a storm. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
The storm front. Yeah. The
Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Fish were just going nuts and jumping and chasing and feeding. I didn't catch a single fish.
Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Really?
Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Yeah. I mean, get that and Wow. But I got some of the coolest videos you'll ever see. I bet
Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
there's a win
Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
. Yeah, there's a, I had to, I finally, after I'd figured out that it was gonna be really tough to stick into a fish, I was like, all right, screw it. I'm grabbing the camera and I'm gonna film. And I had my buddy with me and he was casting and stuff, but it takes when the fish are like that, they're so keyed in on the bait fish. Yeah. And where the bait fish were, the water had no visibility. It was really murky, a lot of silt in the water mm-hmm. . And they were coming up and feeding on the surface, and you had to put your lure right on top of 'em while they were feeding. And, and it was just, you had to be a perfect aim. And even with that, you had to have some luck. And it was just more fun shooting 'em with the camera and filming 'em and, you know, and, and you'll watch the videos.
Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
And I, I told my buddy on hill, I go, I go, man, people are gonna watch these videos and I guarantee you every single person who watches this video in their heart is gonna think, oh, I would've had that fish if I was there . If, if I was there, that fish would've been mine , you know, because we're shooting it. And then I'll slow it down in slow motion. And you shoot it in 120 frames and you can slow it down to where it looks all buttery smooth. And the fish is just right there chasing. And you're like, oh, I could've put my lure there 10 times and he would've eaten it. And in reality, it all happens that fast. And they're moving forward so fast that you, by the time your lure flies through the air where you think it's going, they're already 20 feet ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Yep. And, and you, I mean, the proof is we both threw round at 'em for hours this morning and neither one of us got a fish. So it's I don't know. But the, I mean, the morning for both of us, even even us who were like out every single morning and seeing it this morning, we both went away smiling at you going that that was an amazing morning. We had so much fun. And so, I mean, it's, that's what you get now. You get out there, you get to experience it. Sometimes you see 'em, sometimes, you know, hooking up to 'em as a bonus, and you get that picture of your giant rooster on the beach and sometimes they'll feed all the way up to your feet and you still can't get a hook in 'em, you know? But you just never know. Sure. Every day's different out there .
Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
Yeah. Why aren't you eating my, why aren't you eating?
Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
It's delicious. I almost snap my rod in half today. I was, I was so, so fired up on one. There was two big roosters came in feeding and they were chasing this one bait and they were just thrashing like a 10 foot square area. And I went for a cast and as soon as my lure hit the water, it fell hooked.
Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Oh no. Wow. And,
Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
And it just dug into the water and I couldn't get it back quick enough to get another cast. And it was like a hundred yards out there and it was foul hooked. And I drug it through a school of feeding roosters foul hooked. And it would, I felt like in my heart it would've been a fish for sure. You know, it was a perfect cast. It just landed and foul hooked on itself and felt like snapping my rod in half midway through the morning. But ,
Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Yeah. Yeah. That, that, yes. I think everybody feels what you just felt right there. . I'm feeling it over here. . So you go at a Cabo is that basically, I mean, hell, that's pretty much your service area then, is Cabo. I mean, people are gonna go there. It's not like they're gonna be running further up. So I, I go gonna go ahead and skip that one. How do people book a charter with you or look up going on a charter with you?
Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Best way online, I got a website cabo surf caster.com. You can also email me my emails, same thing. Cobbles surf castor@yahoo.com. And yeah, just shoot me an email. I can send you all the info. That's those, that's the best way to do it. I used to do stuff over social media, but that just got too complicated. I lost too many messages. So now I only do it over email or through the website, which is also, goes straight to the email. So that's the best way.
Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
Perfect. Alright, well let's do this last paycheck and then we'll get into the social media. 'cause You nailed into a really good piece with social, and I think it's a really important topic to dig in. Mm-Hmm. . So we're, we're gonna get right into that. So yeah, without further ado, let's check that ba
Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
It is your third and final paycheck of the episode. Hopefully you're been doing just fine. This paycheck is being brought to you by DSS custom tackle dss custom tackle.com. Great website. Lots of cool stuff in there. Everything that you could need to possibly get if you need to get hooks done Floats easy day jigs, teasers. Yeah, they got it. If you wanna be interfer in technical supply, they'll take care of you with that. They can get you all set up. You just reach out to them. They'll happily have that conversation. DSS custom tackle.com. Get your order in today. You won't be sorry. Oh, alright. So we started talking a little bit there about social media. Let's continue with it. What made you decide, all right, I'm getting into content creation. I'm doing a YouTube channel, I'm putting all this on Block
Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
. I guess that just came from, ah, a little bit of what I was talking about earlier. Just enjoying sharing those moments with people. And, you know, most people don't get to experience some of that. They never see Rooster Fish feeding and like having 'em chase stuff all the way up to your feet or, you know, just the, you know, all all that cool stuff that we see as fishermen when you get out there and just gets you pumped. I mean, whether it's, you know, you're on a bass pond somewhere and you're fishing top water for bass and you see 'em blow up on something over there and you're just like, your legs go weak and you'd get your cast in. I mean, that, those kind of things, if you can capture that stuff on video, that's just the coolest thing for me. And the fact that, you know, now we have social media where you can share it and get it out to a bunch of people.
Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
And, and people appreciate it too. It's, it's fun when you get you appreciation from people and people think what you're doing is cool and they appreciate your creativity. And, you know, I I really enjoyed doing it for that. I never really grew my YouTube channel that much because, well, for some reason or another, the, the algorithm on that, once you post things every single week, you know, sometimes multiple times a week Oh yeah. In order for you to grow. And I really like doing really high quality edits or creative stuff where you've, you know, spend a lot of time putting it together and timing. And you, you make a, it's, it's kinda like a, like an art piece, you know? And, and then I just couldn't crank that out. You can't crank that out that often and fast enough. So I ended up growing more on Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
Instagram has really taken off. Unfortunately you don't make as much money on that, but now coming to this point, everyone's like, oh, you should have a YouTube channel. If you had that many followers on a YouTube channel, you'd be making good money. You know, and it's just like, oh, great. Well, I'm glad I had focused on the one that didn't make money. So, but it's all about, you know, for me, being able to share it and, you know, my Instagram channel has a pretty good audience and it's a lot of people who are super responsive, which is fun. I enjoy the interaction with people. I, I like the people that follow it often and comment. I try and get back to everyone I can get back to when they comment on something. And that part of it's fun. And then you run into those people at some point in person and, you know, it's, I don't know, it's just awesome to be, you know, someone who can bring that to you if you're, you know, stuck at a desk job somewhere and you know, you want to, you wanna see some of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
And I, I know how it feels because I do it with other people around the world. I watch their stuff, you know? And so it's like, oh man, I wish I could go over there and do that, and I'd, you know, and, and one day when you make it happen, then it's, it's pretty awesome. So that's kind of what got me into the social media part of it. And then apart from that, it, it does help and builds up your business and that way you advertise organically and that whole part of it as well.
Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
So would you say, well, running this or what has been one of the biggest lessons learned after running these channels and doing, you know, all this piece with social media?
Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Hmm
Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
I'd probably say just recently finding out that, you know, just the way that, and it's not even the way the algorithm where the, the algorithm really only only works only works exactly how people work. So if you think about how people, how people digest stuff, how people watch stuff, and even how lazy we are when we're scrolling through our phones and, you know, if something doesn't catch your attention in two seconds, then you're over it. And so learning, learning that is just kind of getting into people's heads on like what they wanna see, you know? And that, and what's, so that part of it has been, has been a big, you know, shift in change in how, how you have to make content to grow and also, you know, in order to get a bigger base where you can at some point make content that's longer form and, and have an audience to see it.
Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
Because if you don't, you can make the most incredible film in the world, but if you only have like, you know, 400 people who follow you, then it's like, you know, where does that go? It doesn't really, it doesn't really land anywhere. It doesn't get seen by too many people and appreciated. And then you feel like you spend a ton of work on just about nothing. And so it's kind of this, you know, you're, you build up so that you can also, you know, share what you like. Even if you're, you are fighting the algorithm at the end of the day. But it also works good for you as a, as a business for getting sponsors and for, you know, just in general, you, you build up to where you have an audience and people start looking and going, oh, well, you know, you wanna fish with this, you here, we'll send you some of this. And, you know, and so it's, I don't know, that whole journey, you can kind of climb that ladder as you go up and, you know, push, push where you're at on that level. And apparently numbers, numbers mean everything on that. So that's kind of ,
Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
That's the truth. ,
Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
Right? Yeah. I mean, he's running the podcast here. It's like, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Yeah. I mean, for those of you that have ever thought about getting this game, it's a fun game. It really is. But it truly is a numbers game. I mean, it, you wanna make money, okay, you gotta hit X, y, z wicket. You know, they have these things in place for what they're gonna get out of that deal to be able to give you a piece of their pie. And it's, it's, mm-hmm. It's a fun one. And, but on the worst one I found too is, is with doing this, is you'll get some really off the wall. Like, Hey, we'd love to sponsor you. And you're like, who are you and whatcha offering me? And then you're like, okay, this sounds kind of cool. And then you realize it's not nearly as good as you thought it was, and it's really a bad thing. And you're like, Uhuh, no, no, no. Go away. Go away. Please.
Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:21:02):
Oh, but you, you do the best you can with it. So it's, it's fun there. This question isn't on your paper but this one I think ties in really well with what you just said. What advice do you have for an aspiring digital creator who want to blend this passion for surfacing with the creative endeavors?
Speaker 2 (01:21:21):
Hmm. That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Yeah, of course I come up with new questions as I, as we haven't, you know, from the time I sent it to you.
Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
I'm like, no, that's, that's, that's awesome. I mean, that's, that's a really good question because I've, like, I've gone down the, the whole road of, you know, it's being creative and trying to film stuff by yourself is, is one thing. And that has pretty much throughout the world translated into, I'm gonna have GoPro on my chest or on my head and, and that, and then we're gonna take that and we're gonna chop it up with maybe some, you know, maybe some vocal stuff or some voiceover stuff. And, and that's gonna be my video. And, and so I, I kind of, you know, as entertaining as some of that stuff is, it's like that's not the way I wanted to see a lot of the action that I was seeing. So I, I went for probably the more difficult approach and probably the reason I didn't grow on YouTube and, you know, the, just that whole thing is I went for straight up camera with a lens where I could zoom in and try and catch action.
Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
And most of the time, and you'll see that in a lot of my videos, is I'm not in front of the camera in a lot of my videos. I, I am a little bit more now, but for most of the years it was me filming. So that becomes difficult. You then you end up just being a creative, you're making like, cool videos and they don't really have to do with you. And so your personality doesn't come out in the videos and that's not really what YouTube wants. It works for Instagram. That's more of an artsy community type of, you know. But so I'd say for someone who's doing it new, decide where you want to go with with your videos. I mean, if you wanna do that, like, you know, first person point of view with the, with the GoPro I mean, there's some guys that do some really great jobs with that and are making good money with it on, on YouTube and, and doing that, I, I just kind of got tired of that same point of view.
Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
The reel is like right here in the shot every time and you just, it's right there and nothing ever changes. And they're just like, oh, shoot. Ah, he's going around a rock. And Oh, did you see him splash out? No, I didn't see him splash. 'cause You got a white angle lens and I'm not seeing the splash that's, you know, 40 yards out there, right. So I wanna see the splash that's 40 yards. I wanna see it in slow motion. I wanna see the fins come out of the water. Yeah, I wanna see all that. But you don't see it because it's either, you know, the camera on the head or on the chest. So that was kind of my frustration with that. So now I found a really good buddy who loves to fish with me, and he's really getting into the camera and he really loves the camera. And I taught him all I know about the camera, and now we're filming each other back and forth. And I, to be honest, he does a lot more filming me than I do of him. But I, I did this morning, I filmed him. But oh,
Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
Friendship
Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
. Yeah, it's, it's one of those like, yeah, it's a, so we're having fun with that. And you know, now I get to be in front of the camera a little bit more, which is also another fun twist to it. And maybe we'll start growing the YouTube channel making some more stuff or, you know, I guess my face is in front of the camera more, which is, you know, that's interesting. I always, I've always hated the sound of hearing my own voice. And you know, you in podcast world, you have to get used to that, I guess. I mean, you've heard your own voice for a lot, but most people can't stand the sound of their own voice. And, you know, I'm no exception. So ,
Speaker 1 (01:25:07):
Yeah, it took a while for me to realize that. Like, what I hear in one ear while I'm speaking with, you know, the headphone off versus hearing it in my head, I'm like, I'm like, yeah, right and you're gonna hate it when I send you the post show and be like, here you go. Oh yeah, here's your episode. Go, go ahead and listen to it. I'm like, no, I'm good. I trust you.
Speaker 2 (01:25:25):
Yeah. I can't do it. .
Speaker 1 (01:25:28):
Oh, that's good. Alright, well let's move into the closing question. 'cause You already nailed the other stuff with running these and especially with social media and you nailed some really awesome points. And you guys can definitely go back and we'll talk about that here in the closing questions. So advice for beginners, for someone who's just starting out in the surf fishing, what's one piece of advice that would you give them to get started on the right path?
Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
Well if you have access to, to it where you live and fish that area well and figure out, you know, figure out the tips and tricks in your area, but then take that and try and expand from there. You know, just, just move out from there. And, you know, you go on vacation somewhere, you go on a trip, you come to Cabo, come and try doing it down here. Go, you know, go to go to do it mainland Mexico or go in Florida. So, I mean, they got, there's great surf fishing all around and, you know, find a style that you really enjoy and figure out how to translate it into wherever you go because fish or fish, wherever you go, I mean, they, they act the same. They feed, they feed in very similar manners. You'll always find predatory fish wherever you're going. And you know, I, a lot of my growing up, we didn't have cool lures down here at all.
Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
I mean, it was like you had a few different lures from La prop Paula, and then anything that was outside of the box was you were buying Musky lures or something from the Northern United States, Canada, Midwest stuff. I mean, big weird stick bait lures that they were using to chase Pike and Muskie. And then you were ripping the hooks off of those and the split rings and throwing 'em in the trash and then going and putting some like actual heavy stuff on and then using it for the fish around here. And it was crazy how like I was buying lures that were made in Poland that they used for Pike and, and stuff over there. And those were such an amazing lure for snapper and grouper around the rocks here. I mean, it was just on fire back in the day and I'd ordered these things from like overseas as a kid and, and it was wild. So it's, yeah, don't, don't get stuck on like just what works, what everyone tells you works in your area. Take something that you like or, and then try and adapt it. You know, go change it up. , you might find something new, something that works and, you know, make a video about it and you know, it might be onto something, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
Makes sense. Are there any fellow surf anglers, mentors, authors, or individuals who have inspired your journey and deserve a shout out?
Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
Hmm. Ah, there's,
Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Shoot, there's a bunch of, bunch different guys around the world. I'd, yeah, I'd say I've met a lot of guys at, at icast, if you guys have never been to a taco trade show like icast or you know, some of the, some of the big ones in your area, that's a super fun way to network and meet people and meet cool people. And I go to ICAST every year just, just to do that, just to go talk with people and end up running into some, some interesting people from around the world. I, my trip to Australia, I ended up doing, because I met a guy named Dennis Verite who had caught big yellow fin tuna off the rocks out of Ascension Island back when they'd let you travel to that island out there. He fished that back when it was still legal to travel out there and caught some really big fish.
Speaker 2 (01:29:34):
And that kind of sparked our land, land-based search. And we went to Australia and spent a month camping out there and fishing. And that was, that was a fun one. The guy crazy Alberto, if you ever look him up online, he's he's an East coast fisherman. He fishes big stripe bass, big snook and he's got some really interesting methods of fishing. He is, he's been doing it a long time and he, he's got some things that he talks about where fishing the non-human hours, which is kind of a cool thing which
Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Yeah, yeah. Being saying that the, on the biggest, biggest fish come out in the non-human hours, you know, in the, you know, the middle of the, the night, those like two, three in the morning and, and he's got the fish to back it up too. So that's, that's a really cool theory and it works really well in his area, obviously. And so it's, yeah, his name is Al Alberto Kinney, I think is his, his name, but crazy, crazy. Alberto is, and he's the one who, if you've ever heard of the Alberto, the Alberto Knot mm-hmm. which is like an improved Albright knot. The Alberto Knot. He came up with that, that's named after him, of
Speaker 1 (01:30:55):
Course. Nice. Now see, learning just occurred for me. I didn't realize where it came from. That's really cool. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
Yeah. So yeah, he's a very, very cool guy. He he works very closely with St. Croix Rods, so whenever you go to ICAST or something, he'll be hanging around that booth.
Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
I wonder if I met him last year. I unfortunately didn't get to go this year. I was busy getting something done and ah, yeah, I I unfortunately I've been waiting a while for that one. So I missed ICAST this year. I went last year and loved it. Absolute. Had a great time. I went with the Fish Bites team and it, it was a lot of fun. And you're right man, it's a hell of a networking and you can learn so much. And it was also the sign where I realized how tiny surf fishing is in the fishing world. Uhhuh, you know, I used to think we were mean, we got so much, we got so much water, man. We're Yeah. We the water and then you realize, oh crap, bass owns this game. We don't own this game. .
Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Yeah. Yeah. No, trust me. All, all the funding that I try and go for, for any kind of media creation or fun trips or anything, it's like I always get met with, oh, we spent all of our budget on bass fishing. Yeah. Like,
Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:31:58):
It's like, come on, I'm, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna catch this world record and something off the rock story and you can't give me enough. Nope. We already spent, you know, $70,000 on what's his face, who's the champion bass fisherman. It's like, gosh, dang it, you couldn't even give me a couple for, you know, . And Yeah. I mean it's just, yeah, the bass game is king because, you know, they make, they make 80, 90% of, of their earnings off of, off a pass. So, I mean, it makes sense. Yeah. It's not yeah, it's not really a, not really a, a question or competition, you know. No, I, I'll let 'em have it, but I'm still gonna fight for, you know, my little piece of budget at the end of the day to go. Hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:32:37):
Why wouldn't you ? They absolutely would. Yeah. Alright, so we're coming down to the last four questions here and we'll get you outta here. What's a message you'd like, listeners that listen to this episode to take away from the conversation about Sur today?
Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
Hmm. Surf fishing is definitely one of those ones. It's a, it's a hard way to catch fish. It's not the easiest way to catch fish in the world. If you want the easiest way, go out on a boat and go, go do that. So on the flip side, enjoy, really enjoy what you're doing. Just enjoy the process of it, enjoy the learning. Get out there and enjoy the morning. I mean, I don't know, I, I always get out there on the beach and it's like, you know, God made that sunrise for me that morning and you know, those fish that are coming up, you know, God painted that morning for me. So get out there and appreciate that part of it. And I don't know it, if you catch a fish at the end of the day and it happens to be a good one, then man, that's, that's a bonus.
Speaker 1 (01:33:51):
Very nice bonus. Very good. . Alright, where can listeners find more about your content, learn from your experiences and stay updated on your surf adventures?
Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
Hmm. Mostly I would say I'm probably most active on Instagram, Cabo Surf Caster on Instagram. I'll do stories and we'll be posting reels on there. I'm trying to shift a little bit more into some of the other platforms to try and grow that a little bit more. Facebook is another decent one. Don't get back to people quite as quickly on there. But yeah, and we're gonna start trying to post more on YouTube. We got a, a few fun things coming up this year that we wanna wanna be doing and hopefully posting on there. But yeah, I mean, I'd say you wanna see the most recent stuff going on, it's probably gonna go up on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
Very cool. I'll make sure I'm looking more at Instagram. 'cause I, me and Instagram, we're not, we're not friends right now. We're, we're having some, we're having some anger.
Speaker 2 (01:34:55):
Yeah, I can, I can imagine that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:34:59):
Alright, final question. And this has been great, man, but what's next for you?
Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
Ah, next that's an exciting one here. Here's what, here's what's in the works. I'm, I'm trying, trying to plan a trip down to Columbia. Ooh, nice. Yeah, so there's, there's some, some areas in Columbia on the Pacific side that I would like to get out to and fish and try and chase that those, those bucket list fish we talked about earlier in the episode that oof I think it can happen. And talking to some of the locals down there, kind of like I was telling you, you should do when you go to fish a new area, talk to people, ask 'em questions, figure out what they, what they catch and you know, they're always gonna be doing it in the traditional way. Sometimes the, you know, what everyone else is doing. And that's obviously, if you've seen any of what I do, that's kind of not how I do it.
Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
So going down there and doing it a different way and, and catching those fish and, you know, talking to him, he goes, well, shoot, I've been following you for a while, and like, you could definitely take those fish off your list if you come down here. Like, I have spots where, you know, it's wild. It's just, you know, nobody fishes it. We'll fish it in the boat sometimes and close enough that you could easily cast from shore. And I've been following your stuff. I'd love to get you out there and try and see if you can catch 'em because none of us have ever, ever even gotten off on the rocks and, you know, and I'm like, well shoot, you put me there and I'll, I'll do it. You know,
Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
Challenge accepted
Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
And yeah, so that's a, that's a trip right now that we're, we're planning hopefully end of next month. And yeah, we're working on getting some funding. I think there's the possibility of saltwater sportsman being involved in it as well.
Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
Very nice. That'll
Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
Be, that'll be fine. So you might, might see something about it there. If they can get the, if they can get the sponsors all all lined up for that you know, I'm working on trying to get my sponsors lined up and trying to snake some money away from the Basque guys and, but . But yeah. Hey, regardless, that's a, that's a kind of a bucket list trip and fish for me. So I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it happen regardless. We're gonna try and do it and, you know, we're gonna go and film it and film some cool stuff and, you know, maybe, hopefully you'll see one or two of those bucket list fish crossed off the list and posted up there with a fun video. So, dude,
Speaker 1 (01:37:53):
That'd be awesome. I'm so excited for
Speaker 2 (01:37:54):
You. That's what's next I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
Oh, well, you have done such an amazing job in this episode, just like you do in all your stuff. I mean, this was wonderful. You gave so much great knowledge. A lot of people are gonna just be able to do so many great things with fishing and hopefully, I mean, if I'm in Cabo I will call you well before I leave to come to Cabo, but I will happily try to come out and book and fish with you and we'd love to go do that. And I know that this episode's gonna help a ton of people, so thank you so much for coming on and giving us the time today. I really appreciate it, Wess.
Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
No, it was a blast. Thanks. No, that's, that's what we do it for, is to share it with other people and, you know, this is, it's cool to get the, the word out there, the info and if you, yeah, like I said, if you wanna follow along with some of that stuff that we're doing, it's, yeah, that's probably online's the best way to do it. And I really appreciate all the people who are following along and commenting on stuff and, you know, it's encouraging, you know, I do it for, for the people like that. So yeah. Awesome. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
Yeah, no problem. All right. We will talk to you again soon. You take care.
Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
Right on. You too.
Speaker 1 (01:38:59):
All ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, I got a ton of knowledge. I got a whole page and a half of notes. It's pretty insane. . Hopefully you guys picked up some stuff. Make sure you're going back and taking a look at West's stuff. It's Cavo Surf Caster. You can find 'em on the social media platforms. Great info to follow. Lots of good stuff. And like you just heard some really cool stuff coming into the future. Thanks for hanging out here at Finding DMO Surf and always good to see you. Always thankful that you're here. Share it out. All we do is learn from each other, right? It's the only way we can make each other better. Learn and continue been good. I'll see you. I'm outta here.