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LT Jesse Walker, USN, has moved to the panhandle from Jacksonville and brought a TON of experience with him. Not only has he grown up fishing, he further extended his skills after joining the Navy and traveling. Hawaii, Texas, The Carolinas, and Florida appear in this episode, laced with nuggets to help you succeed wherever you are fishing. I especially loved the comparison areas that helped paint a picture of where to start and how to adjust. This episode will help everyone that listens.
This will also be a two-part series. Next week, we talk with Jesse again, and he dives head first into the world of YouTube, being a digital creator, and influencer thoughts. You're not going to want to miss these!
This will also be a two-part series. Next week, we talk with Jesse again, and he dives head first into the world of YouTube, being a digital creator, and influencer thoughts. You're not going to want to miss these!
Episode Is Sponsored By: Kids Can Fish Foundation: Kids Can Fish is a state and federally-recognized 501(c)(3) charitable foundation. Their mission is to teach kids fishing fundamentals and, most importantly, HAVE FUN!!
Bait Check: DS Custom Tackle: Tackle Supply for all anglers. Floats, rigs, jigs, bait, and more
Bait Check: The Sinker Guy: The Bruno & Mortician rig, Sputnik Sinkers, Sinker pouring supplies, and terminal tackle.
Bait Check: Ninja Tackle: Ninja Dagger, 7' Travel Rod, Bummy Stick, Akios reels, rigs, bait, and firearm accessories (optics, Glock parts, attachments, and more)
Theme Song Dirty Rock by Twisterium
Mentions:
Keesler AFB (Mississippi)
MWR
Ft. Bragg, NC
U.S. Army
Mirro lures Top Dog
University of N. Alabama
Fishbites
U.S. Navy
K-Bay, Hawaii
U.S. Marine Corps
Bob Sykes Bridge
Disney
Walmart
Los Buzos
Robert Field
Justin Reed Fishing
Salt Strong
Beach Buzz
Penn Fathom 2 Casting Reel
Live Liner Reels
Paul Vancelette
Mortician Rig
Hale Koa
FishGum
Half Hitch Tackle
#findingdemosurffishing #slotcityfishing #podcast #learntofish #atlanticoceanfishing #gulfofmexicofishing #pacificoceanfishing #beachfishing #surffishing #KeeslerAFB #MoraleWelfareRecreation #MWR #FtBragg #USArmy #MirroluresTopDog #UniversityNAlabama #Fishbites #USNavy #KBay #Hawaii #USMarineCorps #BobSykesBridge #Disney #Walmart #LosBuzos #RobertField #JustinReedFishing #SaltStrong #BeachBuzz #PennFathom #LiveLinerReels #PaulVancelette #MorticianRig #HaleKoa #FishGum #HalfHitchTackle
Creators and Guests
What is Finding Demo Surf Fishing?
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 (00:00:00):
This episode of Finding Demoer Fishing is being brought to you by the Kids Can Fish Foundation. Kids Can Fish as a state and federally recognized 5 0 1 [inaudible] Charitable Foundation. All the camps, clinics, and outreach are funded by website merchandise, sales sponsors and donations. The mission is to teach kids the fundamentals of fishing and have the most fun possible. One of their biggest catchphrases is more tackle boxes, less xboxs. Take a look at what they've got going on. They've got some camps coming up. They just completed one recently and posted all about it. So head on over to Kids Can fish.net, take a look at that and get signed up for the next running of the Bowls tournament out of St. Simon's Island over there in Georgia. Good stuff. Thanks again for Kids Can Fish. You're doing great things.
Speaker 1 (00:01:05):
I, yes. New week, new episode. Welcome to the show. You're listening to Finding DMO Surf Fishing. Hopefully everything is going well wherever you are, whatever you are doing, it's always good. I'm glad that you get come over here and spend some time this week. We are staying local. Yeah, we've got kind of somebody famous that just moved into the area and I, I am super excited to go fishing with him here soon. And it's just this whole episode is probably gonna dig into some serious things here. We got a lot of cool stuff we were talking about pre-show and yeah, it's only gonna get better. So we're talking with Slot City Fishing, Mr. Jesse Walker. You'll be able to find him on Facebook. Slot City, Phish, all one word. Instagram, same thing. Slot city, Phish and YouTube. Lots and lots of excellent content.
Speaker 1 (00:01:51):
I cannot emphasize that enough. Slot City Phish, so you can find 'em on all that. Also, if you go back to the webpage where you were listened to the podcast, if you looked that on finding demo surf phishing, or through my transistor page, you'll be able to find the hyperlinks back there to all his stuff. And a lot of the things we're gonna talk about today before we kick into the episode. I do have to apologize. I know my voice seems a little funky. Unfortunately, the Winter crud has found me. I don't know how, but you know, that's just how it works. So I will do my best to make sure I sound good cuz that's what we do on podcasts. Yeah. All right. So without me flapping my mouth the whole time, self-important and all that fun stuff, let me welcome you to the show, Jesse. Welcome, man.
Speaker 2 (00:02:29):
Hey, what's up brother?
Speaker 1 (00:02:31):
Oh, good. Times ahead. I am. Congratulations on a successful move. Welcome to the area. Very excited for you. You've been here before, obviously, but I mean, I didn't get to meet you yet, so I'm super excited,
Speaker 2 (00:02:42):
Dude. I'm excited too, man. And before we get going I'm really digging what you're doing, man, for the community. It's, it's a very cool program. I've been driving back and forth from Jack's to pace, which is in Pensacola area if, if you're not local. And that's like a five and a half hour drive. And I think that I've listened to at least half of your, your episodes and it's refreshing to see somebody doing something different. That's successful. Man. I, I'm really enjoying what you're doing and it's an honor to be on your show, bro. I appreciate
Speaker 1 (00:03:14):
It. Oh man, you are entirely too kind and I am excited that you're here. So I'm glad you enjoyed them. That was, I remember you were telling me one of them you listened to on the way back. I was like, oh crap, somebody's listening to my show and like, oh, wow. Giving feedback. I just got, I got even more excited. I'm like, okay, what am I doing right? And the most important question was, what am I doing wrong? So you hooked me up and I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (00:03:34):
Yeah, man. I mean, we're, we're all trying to just get a piece of this, this action on the social media thing. You know, it's it changes daily and there's so much to learn. You could go to college for four or five years and still not learn half of like, the madness that goes into this thing. It's a, it's a unique beast and it changes so often, like TikTok and whatever these new things come out that I don't really do. But you're, you're doing a cool new thing, man. I, I think that you're gonna be very successful in the future if you keep doing what you're doing, man. It's, it's a, it's a cool thing.
Speaker 1 (00:04:10):
Know this knee injury didn't stop me. The only thing that will is if I can't talk or can't move. So , I mean, I'm enjoy it, man. This is, it's been a lot of fun doing a podcast. You know, it, the amount of things that I've learned, and hopefully everyone else has learned, you know, with international fishing and the West Coast or up the East Coast, all these different tips and tricks, but a lot of it being very similar to all the areas. It's like, okay, look, you can do fishing. It's just a matter of finding the key points that are always there that's gonna make you successful. So it, it's, it's been a lot of fun. And watching your stuff has been, it's getting me ready for eventually when I start getting into kayaking. And, you know, anytime I'm out on the boat now, I'm like, oh, okay, let me pick up a couple of these all lures, maybe these things. So thank you for what you've been doing. You really got a big library for people to go through.
Speaker 2 (00:04:58):
Yeah, man, I, I, I do it all. My my job definitely lends itself to some very incredible opportunities for me to do a bunch of different cool stuff in the fishing world. I'm very blessed and fortunate and extremely grateful to be able to do what I do. So it, it, it is cool, man. And we'll talk about that all, all the traveling and stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:05:23):
Yep. I love it. Perfect. Well, since you've been got me the perfect transition there, let's go ahead and get right into it. And as always, I'd like to start at the very beginning. So tell us your story and what got you into fishing.
Speaker 2 (00:05:34):
Whew, man. I could probably spend a whole day talking about this.
Speaker 1 (00:05:39):
A lot of the guys say that like. Hey, we're going way back to it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:05:44):
Yeah, man. Well, it's a lot Cause I've been fishing my whole life, dude. This is a conversation that I need to have with my dad. Cause I don't know what got him into fishing, but I can tell you this for sure that my, some of my earliest and fondest memories are with my dad fishing. Dang. I don't know why this guy like, emotional about this. Anyway I get it, you know, my dad was in the army and we moved a ton, but my aunt's husband, my uncle he owned a piece of property in the Atlanta area that had a big lake on it. I say Big Lake, it actually, he's like a small pond, but when I was little, it felt like a big lake. And my dad would take me out there and we would just wear out bass and I remember that.
Speaker 2 (00:06:30):
And then he moved around a lot. And I remember he was stationed at Kesler Air Force Base, which is in Biloxi, Mississippi, or by there somewhere. Somewhere by there. And he would go surf casting, actually a lot and pier fishing too. But he would wade fish in the water by the casinos. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Yeah. At all for Yep. For like flounder and stuff. And then back then, this is, you know, before the days of internet and you know streaming content, e even even home internet, I don't even think that we had that back then. The n w R on the base, they would put on like fishing tournaments and stuff. And there's a really cool picture of me. I'm, I'm tiny, bro. I was probably like, not even in kindergarten yet, but my dad won this tournament where he caught this just big redfish.
Speaker 2 (00:07:23):
You know, I'm, I'm a, I'm a baby at this point, and like the fish to me, the way I remember it is like bigger than me. But he's holding this and he used to drive a 1972 Cadillac coop Deville this white with a black leather top, and he's holding this big redfish, sorry for my language. You're good. And he's got, and he is got like a light beer in his hand. It's just a really cool pitcher. But I'm standing next to this fish and the fish is like bigger than me, . Yep. And then we would go on vacation all the time. He was at Fort Bragg, he was a paratrooper. So we would go to Myrtle Beach a lot. And then our favorite place to go was Panama City. And we would camp out like tent camp at St. Andrew State Park. I don't know if you're familiar with that at all.
Speaker 1 (00:08:04):
I've heard of it. It was on our list to visit when we were RVing.
Speaker 2 (00:08:07):
Yeah, it's a really cool place, man. But my surf casting, or shore casting is, is from a jetty. So I don't know if you could call it surf. Some. That's a, that's a debate, right? There is like, some people say surf fishing, you have to be on a sand where I don't really agree with that. It's like, to me it's like short cast. Yeah. Because I fish the same, the same way from the sand that I do from like a jetty. Kind of my favorite fish to catch is redfish. And the reason why is we would go to St. Andrew State Park and most people start off like short cast or surf casting by doing like double dropper rigs. Mine was, we went there and coincidentally the red fish were running. And on this particular jetty, on an outgoing tide, it, the, the high tide when it starts going out would pull these crabs off these rocks and these big bull redfish would blow up the water they'd make, just make the water boil.
Speaker 2 (00:08:59):
It sounds like I'm exaggerating, but it was like a war zone, dude. I was probably, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 at the time. And we were just bombing out mi lure top dogs. I had no idea what that was at the time. We just went and got it cuz we saw that that's what other people were using. But my early, my earliest memories of catching like big redfish was when I was young throwing top water lures, which now I think about it and it's like, dang. Like I, I wish I could replicate that now, cuz that that would be a killer YouTube video. But like that it doesn't happen very often, so it, it's pretty neat. Yeah, man. And then that's what really got me into fishing. You know, I I just love it, man. It's a cool thing. And then, yeah, I mean, there's, there's so much more to it, dude. .
Speaker 1 (00:09:44):
It's all
Speaker 2 (00:09:45):
Good, man. You're good. I guess that was me and my adolescence fishing. And then I went to high school in Huntsville, Alabama, and I I actually got a, a scholarship playing music. The reason I bring this up is it's very influential in like me being a YouTuber and th this aspect of it. Anyway, I went to college at the University of North Alabama on a saxophone scholarship. And it's kind of funny, I've been talking with all your local people and Tony from Fish Gum actually went to the same college that I went to
Speaker 1 (00:10:22):
. No kidding. That's
Speaker 2 (00:10:23):
Funny. Yeah. Small world dude. So like, we kind of know some of the same people and like restaurants or whatever. But yeah, I went to school for music education and I did that for a while. And that's where I met my wife and her family. And they're professional musicians. This is by Muscle Sholls, Alabama. I don't know if you are familiar with it at all, but it's like a small little music mecca with a bunch of recording studios and stuff like that. And my my wife's dad and her brother are both very successful musicians. And I actually dropped outta college to pursue a professional music gig. And I toured with my brother-in-law when he got his first record deal. So I dropped outta school and then I did the professional music thing for a while playing bass for him.
Speaker 2 (00:11:14):
And then I got back and I realized that being a musician is a very difficult and not very profitable business in the beginning. And then I had a young, a family at the time my daughter was born around this time, and I was like, all right, man, this ain't working out. And that's when I enlisted in the Navy. My first duty station was Pensacola for Air Crew school, and that's when I picked up fishing again. And yeah, man, I've, I've PCs 12 times now in 12 years. Yeah. And I, I really have fished like all over the world, dude. Jacksonville, Florida was my first permanent duty station, and I, I fished there a good bit, and then I went to Kao Bay, Hawaii, and I spearfished there. And also my first actual, what I would call surf fishing experiences were in K Bay as well for bonefish, a Hawaiian dude taught me how to, how to surf fish, and then also slide bait R for a Lua. I don't know if you know what that is.
Speaker 1 (00:12:12):
I do. I I was thankfully I was a kid and got my, my family was stationed out there at Pearl Harbor. And that's right. Kba KBA is a special place in my poor black little heart.
Speaker 2 (00:12:24):
Oh man. Best, best times of my life. And it's funny, you know, it too, like so believe it or not, man, I was the E four at the time. I don't remember how much I made, but it was a, a humble salary, you know? Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. But I was living rich, bro. No kidding. I had a four bedroom house with a two car garage, and the beach was in my backyard, and like, you could see the ocean from my back porch, and we could walk to it and I would go down there with my spear gun, get in the water, and my wife would come back, and there was just coincidentally these two palm trees that we would string a hammock up. And my wife would walk down there with a cooler full of beer, and then I would get outta the water with my fish and just get in the hammock and just, you know, wash the sun, go down, and then, you know, rinse, wash, repeat every day. It was best, best times, dude.
Speaker 1 (00:13:15):
Hell yeah. Were you, was that base housing or you were you just off base that,
Speaker 2 (00:13:19):
That was base housing, dude.
Speaker 1 (00:13:20):
Yeah, the base housing out it there was not horrible. Mean, it kind of was when I was a kid, but after I got in the Marine Corps, we we went out there and I saw it. I was like, wow, you guys really improved this place?
Speaker 2 (00:13:30):
Oh, yeah, man, it was nuts. It's just funny, man. Yeah, I, I take a lot of pride and I come from very humble beginnings, man. Like I said, my dad, he's a retired first sergeant very successful career. But he was also a drill sergeant. And when I turned 16, he basically told me anything that you want from this point, you're gonna have to buy it yourself. And I was like, copy that. Which he could have provided for me whatever I wanted, but he was teaching me a, a, a very valuable life lesson. Yeah. You know how to, how to work hard for things. But yeah, when I enlisted in the Navy at the time, I had just moved out of a single wide trailer back in the woods in Alabama. So, you know, from where I started to where I'm at right now, it's been it, it's a trip, dude. I, I, I really can't believe I, I made it this far.
Speaker 1 (00:14:20):
. That's funny. I mean, they, they're not kidding. You know, I, I did my full career and did my time, and it's, it's not a joke, it's an adventure, but it, you know, it's all on what you make of the adventure. That's the one thing I've always told people, especially when I was on recruiting duty, sorry. Absolutely. As they have to spit at that horrible memory. Absolutely. But yeah, it's all in what you make of it. So
Speaker 2 (00:14:39):
100%, dude. And I, I think that that kind of parallels to just fishing in general, man is like, a lot of people get caught up in trying to get the, the outcome, like the, the reward at the end. But really, man, it's about the journey. Like mm-hmm. , the destination's not worth it if you don't enjoy the journey, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (00:14:59):
Yeah, absolutely. Does. Well, with all this travel, I mean, you've got a big YouTube channel, you've done a lot of these things. So from childhood up through hell growing up, you've been obviously on the water in different places now that we're here, what type of fishing do you like to do now?
Speaker 2 (00:15:14):
Man, I really like everything. Yeah, , it just depends on what I'm in the mood for. And, and I go in waves too, man, and it's, it's also very dependent on like, the time of the year and what species are running, you know? Like if I know that the Pompano are running, then that's where I'm gonna be if, you know, it's in the middle of winter. A big thing that I learned in Texas is like fishing artificials insure for like big trout and stuff like that. So I do it all, man. I also have a boat. I don't know if I told you that. I
Speaker 1 (00:15:47):
Saw it yesterday on Facebook. I was like, oh, look at that pretty thing. So you're gonna have a lot of fun being back here.
Speaker 2 (00:15:53):
Yeah, man. It's, it's great. I'm, I am fortunate that I've lived in this area. This is my third time being stationed here too. So just to circle back on, on the, on the move. So I started out in Pensacola, then I went to Jacksonville for my first duty station. I deployed out of there, then I went to kba and I did two years there. And then that's where I got picked up for ocs. And out of there I went to ocs, which is a, that's littered with a ton of hilarious stories, but I, I, I know your channels more focused on on fishing, but I'll say this, man. I was snooping on your Facebook page and I saw you it's a great picture. You, I smooching your wife or whoever in front of Santa Claus and you're in your alphas.
Speaker 2 (00:16:36):
And I'm like, oh, dude, this guy is a gunnery sergeant . Like, you're, you're, you're like a really jovial, funny dude listening to your show, but I saw you in your alphas. And I was like, man, this guy is, could probably break me if, if you wanted to . And I remem, dude, I'll never forget. I, I, I'm pretty sure I probably have like P t s D from this man is those freaking drill instructors in oc s dude, like just Terri, terrible, but hilarious memories. Anyway, he got picked up for a pilot out of there, and then I went to it's called Aviation Pre-Flight Indoctrination in Primary Flight School. And that's here in Pensacola. So I, I was blessed to be able to come back here for another two years, and then I went back to Jacksonville, and now I'm back here. So been bouncing around all over the place.
Speaker 2 (00:17:22):
But I brought that up because you know, I don't consider myself a local to Pensacola, but I have spent the majority of my career at this location. So mad respect to all of the actual true locals to this area. But you know, I'm, I'm very familiar and fortunate with a lot of the people and places in this area too. So you guys don't know how good you freaking have it . I mean, you do, you, you move here, you know, but the guys that just get to drive out to Navar and, you know, do that every day, and you get de desensitized to that, that stuff like, it, it's great here, man. I'm, I'm so glad to be back.
Speaker 1 (00:18:01):
Yeah, we definitely, I've said it numerous episodes, you know, we have a very, very good fishery, and we are very, very fortunate throughout the world. You know, you can go to the Keys, absolutely. But something about this area is just lights out great fishing, whether it's inshore, offshore, surf, pier, jetty, all of it. There are ways to catch fish every day if you want it.
Speaker 2 (00:18:23):
Well, the thing is too, with here's the accessibility, like you brought up the keys. Oh, yeah. Like, everybody can't go to the keys. And even if you do go to the keys, like the things that come to my mind, fishing there for like large permit and fly fishing for like bonefish or offshore fishing, like, you know, normal people can't just go do that right quick. You know? Here you can rent an Airbnb, like somebody's furnished garage which we've done by the way here, . And and then go kill it at like Bob Sykes Pier. You know, like, you don't even have to know what you're doing. You can just come down here cheap and absolutely slay great keeper fish. And the biodiversity here is so insane too. Like I just came from the East coast, like, you can't kayak offshore there and catch Kobe, you know, a hundred yards off the beach. Like, that's not a thing, but here it is. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:19:18):
Or tuna. I mean, we don't have tuna here. Stay away from us people. You, you don't wanna come here for tuna .
Speaker 2 (00:19:23):
That's hilarious. Yeah. And Jax, if you wanna catch a black Vin tuna, you have to take an hour and a half boat ride out to what's called the ledge. That's where the continental shelf starts the big drop off into deep water. And, you know, you gotta have a twin outboard boat, unless you're very brave. . I've never caught Black Van Tuna here, but I have trolled kayak fishing offshore here. Not a lot, but a little bit. And yeah, king mc Spanish Kobe, it's, it's amazing. It's amazing here. That's something I wanna get back into a lot while I'm here.
Speaker 1 (00:19:59):
Well, I know you definitely will, and I know we're all gonna be looking forward to it, so that's good stuff. And I gotta back up. So the picture you saw of Abby and I there in front of Santa, that was actually a weird hookup from Disney. I was on the 15th mu at the time, and I knew, you know, a, it was Abby's first legit deployment, you know, that she, she'd never been through one yet. So, you know, it was, it was a rough, and being on the mute, you, you know how comms are, you're running through satcom and all that stuff. So your phone conversations, you say something, you wait 10 seconds and then you hope for reply mm-hmm. . But I reached out to Disney and I asked if I could just borrow the wishing well at Disney World and just be like, Hey, look, I don't need the whole day.
Speaker 1 (00:20:40):
I just need five minutes. And they emailed me back and said, yeah, cool story, bro. We're doing something else, and we're doing it like this. And they hooked it up. They got us all set up with Santa, and, you know, she, I, I wasn't even supposed to be home for another two weeks, I think. Yeah, we were, we were supposed to stay at Pearl for a couple extra days, but the skipper was like, huh, we're reloaded. We're out. We don't, we don't need to wait. Let's go. So yeah, we hightailed it back back to Cali, and yeah. Yeah, they hooked it up, man. So that was a lot of fun. And I mean, yes, gunnies were interesting. We're yes, you do have a great point. And there's only a few people that know this, and any of my marine friends listen to this. They, they can attest, you know absolutely friendly, 100%. I will laugh, joke with you and have a great time, but you wanna flip the switch? That's fine. I, I can do that too. It's, it, it, it doesn't go away. It stays with you. And it's, it's just a nice little thing in a box waiting to get out,
Speaker 2 (00:21:35):
Dude, I will never, ever forget the just fear of seeing a smokey bear flat hat drill instructor come around the corner and just stare into the depths of your soul, like you're, like the most insignificant creature on earth, and then just smoke you until you almost die.
Speaker 1 (00:21:55):
, oh, you're bringing me back to such a good place. Oh, anyway, we could do a whole episode on that, but No, I can't do that. You, you're gonna get my ADP flying.
Speaker 2 (00:22:02):
I know. We gotta focus on
Speaker 1 (00:22:03):
Fishing. Oh my gosh, you killed me here. Well, this is the perfect opportunity now that we're doing that. We'll transition right back into fishing here. But let's go ahead and knock out one of those favorite things of the show.
Speaker 1 (00:22:20):
It is your first bait check of the episode. It's been about 25 minutes. Hopefully you've caught a bunch of fish, if you haven't. Or while you're sitting there, reel that line in, double check your bait, make sure it's good. If nothing's bit yet, you might wanna change it up. Lots of good bait options out there to always bring a diversity. This bait check is being brought to you by DS Custom tackle. Ds custom tackle has a bunch of fun things for you to take a look at. The newest one is the Fleabag. That's right. You heard me right? The Fleabag, he's got glow in the dark, painted different sizes, really cool stuff, really good options there. If you need other things, they've got 'em from the supplies to build your own rigs, hooks, floats, you name it, they've got it in there. So head on over to ds custom and tackle.com, get your order in today. Well, now that we're somewhat back on track, , as I tell myself Yeah,
Speaker 2 (00:23:07):
I'll go on some tangents, bro. You gotta reel me back
Speaker 1 (00:23:09):
In. I, I got you A lot of these tangents. I mean, that's why I transitioned on the Marine one, but , a lot of the tangents are always gonna be good because they do flow. But this one I know is gonna be a long answer because this is one of my favorite questions throughout the whole podcast, which is, what is your favorite thing about fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:23:26):
The best answer I could give you for that one is, it's, it's like my therapy, dude. Yeah, I know that you can attest to this man. Everybody's lives are so freaking stressful these days, you know, like I, I'm not even talking about the military just in general, you know, like everybody's got things going on in their lives that you gotta balance with, you know, and fishing is one of those things where I go and do it, and every other aspect of my life turns off and I'm just worried about fishing. And it's a very, you know, healthy, positive way to spend time, and you just have a great time and you can catch some cool fish, have fun with your bros, and then you get a meal out of it. You know, also, like, I really enjoy learning a skill and like like honing a knife, like perfecting a craft and fishing is one of those things.
Speaker 2 (00:24:16):
It's like playing guitar. Like, you know, I would say probably five out of 10 people can pick up a guitar and play a campfire song or sing, sing a cowboy tune. You know what I mean? But how many people do you know that can actually like, rip a guitar? And then out of those people, how many of those people are actually professional musicians? Yeah. You know, and it's the same way with fishing. Like, you can go to Walmart and pick up just like some basic stuff and go fishing and have a killer time, best time of your life, but you can hone that craft and turn it into something that's, sorry, intricate and very detailed oriented and become a master of it. And I really enjoy doing things like that, like flying. I, I really enjoy cooking also playing music just learning and growing and, and fishing's really cool in that aspect. And you're outside, man. It's, and it's active. It's a very, very good thing.
Speaker 1 (00:25:05):
You nailed a lot of fun stuff that everyone, I'm like, yeah, but that music piece, dude, that was a great analogy right there. I mean, yeah. Really well put together.
Speaker 2 (00:25:12):
Another good analogy that I like is you gotta use your powers for good, not evil. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like a, a lot of people, they run with this social media thing and it goes into like a weird, like a weird like money fame type thing. Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. That's, that's not like that for me. For me it's great because I, I make connections in the fishing community, like dudes like you and I know that guys like you are gonna introduce me to other cool dudes. And that's just gonna lend to me catching more fish, you know? That's how I met Chip Brundage. Lots, lots of guys like that. It's, it's, it's a cool thing.
Speaker 1 (00:25:49):
Yeah. And this community is really, really cool. Really tight knit. And it, it's just great to talk to a bunch of people about like-minded things. Well, with those ones, here's your last question on the, the, going into the background here, or for the future, is there a bucket list fish that you wish to catch one day?
Speaker 2 (00:26:05):
Yeah, man, for sure. This will happen. Me and my brothers, we want to go to Latin America somewhere. Have you seen the videos about Los Bozo's
Speaker 1 (00:26:15):
Resort? Oh, are you kidding me? You mean the place that's on my bucket list? Oh, old Robert Field making me like, oh man, I wanna go do that.
Speaker 2 (00:26:23):
Yeah. I, I, I have to catch a rooster fish or a kuber snapper out of the kayak, like, and then go cook it up. And Latin America's just beautiful too, man. I don't know if you've ever been there, but I deployed to El Salvador two times and I actually surf fish down there on a beach called Elco. Cool place, man. Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (00:26:41):
No, I haven't been there. Only closest I've been is going through the Panama Canal once, but yeah, real nice right there. All right, so now we're gonna move into the one part of the show that everyone's like, yeah, hey, they're always foaming at the mouth for, because this is where the knowledge breaks in. So we're gonna move into the fishing tips, tricks, and knowledge, beer our peace. So when you're gonna go out, how do you plan your fishing trips?
Speaker 2 (00:27:02):
So I kind of talked about it a little bit earlier, is like, I, I, I try to have a game plan and also YouTube has drastically changed the way that I fish too, because I never fish without filming anymore. And the reason why is in Jack's, one day I was in my boat and I went out fishing just to have a good time. You know, I was like, I'm not gonna record. This is just gonna be a, you know, stress relief, just have fun in the shrimp. We're running in the St. John's River. And I casting at a bunch of 'em. And then just for the heck of it, I went over to this little rock jetty and I caught back to back one on a artificial paddle tail, a 23 inch flounder, and then right next cast on a live shrimp, I caught a 24 inch flounder. Wow. I was like, God, God dang. So I never film or fish without filming anymore, you know, cuz you, you can miss some magic content. But so I, I try to think about what's running, like what, what's happening. I also keep my ear to the ground and all of like the Facebook pages and all that stuff. Like, you brought it up earlier, like, there's no black una here. Yeah. Right. Man, they're slaying 'em right now.
Speaker 1 (00:28:06):
. Yeah, they are.
Speaker 2 (00:28:07):
It's awesome. And I see that because of, you know, Facebook. So if I was set up and I had my kayaks and all that stuff ready, like, you better believe that I would be out there doing that because like, I am a fisherman, but I'm a content creator too. So I'm trying to fish for what I think is gonna be the most entertaining and productive as far as the YouTube algorithm and current events go. So that, that's what I plan my trips around. And then I would say the next thing would be weather. Cuz that's very in influential on what I do.
Speaker 1 (00:28:41):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, weather being a huge important piece there. You definitely don't wanna mess with that. So, mm-hmm. , you talked about that with those ones. Now let's move into spot selection. How do you choose your spot when you're heading out to the beach?
Speaker 2 (00:28:53):
I do things a lot different than most people do. A as far as like fishing goes. In my time in the military, I've been extremely fortunate to get some very, very, very high quality training. And as a pilot I have a very intimate relationship with weather because I'm in it all the time. So I actually went to school and learned from Graphers about weather and, and meteorologists. Like we, we study weather. I know a very, very good amount about forecasting in front of mechanics and all that weird nerd stuff, but I also have access to a lot of like, software that most people aren't familiar with, like for Flight . And
Speaker 1 (00:29:35):
I was wondering if you were gonna say for flight or not.
Speaker 2 (00:29:38):
Yep. Yeah, dude, so it's funny, I actually checked the weather more thoroughly for a fishing trip than I do when I'm actually flying around thunderstorms and stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:29:50):
, you can believe that, oddly.
Speaker 2 (00:29:52):
Yeah. But it's the same thing, man, in four flight, there's satellite imagery, the same thing as Google Maps, but in Four Flight I can also overlay all types of weather programs on there too. So I can see when frontal passage is gonna happen, when a cold front's gonna blow through, when, when pressure's gonna change wind direction course and speed even wave swell height, all that stuff is on there. Lightning, it's, it's an amazing resource. Another really great one is Wendy. I use that a lot too. Yeah. But there's a lot of, a lot of, lot of stuff on Wendy that most people don't know how to use because really you don't have a reason to do it unless you're a pilot. But I will say that it's, it's a, all those little small details, you know I call 'em like force multipliers in fishing. If, if I heard you and Justin Reid talking about changing your hooks, you know what I mean? What if that makes a 1% difference in your fishing game that day? Right, right. So like line selection, weather, all those things. Yeah, that's, that's like 1%. But all those little 1% things they all add up. And if you do it right and you time it right, that's how you're gonna put yourself in the best position to catch fish. So that's, that's what I do.
Speaker 1 (00:31:07):
Makes sense. And the planning piece is great. Kind of one of the old things Beach Buzz haven't had him on just yet, but I'll get him eventually when he was flying around here as an instructor pilot and he in Hilos, I always laughed and he's like, what? I'm like, you get the ultimate cheat man. You get to go down the coast. Yeah. You know, rocking a hundred, 2,030 knots and you like Cut drift. Yep, yep. Rip. And it's like, oh, you're cheating. But I mean, again, anything you can use as a tactical advantage is huge. And how many, how many times if anybody's a part of Salt Strong or anything like that, one of the things they talk about is going online and taking a look at those, you know, the Google maps and all those things so you can get an idea of those pieces. So yeah, technology is a great savings for helping you plan, build and just get ahead in the game. So yeah, I think it's great, man.
Speaker 2 (00:31:54):
That's another thing too, man, is I am very, very blessed flying cause they don't tell you where to go, you know what I mean? Sometimes they do. If it's a mission, you gotta go do what they do. But on like a proficiency flight, I can fly wherever I want, bro.
Speaker 1 (00:32:07):
And
Speaker 2 (00:32:08):
Yeah, legit, I can go like as, as long as I have the gas and the time to do it. Like a, a flight that I did recently was and I did this all the time dude, cuz it's the best is I would file a flight plan from Jacksonville to like Gulfport, Mississippi at Sunset and just fly down the coast man and just check it out on a good day. You look at everything, it, it's amazing man. I'm, I'm very fortunate in that, in that, in that regard.
Speaker 1 (00:32:33):
Got a love cross country .
Speaker 2 (00:32:35):
Oh yeah man.
Speaker 1 (00:32:36):
Yeah. So while we've talked about spot now let's talk, talk about gear selection and setup kind of thing here. Cause now this is kind of an in depth because it can go numerous different ways. So when it comes to setting up, what kind of rigs do you like to use at the beach when you're surf fishing? And
Speaker 2 (00:32:51):
I like 12 foot surf rods. I'm a spinning reel guy because I learned how to fish in the panhandle. I'm dabbling in the conventional stuff because I fish with chip a lot in Jacksonville and he could cast twice as far as me. Yeah. I was like, what the, what the heck dude?
Speaker 1 (00:33:06):
Like, it's, it's depressing fishing with him sometimes cuz it's like, dude, really you really wanna show me 140 yards on a cast? Like it's nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (00:33:13):
Yeah. Well the thing about fishing here versus fishing in on the East coast and the Atlantic is you have to be able to cast that far cuz you can't reach the, the fish dude. Like and then tides are so crazy over there. Oh yeah. Like you may, you may have a 10 foot title coefficient with two tides every day. And at high tide you, you can't get out there. You just can't. But yeah, I'm, I'm learning about that. Pomp Rich sold my little brother two AOS reels. And then I have a a Fathom two casting special, I forget what it's called and I can cast pretty dang far with it, but I bird nest like 75% of the time that I try to do it. So, but yeah, 12 foot rods spinning reels. Something else that I do different that I haven't seen a whole lot of people do is I use live liner reels.
Speaker 2 (00:34:02):
All of my reels are live liner reels. Not all of them, but most of them. Cuz when I first started fishing, I wasn't trying to put meat in the cooler. I was trying to catch the biggest fish that I could. And what I would do is cast net like pin fish or whatever I could get my hands on and then throw 'em out on a live liner and wait for like a big bull red or you know, whatever mystery fish is out in the ocean and live line. And that's a very, very, very fun way to fish. If you haven't done that before,
Speaker 1 (00:34:29):
I haven't, but now I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (00:34:31):
Oh, that's great man. And you can use all my stuff dude. Just come get it. Likewise.
Speaker 1 (00:34:35):
Yeah, , you can use mine if you need them.
Speaker 2 (00:34:38):
I'm gonna respect the locals and not blast out, you know the, the fishing spots. But if you contact me personally, I'll be glad to tell you. There's some spots in this area where I heard you talking on one of the episodes about shore base red snapper. I don't remember if I sent you those pictures or not.
Speaker 1 (00:34:55):
No, I didn't get 'em. But yeah, I remember talking about 'em.
Speaker 2 (00:34:58):
Yeah, that's a real thing. And I've experienced it multiple times. I know where they're at, dude. And the best way to do that is live lining cuz they'll, they'll pick up that bait if they feel any resistance on it, it that's unnatural to that fish. But if they pick it up and they put it in their mouth and they swim with it for a little bit, they've committed to eating that thing now. And then slowly reel that reel and your circle hook grab and set. And it's fun dude, like your bait check when you hear that clicker going off, you get to listen to that sound for as long as you want, as long as that fish is still dragging that bait with it. Anyway, that was a long, long spiel. I usually take, if I'm by myself, I'll take three surf rides.
Speaker 2 (00:35:34):
I try to keep them all the same length like I heard on on your show with Paul Vank, keeping it consistent because all of your stuff, you, you, you have to cast it differently. So I try to do 12 foot rods and they don't all match. I wish that they did. And then I think that 5,000 size spinning reels are, are the best because they have the torque and the drag capacity and also the line capacity to do pretty much whatever you wanna do. And then I got my surf fishing cart, my cooler with all my rigs in it. I tie my own rigs 90% of the time. I would say out of all the things that I've learned, fishing, learning how to tie my own rigs was like the defining moment from where I went from like a amateur to like actually kind of knowing what I was, what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (00:36:18):
And tying your own rigs is great because you can scale it like if the fish are tearing up your stuff, you can go to a higher pound test and then if, if it's a crystal clear day and you're fishing for Pompano and they're not biting, you can scale it down to, you know, 15 pound floral or, or whatever. If you need ba if bait, you can scale it even down further and use tiny little hooks. And now you just tied your own soki rig. Like if you're fishing, kayak fishing offshore. So I would highly suggest that to any newbie out there is learn how to tie your own stuff. And that's pretty much it, man. That's what I take with me. And I, I do double drop rigs like 90% of the time cuz any fish that's swimming through that area, if you got the right bait and you put it in front of their face, the, the Fisher opportunists, if they see it and they want it, they're gonna take it.
Speaker 1 (00:37:05):
Kind of cool. You bring this up too. And with Chip in the same, same breath here. When he came out with the mortician rig, that really changed the game for me because I was like, all right, today's the day where it's really clean. You know, I drop a SNOO down to 10 pound, you know, or maybe a smaller hook, a four or something like that. Or maybe a six. Yeah. Oh. And then on days where it's all right, it's the waves are rocking, all right, hey, let's move this back up to a 30 pound, you know, let's, let's get after it. You know, you can customize so many things, but you're right man, I mean doing your own rigs, there's, there's a little bit of pride that goes in that with that too. 100%.
Speaker 2 (00:37:36):
Yeah. I was just gonna say that too, man. It's like anything else, when, when you do it on your own, it's, it's better. Even if it's not like a, a crazy keeper fish, like knowing that you did the research, you put in the time you planned out that trip and you wanna target this species and you go out there on rigs that you tied with bait that you acquired on your own and you make it happen. That's extremely fulfilling. And I think that's a, a big reason why a lot of us do this, you know, because unpopular opinion right here. But like, I'm not crazy about going out there and just catching a million whiting, you know? That's not super exciting for me. I go and do it and it's fun, you know, if I'm trying to like have some people over and I wanna fish fry whiting's incredible fish and they're out there pretty much every day, you know? But yeah, going out there and knowing that you can fill a cooler full of whinging and you tied all the stuff and you did it on your own, man, it's, it's, it's awesome man. Very, very cool. And then, you know, doing it with your friends, like I'm sure that me and you are gonna share some time in the sand together going out there and just shoot the breezing catching fish man. Is is is, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:38:43):
Well I truly hope so, cuz I'm definitely looking forward to it, especially with you coming out man. It's, I know it's gonna be a great time out there and I am very excited to go fish with you. It's a, yeah, when you talked about this point, but let's back this part up cuz this is where I think a lot of people overanalyze their fishing. So if you're a hundred percent when you're at the beach and you're looking or I got my first rod number one, I'm gonna cast it out. Where do you look to cast your lines
Speaker 2 (00:39:10):
In, in anything in life really. I consider myself like a student. Like I, for the record, for anybody who's listening to this, I don't consider myself a great fisherman at all. I do catch a lot of fish, but that's also because I fish a lot, you know. And social media's funny like that. You see all these dudes like slaying fish all the time. You just think that they're catching fish all the time. Nah bro, they strike out nine outta 10 times. I'm telling you, if they, if they say anything else, they're lying. But with my travels, dude, I would say fishing in Jacksonville is difficult, man. You can't see the bottom. Yeah. So you, you have to learn how to read the beach. A lot of people think that they know how to do it and you get better at it over time for sure. But like I said learning how to tie my own rigs was a huge milestone in my fishing journey. I would say probably the, the second biggest one was fishing with chip brundage. Dude, I have to give credit where credit is due. It was like experiencing fishing for the first time again. I was like, god dang, I have no idea that that was even a thing, dude. Like crab knuckles. What? Like, what is
Speaker 1 (00:40:17):
That? This is hilarious dude, because everything you're talking about right now with Chip, it is like, I did the exact same class you did. It's like, what do you mean? Yeah, what? You can use this, what do you mean? I gotta look for this. He's like a master teacher sometimes over there.
Speaker 2 (00:40:29):
What? Why do your sand spikes look so funny? Dude? . Oh, it's cause you can snatch your rot out of it real quick. Like, like dang man. I love chip man. I really like people with big personalities that are kindhearted. Like he is, he Chip is a big dude and he has an even bigger heart, man. I I love that guy dude. Alright. Alright. Anyway, off topic, . Going back to where, where I, where I cast my rods. So Jacksonville, super dirty hard water to fish fishing in Jacksonville is hard dude. And then Texas is even harder, man because they have three sandbars out there. So you really gotta know where to put your, your lines in the water. So it would be easier for me to show you in person. But you know, you guys have all heard this before, like reading the beach, you look for differences in structure and the, I have a video about this on the channel that goes very in depth in this also probably too much.
Speaker 2 (00:41:27):
It's like nerding out on it, but the structure on the beach is the sand. And that structure could be the difference between one to two feet of sand buildup, just depth change in water. That's your structure, right? And the way that you find that is by the waves cresting. So where there's not waves cresting that's deeper water and that's what I look for. And then there's obvious signs too, like if birds are diving down on bait or there's, you can sometimes you just see the fish, man, I haven't heard anybody say it on your channel or sorry, your, your podcast. But here in Pensacola, if you just walk up and down the beach, you will see Pompano in the surf. Like you can see them in the, in the waves fish right there, dude. That's, that's where like you see him, he's right there, just cast at him. .
Speaker 2 (00:42:09):
Yeah. but the typical you know, it's the same thing everybody says, I like to fish run outs and rip currents and don't cast in the middle of it. Like they're, they're ambush predators. I actually learned this spearfishing a lot too, is I spent a lot of time observing fish cuz watching 'em do fish things, you know? And it's true, they will hide behind that little mound right there waiting to charge at whatever comes around the corner of it because they're, they're fishing for calories, like they're eating for calories to stay alive and they don't want to expend those calories. So they're gonna position themselves in the right spot for the right time for whatever flows out between those sandbars. So that, that's the best place to cast in my opinion. But I also believe in, there's no absolutes in fishing on, on some random day, the best spot might be that there's something in the water that you don't see and they're on top of the sandbar, like the last place that you would think to cast. So I also do a lot of random stuff too, man. Like, you know, I'll, I'll target the sandbars and sometimes I'll just do some really weird stuff and just see what happens. And that's really fun too when, when something crazy happens, you know?
Speaker 1 (00:43:16):
Yeah. And I like that you brought up the part with the, the rip currents because everyone does know, Hey look for the rip. And yeah, a lot of people are like, well how do I find it? One of the things that I love about this area is if you walk up to the beach and it's gonna be a sign that says we wear of rips and it's gonna show you in a picture. And I'm a picture guy. I mean, I'm Marine.
Speaker 2 (00:43:34):
Oh yeah man, big time. So same. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (00:43:36):
You love that whole piece. It's like, okay, but if you fire directly in the middle, it's like a fish behind a rock. Somebody gave me that analogy, I can't remember which episode it was. I, sorry. Yep.
Speaker 2 (00:43:45):
I'll listen to that one too.
Speaker 1 (00:43:46):
Yeah, just sitting behind the rock and he sees like, okay, Kanga snatch it up and I'm gonna get back cuz it's that spot. It's the same thing with the rip. They're gonna hang off the side. Oh, less energy expenditure. Grab that fish. We're gonna go grab whatever it is. All right, I'm back in and I'm waiting for my next one. So thank you for putting that in there because that is a very important piece that I think a lot of people look for, but then go, oh crap, I didn't mean it like that. So definitely thanks for putting that in there.
Speaker 2 (00:44:10):
Yeah, for sure, man. It's kind of funny now, like we've been doing this for a minute like fishing, you know, like yeah, to me that's like a no-brainer like thing that I, you know, like yeah, duh. Like of course you do that, but if you had to told me that when I first started fishing, that would've been like revolutionary to me. So it's a really cool thing what you're doing, man, with, with this podcast. Like, I, I, I want to help you get this thing out to as many people as you can because like, think about a dude coming down for vacation and he wants to, you know, catch Phish with his son. If you spend a day or two listening to your show, he's getting one-on-one lessons from Chip Brundage and Mark Burford and Paul Vank. You know, like, you can't put a price on that, bro. Like, it, it's, it's a very cool thing that you're doing, man.
Speaker 1 (00:44:55):
Well, thank you. Yeah. That's the goal. I mean, that's why I've been so harping on, Hey look, I'm not just gonna stay in Florida. We need to go up to the Carolinas, we need to go into New England. We need, you know, I'm working on trying to get one done here with an Alaska guy. I mean, all these pieces, all those areas matter. There is that difference between the small ones. Now granted, you have the basics, that's key, but fine tuning at the end is even better. So thank you. I mean, it's, it, that's my, yeah, man, my main goal with this is to be an education platform.
Speaker 2 (00:45:23):
Yeah. 100%. Man. And I, I love that too, man. Like I said, I was a music educator, I'm an instructor pilot, I, I love teaching. It's cool. And then also if you're listening this like specifically for your area, like that's a great thing too. But I'm telling you man, I would not be nearly as experienced. I'm not gonna say good cuz I don't consider myself like a great fisherman. I, I kind of know what I'm doing, but I try to stay humble, you know? Yeah. the lessons that I learned in Texas and in Hawaii and then on the east coast fishing, the Atlantic and all those things, they, they build your repertoire, like your, your toolbox. Yeah. Like I use all that stuff here also. So listening to all these different episodes from these dudes, like that's just kind of help you, you know, cuz it's all the same, like you're just changing your tactics a little bit, but it's, it's pretty much all the same stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:46:17):
Yeah. I need to do, I need to do a Hawaii episode, man, and then accidentally say, oh honey, we have to go to Hawaii. Sorry, we have to go fishing.
Speaker 2 (00:46:24):
, man. Something that I learned while I was station there stationed there is no, this is for military folks. I'm sorry for those who aren't, but if you are in the military, going to Hawaii is cheap, dude. Like, you can rent like the hall Cola is the, the military hotel right there. Oh yeah. By your pay grade. Like, it's not expensive, man. I mean, it is expensive, but it's not as expensive as I would say going to the, the keys, man. It's like, it's like the same, you know? Oh,
Speaker 1 (00:46:51):
If you go three blocks down to the Hilton, you're paying four times. So I mean, exactly. If you're active duty, then this is, granted, we're getting a little off topic here, but this is important. If you're military, you should absolutely be looking at M W R every place you go, whether it's ccs or any of those pieces, there is so many things that are associated with fishing with M W R. Yeah. Wherever you are, they, I mean, hell, a lot of times they have the gear. So if you are military and you haven't taken advantage of that, or a retiree and you haven't taken advantage of it, please do. It is a awesome program to utilize. Yeah, we, we've been going for 50 here, so I need to do our next little bait check. So here, let's get after it. It,
Speaker 1 (00:47:35):
It is your second bay check of the episode and how fitting that it is with the sinker guy. That's right. Heading on over to the sinker guy.com and take a look at everything at chip's got going on in the sinker guy garage. Right now, the Bruno rig has been fire along all of social media. I have seen so many posts of people catching Pompano up and down the east coast there with the Bruno. I've seen it in action. It isn't a phenomenal rig mortician rig. Hey, you heard me talk about it. I love it. Sinkers. Oh, it's in his name, of course. He's got it. Lots of good stuff over@thesinkerguy.com and you will not be sorry cuz it's quick shipping. Great customer service. And yeah, like he said, chip is a gentle giant and just awesome. So again, the syncy eye.com Get your order in today. Well, with these pieces, I all that fun stuff. Dude. I'm gonna have to go back and tag m w r That's gonna be fun. Hopefully they're, they're feeling generous and they're they're reciprocation .
Speaker 2 (00:48:29):
Dude, they might put your stuff on their social media. You never know, man. Those guys are
Speaker 1 (00:48:32):
Cool. I mean, I, I hate to say this and again, everybody probably like, what the hell? But you don't know unless you ask. Cuz the worst they're gonna tell you is no. But that's just, well, so we've talked about all the rigs and setups here. Let's dig in last few bits of questions here. One of them being an important one of bait. What type of bait do you like to use?
Speaker 2 (00:48:54):
I heard a few people talk about it on your show, but I am very, very, very much a match the hatch type person. Yep. Like don't fix it if it ain't broken type thing. Let me put it like this. What's your favorite food, dude?
Speaker 1 (00:49:11):
Oh, well my medium extra chunky butt likes burgers. Of course.
Speaker 2 (00:49:15):
There you go, dude. Cheeseburger. Right? If, if if I put that cheeseburger in front of your face and it looks similar to the cheeseburger, that's your favorite, you're probably gonna eat it, right?
Speaker 1 (00:49:23):
Yep. You know it.
Speaker 2 (00:49:24):
Yeah, man, that's, that's the way I think about it. Now, if I put a crazy you know, what's that one Color tiger? Something? Fire tiger or whatever they call it. If I put like, like a, a crazy charros cheeseburger in front of your face, it might you off and you want to snatch it, which that's called a reaction bite. That's a real thing too. But I think that you're probably better off staying with like the traditional, you know, what they're used to eating. So that's what I try to do. Shrimp, clams, whatever. I will say again, I, I know I'm mentioning chip like crazy but I, I didn't even know how to like that you could fish with clams. Like I didn't know that that was a thing. Yeah. And then crab knuckles, all, all that stuff. But my go-to for sure is shrimp.
Speaker 2 (00:50:10):
So I, I'll do shrimp and then there's a few, once we get into like the YouTube questions, if we do, I know we're going super long. It's crazy how fast. It's all good. How fast time's going. It's all good. Fish bites is amazing. I've been using fish bites since I, I can't even even remember when long before I was affiliated with them at all. Fish bites. 100% was with me when I was surf fishing. Cuz there's just no way other way of saying it. It's just that that stuff works, bro. That's, it's, it's so good, man. But yeah, I'll, I'll usually take, if I were to take one bait set up, it would be fresh dead shrimp and a pink shrimp colored fish bite. And then if I'm targeting Pompano specifically, then I would try to rake my own sand fleas or buy them whatever, and then use the white and orange fish bite.
Speaker 2 (00:51:03):
And there's a very specific reason for that, which I know that you know, but a lot of people might not is when those sandflies are spawning their row, their eggs on their bellies are orange. So that sanfl flavored orange and white fish bite looks and smells like a sand flee. And then also fish bites their hyper concentrated chemicals. So they're more potent than live bait also. So you have that chemical scent going out there. Listen to your episode with Fish by Brett. And he was talking about this, the fish, the way that they are looking for their meal, first off is by scent. That's how they can like sense it the furthest away. The next one is their lateral line is an organ that senses vibration in the water. And that's why people put floats and rattles and stuff on their rigs.
Speaker 2 (00:51:53):
And then the next one is by site. And fish bites takes care of two of those for you, the scent and the site. So, and then put your float on there, whatever, now you got like the trifecta of optimizing your, your bait. So yeah, fish bites for sure. And then, yeah, whatever I can get at the bait shop. I, I also am a big proponent of getting the bait that's in the water with that fish at your location specifically. So like, if I see bait running a perfect example of this is the mullet run. I don't know if that happens here, but on the East Coast is a huge deal when the mullet are running, casting that mullet and throw that mullet at that fish. Cuz now you're feeding it its favorite food in its backyard. If that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (00:52:40):
Yeah, makes absolute sense. Because I cannot tell you the amount of people that have come on this show and said, oh yeah, I like to use horse mullet. I'm like, how the hell are you using horse mullet? Where the hell are you getting it from? And then they're like, oh, the mullet run dude, you just cast netted. Oh,
Speaker 2 (00:52:53):
Alright. I know I sent you I sent you that video of me surf casting that monster Tarpon at a, at Amelia Island. Yeah, dude, that was during the mullet run. I cast net, no joke. It was like a foot long mullet. And then it was a uni need to uni not no weight at all. On a six O circle hook. Big circle hook. And with the outgoing tie, I just let that mullet swim where I wanted to go as most natural presentation as you possibly can. And dude I hooked up on him a few few times. I never landed one, but still probably one of, if not the coolest moments of, of me fishing was sight casting a giant tarpon with my feet in the sand. It's insane.
Speaker 1 (00:53:38):
Just recently I think it was yesterday actually, Justin dropped a Justin Reed fishing, dropped a video of him catching Bobo from the beach the first time he is ever done it. Mm-Hmm. mm-hmm. . And, you know, any of those firsts are always the best and most memorable moments. It is just absolutely. There's something about that. Like, holy crap, I can't believe that happened.
Speaker 2 (00:53:59):
Yeah. And even it could be the same species, but if you changed a small thing and you tweak the thing, you know, and it's, it's that aha moment, the light bulb moment, like the, that's always very satisfying.
Speaker 1 (00:54:13):
Oh, for sure. What about lures? Do you do any lures on the surf or do you prefer set rigs?
Speaker 2 (00:54:18):
It depends, dude. So one of my favorite videos that I ever made was me fishing with Chip. And we were going out to target reds and we were fishing with set rigs. That's, that's not what I call 'em. I, the first time I ever heard anybody call that was actually on your show, I just call 'em surf rigs. That's what I know 'em as. Or double drop rigs, Pompano rigs, whatever. I always have that out there because to me that's money in the bank. Like I know that anything that's hungry is gonna eat that. Like literally anything, man. Like I, I've caught some weird stuff on, on on double drop rigs, like sheephead, like random stuff, dude. But something that I learned in Texas, I don't know if you guys watch any Texas fishing videos, but the saying that everything is bigger in Texas is absolutely true. If you ever get the chance to go out there. South Padre Island is incredible, dude, but something that they do down there is they fish in the jetties. You ever seen those videos?
Speaker 1 (00:55:11):
Yep. Yeah. And I had a great conversation not too long ago in episode with them out of Texas and he broke it down for me. They don't mess around with big fish, they get some monsters.
Speaker 2 (00:55:21):
Oh, it's serious, dude. I got a video on my channel where I was at Aransas Pass, which is a very famous jetty down there. Like, people go on vacation down there just to fish on this jetty. I don't know how long it is man, but it feels like five fricking miles. You gotta walk out there and it's like slick, like treacherous like hike to get to the end. But there is some hardcore fisherman out there, dude, like people in the panhandle, man, you got a easy, you wear your flip flops and your freaking bro tank and you know, pull your, your Gucci surf fishing cart down to the, to the water from the beach access. Nah, dude, in Texas it's like a fricking endurance sport. Like, just getting to the end of that jetty is like a fricking half a day journey. . And then you take, you take a three ounce spoon on like a nine foot or 11 foot heavy action rod and just cast it, no joke.
Speaker 2 (00:56:11):
A million times. And you might get lucky enough to get one bite . Like, that's how those guys are out there, dude. Yeah. But that long story, I, I bring it up because I do love to fish with big silver spoons and that's something that I don't see people doing here very often, but you can make some magic happen doing that, man. You can catch kingfish from the shore, you can catch Spanish macel from the shore. Big reds, jacks will smash a silver spoon. And if you're not already a subscriber on my channel, sorry you know, shameless plug right
Speaker 1 (00:56:45):
Here. No, you better be plugging it cuz if you're not plugging it, yeah, I'm gonna be a little butt hurt. So Yes, you
Speaker 2 (00:56:49):
Need to because I, I definitely, I don't do this for money and I know that it like, makes a lot of people angry, but I'm not one of those dudes that's kind of blur out the background of my fishing spot. Like, I want you to catch fish. But there's some spots that I know around here where you can cast into some deep water very easily. There's a spot down here, man. That's my favorite spot to fish on earth, bro. I'll, I'll keep it a surprise. I know that I told you already. But it's, it's magical bro. It's actually the inspiration for my channel Slot city. That's, that's what we called it. Cuz every time that we went there, we would, we would limit out on slot res dish.
Speaker 1 (00:57:26):
I'm looking forward to your videos outta this whole thing, dude, I, I am seriously excited for all of your, all, all the content that you're gonna have coming up here and it's gonna be good. This one's perfect because this next question's perfect due to the fact of you've done so much moving around. So when you're gonna go fish someplace you haven't been before, what do you do?
Speaker 2 (00:57:45):
Yeah, I would say that fishing is like a a culmination of all of your experience, right? So for instance, when I got back from my third deployment, me and my wife, we went on a and daughter, we went on a vacation to Tampa. Not for any particular reason. I forget the name of it, it's some island, I forget the name of it, dude. Doesn't matter. Anyway, random. I've never fished on the west coast of Florida ever. So very first thing that I did is I started researching the area, right? And something that I think gets lost on a lot of people is there's definitely etiquette in the fishing game and yes, yeah, people will share their knowledge with you, but you've gotta be, this is gonna sound I'm not trying to sound cocky, but you gotta, you gotta be like worthy of that knowledge, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:58:42):
Like, if I know that you're gonna go there and destroy that beach or take every single fish that you can out of there, like, I'm not gonna share that with you, you know? But if I know that you're a super good dude and you respect a sport, and more importantly you respect the wildlife, cuz these are living creatures, like when I see a, a, a beautiful red fish, that's no different than like my pet dog, you know? And if I harvest that fish, like I, that, that's a very, like, profound thing. And you learn that the more you fish, right? You, you, you respect the sport and you respect the animals. But I'll, I'll start like asking questions, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll dive into those forums. I do have a, a ace in the hole or whatever you wanna call it because I do have the YouTube channel now people are like more willing to share information with me and I'm extremely grateful of that.
Speaker 2 (00:59:34):
But Facebook is a really great resource. You can start asking questions and that's where I'll narrow down the spot and then I'll think about that spot. Like for instance, the west coast of Florida. I'm like, Hey man, this is kind of similar to the panhandle. Like they don't have crazy tides, the water's clear. So I'm gonna try to target Pompano or I know that there's snook in this water and they hit soft plastics. So I'm gonna bring that, you know i I just do research and ask questions. Yeah. I'm a big proponent of like living life by being a good dude. Like the good dude policy. If you do that and you ask questions like at your bait shops or like to other fishermen, like they're gonna tell you man, like, you know, I will at least.
Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Yeah, I mean there's a great post that actually got dropped out recently by Half Hitch was talking a lot about that. You'll actually find that one back here. And if you guys are following me on social media, which you probably are cause you heard this yeah, I'll have it pinned up there. It's a really good one. So yes, etiquette and all the pieces of respect are so important in this game and it cannot be forgotten.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Well, it's more than that, dude. Your average person that doesn't know what we do and what it's about, they're, they think that we're going out there and like attracting sharks and killing all the fish, you know interrupting their recreation, swimming, whatever they're doing. But yeah, it's not like that, you know? But if you're that guy, you know, for a lack of a better words, if you're that gouging out there like, you know, leaving beer cans and fileting all your fish and leaving trash everywhere like on the beach, you know, like people will remember a negative experience a thousand times over one positive one, if that makes sense. Yep,
Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Absolutely. They will. I mean that's what half of the reviews are. The average person isn't gonna leave a five star review. They're, they're just gonna go about their day. Anybody that had a bad experience, oh yeah, you're guaranteed you're getting a review.
Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Yeah, a hundred percent. And that, dude, that's a very big thing with YouTube man is like honesty and transparency. You made a post about that the other day. Like what, what do you look for in YouTube videos? Yeah, that's a huge deal, man. If like, being genuine and honest and doing the right thing, you know, that's, that's paramount dude, for me at least, you know, and I know it is for YouTube being a Marine, like that's, that's, that's like fundamental, you know,
Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Little bit. I mean, if any of you know me really well, which I, I will admit there are several of you that do, and there are some, you know, a vast majority of you don't, you'll get to know me eventually when you see me. But one of my my favorite things is somebody starts doing some lack of better terms, shady stuff or just off the box and, and I'm like, oh, and my eye starts twitching. I'm like, oh
Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Man, calm
Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
Out man. I gotta go. Yeah. But thankfully it hasn't happened too many times for me. I'm very fortunate for that. But I can't complain. I'm there. I'm gonna ask you. So we're actually gonna do something different with this episode, ladies and gentlemen. This, hello cuz we got a lot coming here. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna do one more bait check and I'm gonna ask this last question and then you poor souls are gonna have to wait a week because Oh yeah. This is a two-parter. Yes it is. So I hope y'all are ready cuz we're gonna go ahead and knock this out and it, it's only gonna get better. So make sure you're listening cuz here we go.
Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
It is your third and final bay check for the episode. This bay check is being brought to you by an ninja tackle. Head on over to ninja tackle va.com and take a look at all the great stuff that Matt's got going on up there in Virginia. The ninja dagger rods, you know, I love them. I fish him seven all the way up to 12. Maybe you need some reels. He's got 'em in the shop bait. Well, yeah, he's got you covered. Maybe you need some terminal tackle. Absolutely. Or maybe, I don't know, you need the buie stick. Hey, you know, he just got him in. Yes, he does. He's got 'em a great rod. Really good to be using. You've seen a lot of people using on social media and on YouTube. I don't know, an ninja energy tackle va.com get your order in today.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
One of the questions that I've been asking a lot of people lately, and this is where this question came about for those of who didn't know this, was, I have a bad habit of parking my in the sand and being all right, this is my home. And on the bad slow days, I was like, well, this was my home for the day. Then I learned, you know, it's like, hey, dumb dumb, you gotta move. If it didn't work, you gotta do something. If you want to catch fish, you gotta move. So for you, how do you adjust your tactics for fishing when the bite isn't on fire?
Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
It depends on what my goal is for the day, right? If you guys who are listening haven't done this yet, even if you don't think that you have a shot at winning, go fish a tournament because it changes things drastically. Cuz now it's not about just having fun. It's a, it's a competi a competition, and that puts that competitive edge on there where that pushes you to do things that you normally wouldn't do. Every time I go out there, I'm trying to make content. So rarely do I go out there just to kick it and have fun. I mean, I do have fun, fun as the byproduct of it, but I'm trying to make an episode and people don't wanna watch videos of me, of, of me. Like, that's not it. They, they wanna see the, see the actions. So if I go out there and I'm trying to make content, I would say maybe 20 minutes, I also time my fishing around events, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
So like the tides, you know sunset, sunrise. I'm not a huge like lunar phase dude. Like I, I imagine that there's a lot of truth to that, but to me it sounds like crazy wi wizardry, like, you know astrology type stuff, like what you're sighing. Like, I don't get that deep into it. I do know that I don't like fishing around a full moon, but yeah, that's, that's kind of what I'm waiting on. And then like if the tide turns and I'm still not getting nothing, I move. And then a lot of it is about structure on the beach. You can move down a little bit, but I'm not gonna lie, there definitely is places where you have a better chance of catching fish and the more that you do it and pick up on things from people and just your own experience of trial by fire finding spots, eventually you'll have you know, like a Rolodex of, of places that you know have been productive for you. And then I'll just bounce back and forth between those places.
Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
That makes a lot of sense because I mean, if you know your areas of, of all that one Yeah. That makes 100% perfect sense.
Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
Oh dude. And that's why I am so grateful, man. The Navy has been so good to me in the sense that every duty station that I've had has been at an incredible fishery. The downside of that is it takes a long time to build that knowledge, right? And to make those connections. It doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't happen in a year, and it doesn't happen in two years. This is like, you're, you're committing yourself to this craft. If you're serious about it, you can go out and just have fun, like, no problem. But if you wanna get good, it takes a lot of time and effort. So I'll be at a duty station for three years, like I just left Jacksonville, man. It's, it's like a, it's a bittersweet thing because you make these connections like Chip and fish Bites Brett and Mark Burford, and there's so many, and forgive me for the people that do support my channel, if I don't mention you it's not because I don't care, it's just, I, you know, I, I I can't recall it at the moment, but you learn that area and then it's time to go.
Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
But I'm coming back here, man, and I know this place, so I'm, I'm just ready to hit the ground running, dude.
Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
Well, the good news is, is actually all those guys are coming back over here. They love fishing over here, especially in our tournament season.
Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Oh yeah, man, there's so many people, dude, that I've crossed paths with and like, I, I love your podcast, dude, because no joke, at some point I've rubbed elbows with all these people. A good example was, I was listening to your episode with Paul Vank and you made the analogy that he's like the cheerleader, that like helps encourage people to pursue you know, their, their endeavors on social media or whatever, or just fishing. And I was like, you know what, dude, you're right. He did that to me. Like, that's crazy .
Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Yeah, he does that
Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
. Yeah, like he, he likes and comments on my stuff all the time, man. And it is really cool.
Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
I do love the fact that we've been able to link up with that many people and together, but unfortunately we have run this episode really long today and we're gonna hug it and cut this one up. You're gonna have to listen next week to the next ports because it's only gonna get better. So I, I'm super appreciative of all the time there. And a ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate your time. You've been listening to Finding Demol Surf Fishing. Thanks for sticking around. Tune in next week we're gonna have part two with slot city fishing. Lots of good stuff coming. Stick around.