When fishing consistently, especially if you are a guide, it is super important to journal. The advantages of this is that you save yourself from forgetting a spot, and you might be able to plan vacations due to your journal about what the conditions were like when the fishing was on. I am a huge advocate for journalling about where and when you found some fish and being able to track them down over and over again because you wrote it down.
Read MoreIt’s not the biggest or the most - success as a fishing guide is not that you catch the biggest or the most fish. The most important thing you can do is showing your customers a good time. Give them a great experience, this means that they will return to you. That is then how you have a successful business. Have happy customers.
Read MoreFishing for sharks can be like fishing for any other kind of fish, it can be easy if you know what to do, but at first glance it might not be as easy as you’d expect. Sharks have an incredible sense of smell that means if you use fresh chum you can attract a lot of them. I highly recommend fresh chum for sharks because sharks aren’t like vultures. They might eat something that has been dead for a while but they are far more likely to be attracted to fresh meat.
Read MoreKyle Gemas recently traveled to the Seychelles by way of Dubai. As a once in a lifetime destination for most anglers, The Seychelles holds a particular allure. Kyle talks about the trip as well as his extensive tournament experience in the Florida Keys and how it helped him develop as an angler.
Read MoreCatch and Release has been a great thing for conservation, few would argue that. However, some people mishandle fish before release which could be killing them and cancelling out all good intentions of release. A listener asked if I would do this show on how to properly handle fish intended for release. I was a little hesitant at the time because each fish that we fish for requires a slightly different technique. I wasn’t sure if I could effectively communicate, through audio only, the proper way to handle fish. I gave it a whirl anyway and hope it is helpful, if you want to know more please email me and I would be happy to provide any details that were missed in the podcast.
Read MoreJosh Colins and I spoke about his 2,742 mile paddle board trip from Texas to the Statue of Liberty and his incredible story. Josh is a veteran that has a very extensive resume; a special operations combat veteran with multiple rotations to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia in support of the war on terror. Josh is a wounded warrior with 4 traumatic brain injuries (loss of consciousness from explosive blasts, 2 from parachute landing falls, and one from combative training). He retired in 2008, but continued to support the military as a contractor state-side and abroad. While leading a training exercise in 2013 he had his last traumatic brain injury, complete with a fractured nose, rib, and cervical spine compression. With the doctor’s prescribed medications and self-medicating with alcohol, Josh reached the limits of his functionality. Josh went from that to bouncing back…
Read MoreOn the How 2 Tuesday I spoke about how to get your anchor set up for pretty much any boat you fish out of. Personally, I fish out of 3 boats - I fish out of a 17-Yellowfin Skiff, 24-Bay-Boat and the 36-Yellowfin-Offshore. The 3 boats, obviously, have different anchoring requirements, different types of bottom, different lengths of line, different amounts of chain and even different types of anchors… The one thing that hold true with any of these is that when I put my anchor down I want it to hold, I don’t want it to slip. When I put my anchor down I also want to be able to get off of the anchor and go chase down a fish.
Read MoreDr. Lori Schweikert is a researcher with degrees in Marine Biology from Florida who not only researches fish but is an avid fisherman. Lori gets a lot of inspiration from her experiences on the water and brings that stuff back to the lab. She has been able to apply a lot of her research to her fishing. I found out conversation super interesting about the Hogfish and mostly about the Tarpon. I had so many questions about what the fish could see and how that would help my fishing.
Read MoreI was just down with my friends Captain Steve Rodger and Captain Scott Walker filming Into The Blue. One of the things we did was go out in the Gulf and look for permit in the wrecks. Typically we catch permit in the Florida Keys a lot - the flats fishermen catch them on the flats and also in the channels, there are certain times of there year where they collect out on the reef and then we like to catch them on the wrecks. However, on this particular day we had some rain and it was cloudy which provided a problem because we normally like to be able to see them first and then throw over there. But even with problems like bad weather you can still go get these permit offshore.
Read MoreChris Bush is an active duty Air Force Officer and angler from Louisiana. He is known for his association with and writing for The Speckled Truth which is a blog all about hunting giant trophy Speckled Trout. He has a benchmark for his group to catch the “dirty 30” which is a monster 30 inch trout. Data is collected on these giants that he hopes will help the species in the long run. Chris joins us to talk about his story, his Father’s record Trout tagging contributions and The Speckled Truth. Visit http://blog.thespeckledtruth.com for more information.
Read MoreRight now it is tarpon season, and something you might notice is a lot of guides out there with a push pole that they are using to direct the boat towards the fish and also using to stop the boat. This is called “staking out” and it is very effective and very easy to mess up and break your push pole. These poles are made of high-end graphite and can break easily if there is too much strain put on them, and they are expensive so you really don’t want to break them. Also, since I use Power Poles for anchoring in shallow water, it is important to know that there are some cases when I will still stake out with a push pole because there are areas where I can’t use the Power Poles.
Read MoreIn this podcast we talked about the balance of people being able to do whatever they want to do (becoming a hunting or fishing guide) and follow their passion and also following a path that is the right way. Versus the wrong way. A path that creates respect from those around you as compared to a path that creates resistance from those around you.
Read MoreI got a question on the podcast@saltwaterexperience.com email about seasickness and I was going to start a How 2 Tuesday on this subject and then I remembered a podcast I did with expert photographer Jason Stemple. Jason is a phenomenal photographer and I have never seen him get so seasick that he is down for the count. He seems to have some pretty solid ideas on how to take photos inshore and offshore and avoid the sickness that is pretty common for that kind of work.
Read MoreHank Patterson Fishing Guide is one of my favorite Fly Fishing personalities. I have to admit that I was more than a little star-struck while conducting this interview. From Yellowstone Survival Guide to Camp Hawgadawgaa, I have followed Hank for years and it was a real pleasure to find out what makes him tick. Check out today’s podcast with Hank Patterson Fishing Guide.
Read MorePompano has exploded in the past few years, the price has skyrocketed, there is a high demand for them. Because of this, I thought I would feature Captain Matt Budd on the podcast to teach us all how to catch pompano. Captain Matt Budd may know as much about pompano fishing as anyone I have ever talked to. This is a guy who is not just doing this recreationally but doing it commercially. When fishing commercially you may learn some things that a recreational angler doesn’t have to learn.
Read MoreI had the pleasure of sitting down with Ashley Saunders during my time in Bimini and I had the good fortune of him showing me around the Dolphin House. Ashley told me about his life and how everything changed after he swam with a group of wild dolphins. Since then he began building this Dolphin House (or Poetry In Stone) 26 years ago and he is still building it. Ashley has dedicated his life to creating the house in honor of the dolphins that he swam with.
Read MoreChris Bush is an angler from Louisiana, and I got to sit down with him to talk about his expertise; giant speckled trout. I had him come on the podcast to share some of his fishing tips and experience as he has once recorded catching 13,000 trout. Chris takes after his father, Charlie, who was a trout purist and quite a famous angler.
Read MoreI had the pleasure of sitting down with Ashley Saunders during my time in Bimini and I had the good fortune of him showing me around the Dolphin House. Ashley told me about his life and how everything changed after he swam with a group of wild dolphins. Since then he began building this Dolphin House (or Poetry In Stone) 26 years ago and he is still building it. Ashley has dedicated his life to creating the house in honor of the dolphins that he swam with.
Read MoreI am going out on a ledge and saying this is the first podcast in history that there has ever been a podcast done on the water, on a bonefish boat, in Bimini Bahamas. Eagle Eye Fred has been guiding for 47, he is a kind hearted, sweetheart of a guy and he actually has eyes like an eagle. Fred pulls a boat like a man half his age, he gets around like a man half his age and he’s just in great shape. We talked about things Fred has learned over his 47 year career and he taught me a lot about the history of Bimini. Before I recorded this I caught a bunch of bonefish and afterwards I caught a bunch more bonefish.
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