Listeners Questions Episode #1

Hot podcasting from Chico California.

This is the Bartlett fly fishing podcast.

Where we discuss North fly Fishing, guiding fisheries signs and management,

conservation and more.

No better, fish better. Here's your host, Hogan Brown.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back. This is H Brown, your host of the Barb podcast and welcome back to the Barb podcast. It's been a bit.

Today,

we are gonna do something a little different.

We have a full calendar of guests coming up over the next couple weeks as we record some new episodes. But

a few weeks ago,

maybe more than that,

I put up on the Barb podcast in my own.

Instagram and social media as well, saying, hey, if

there's questions that listeners wanna answered or things they wanna hear me talk about to submit them.

The response was

fairly

overwhelming in the amount of things that

people wanted to talk about or have me talk about or have me answer. And

I saved all of them.

And

I sat down

Gosh a couple weeks ago,

and

with this very serious intent

to

answer all of these questions.

Next thing I knew I'd had been sitting speaking to this lovely microphone in front of me for the better part of a few hours.

And what I realized was

I can ramble on about a lot of stuff. And that I may need to

answer these questions with a little more thought in keeping it short,

keeping it sweet and keeping it concise.

So we are gonna try

version two

of listeners question, podcast. Version one is

may it released when we do, like, the, you know, fiftieth anniversary bonus material,

podcast

dump,

but it will not be released anytime soon. I imagine.

Though

I do imagine it will take a few episodes to get through all of our listeners questions. And so if you do not hear me answer your question on this episode,

My goal is to get through them all as we occasionally release these or record these

listener question episodes. And by all means, if you have new ones, definitely message me. It

my Instagram or the barb Instagram.

And we will put those questions

into the,

I guess,

bucket,

the metaphor digital bucket of questions

that

we need to get to.

So

I tried to keep them. I'm I'm gonna try to go through some timely ones.

And the the first one I wanted to answer because this one I...

I could talk probably for a whole episode on this, and I think

a lot of people...

Probably are interested in it. It's one of our

most popular local fisheries and

Max Henderson eleven

asked me what tips do you have for someone fishing the U button?

Well,

if you don't know, he's referring to the lower you, but it's a tail fisheries below Ing b Reservoir. It's attributed to the feather, which is then attributed to the lower Sacramento River.

I

grew up

on the lower Yu as I like to say, but technically I grew up in the beautiful town of... Well, it's actually... I don't know if it's a town. It's definitely not incorporated area. I would imagine

of Penn Valley

off of How

Ranch Road.

My actual... The actual street I lived on which I was always at as a kid kind of embarrassed to tell people I lived on, but the name of the street was Pet Hill.

Pet Hill Drive.

In behind kinda down by my house was Deer Creek, which backed up to the lower You, and I spent

many, many years,

fishing t around, playing everything from Army to

army man trying to catch fish

on the Creek and the river.

So

tips for the lower you, I was thinking about this and, you know, I could obviously

run through many, but The lower you, but the the the biggest advice I give people. I remember when I used to people

assume since I've spent so much time on it. That's kinda where I I guess, begin my guiding career,

to some degree.

Actually, probably not to some degree probably,

I did begin my guiding career there.

The biggest advice, and I think the only advantage that I have over anyone. It's not like I'm

any of an amazing Angle guide is I've

think at this point of the guides and

people,

definitely the guides.

I've been out there the longest. And the Hub is one of those rivers I think that

experience on the water,

is the best thing that you can do

to be successful

on the lower Hub.

The lower U changes

so much throughout the year and spending time on it in all it's different

iterations,

and all the different seasons is really probably the number one or the first thing that any angle

that's looking to be successful

on the lower Hub should look at.

You know, most

weekend anglers or

I would say recreational anglers,

get to go to the hub

maybe once a month, once

twice a month.

Well, on a normal water year,

the lower Hub River could be a completely different beneficiary

between

one month to the next.

And

The U is one of those rivers that is

someone in a a constant state of change. If you fish the Up ton in the winter, say, now, it's incredibly low.

On a good winner, which let's cross our fingers. I hope we have,

it could

triple quadruple in size

in another month with a good couple rain storms that river could go from seven hundred Cf, eight hundred Cf to

a stable two thousand.

So,

obviously, the same techniques in the same water that you or I,

catch fish and. It's sick six hundred is not the same water that you or I would catch fish in two thousand. And likewise, the same applies, techniques, weight, length of drop, all these type of things

are not the same.

So

I guess the first tip I would give anyone that's looking to fish the you buzz is, be be a student of the conditions with which you are fishing hit.

Look at the flows before you go, you know, know the flows that you're fishing the river at and

I always tell people

that

catching fish hooking fish on the Ubi and realistically anywhere is is not a mistake.

A lot of people

we'll say, oh, I stumbled into one. I hooked one. I lot... You know, whatever the... However you define it. But the the reality is is you you fold the fish into eating your fly. So

that is usually an experience as anglers that we wanna reproduce.

So take note of that. If it's June, and you're out there and the flows are twenty five hundred, and you found fish

in two to three feet of water on a inside seam, and

the fish ate this,

make note of that. That is something that you're gonna wanna reproduce

and then take that

and try to find areas where that

can be reproduced. I talked about this a lot with stripe fishing and

my buddies is

once we find fish,

we try to find other areas

that look like that one area we found fish. So

By being a student of the river and keeping note and paying attention of where you're catching fish, how you're catching fish, what the river conditions are that you're catching those in,

you just give yourself more information and more ability to reproduce

that success

at a other places within the river or b at another time on the river that presents you with similar

conditions

situations.

I always tell people that really to get that

information.

There's no experience or there's no, I guess not experience. There's no substitute

for

a full year.

On the Hub.

In the sense of

if you really want to learn how to be successful on the U, you have to fish the U twelve months out of the year

and see it in all its iterations

and build that encyclopedia

and that knowledge of conditions, flies and fish behavior so that when you go back the next year,

you have something to reference from.

Anytime

people talk or ask

questions about fishing, and I I get I get a lot of questions,

hence we're doing this podcast. But

I get a lot of emails. I get a lot of questions on Instagram and and realistically, there there is absolutely no substitute for time on the water and experience. And on especially on the Hub.

So

two biggest tips so far for the you, but really go,

go at various times and take note of the conditions

that you are fishing the river in as an angle.

The fish on the u

I have found in my

twenty plus years of

guiding out there and then

add on some more of fishing.

Their behaviors very predictable. They just have a lot of different behaviors.

And that's another thing that's important to

kind of I guess,

share is

there's plenty of days

where

any of the great guides out there in my experience struggle.

The Hub is a classic river for me of,

I'll be on it for a couple days in a row,

I'll find the pattern

I'll be on it. I know what they want. I know where they are. I know what they're eating.

I'm on it. We're catching fish. Confidence is high.

And then maybe something slight changes. The flows drop a hundred Cf. The clarity gets a little clearer. The water temps come up, the weather gets a little warmer, something changes.

Lord knows

what it is.

And I'm struggling again. I'm, you know, you feel like you are on a river with no fish or all the fish just left, they packed up.

There's nothing more, like anxiety,

provoking in a guide

or at least maybe not, but definitely in me.

Then

on the U, you're... You've been on the For a few days. And this happens stripe proficient too. You roll into a few of your favorite spots and you just get blank.

In the fly box comes out, you start throwing different flies on. You just...

Throwing darts at the board.

And

I at always have to slow myself down

in kinda even after all the time, I've spent on the water guiding, I still

can panic at times, and there's a lot of mental

battles that go on inside your head

to keep your cool and kind of figure it out and work through the process.

And

the the kind of thing that I'm trying to say is that the Hub is a tough river for anyone, and there are days where

man, you just struggle to find fish.

But

one thing about the Hub.

That I've... The older I've gotten

is and the more I've spent on that is I used to be...

When I was younger, I would I would go through the fly box.

I would you know, change out

ten different versions of a blue olive. If I would do this. I would do that. And

what I kind of have come to on the Hub is,

It's not necessarily the fly.

Well, there are definitely flies that work in flies that don't. My fly selection on the Hub. I've gotten older and I've fished out there more has actually gotten smaller.

I probably only fish.

Gosh.

I don't know five,

six seven, eight patterns, definitely no more than ten or twelve.

Out on the U three hundred and sixty five days a year. Now I'll throw some new ones in there is I... Definitely test and come up with new ones, but

usually, if I'm

grinding to find a new fly pattern. That means one of the hostess getting chuck, meaning the fish have kinda gotten hip to it,

but

I find that finding the water that the fish are in and feeding in, like those happy fish are in

seems to be

over the years as I've

spent time out there much more critical.

And

that's another

kind tip for the you, but is don't get don't grow... You know, I I don't know who was, but somebody told me a long time ago, this long time ago, said, you know, don't grow roots.

You know, don't be the person that stands in the the corner of the r and just switches out flies, and that's not

necessarily a strategy. I think that pays off on the U.

Because I've found there's definitely... Maybe there's fish on the... In that spot you're at. But if they ain't eaten ain't eaten.

And if you are, you know, a confident angle enough to turn over a few rocks or look out or kinda know the the flies that should work

and you can get a a decent drift and you're not getting bit, then those fish aren't happy They're not eating. So move. Find a new spot.

And one thing I will say about the u, and this is true no matter what the flow is, is the fish can be anywhere.

There is no death valleys

in the hub.

I have caught fish

throughout my life on that river

in every little nook cra and long slow flat, and

every spot. I I can't think of a run or a r or a bucket or a back

or whatever

that has not produced fish

at some point

in my life. Now there's definitely spots that I roll into him. I haven't caught a in here in five years,

but there was a time I cut fish there. And

maybe it's a condition of flow, the depth change whatever, because the the river does change

every time the water comes up high,

but

don't grow roots. Move around. Cover water.

Try new spots. And, you know, a lot of the spots

would be definitely with the pressure on that river,

over the last, say, year and a half.

A lot of the spots I catch fish. I'm just looking for spots. People aren't fishing or

the spots that are by the spots that everyone's fishing that they're gonna push the fish to.

So if every drift boats running down the inside seam on this run,

probably not gonna be any fish on that inside seam. The boats are banging they're pushing fish, guys are walking in.

It's not like to fish, you know, packed up their suitcases and swam out to the feather and left.

They just got pushed somewhere in that run. So where are they gonna get pushed? You gotta think outside a little bit of the box, and that's kind of a kind of another tip.

As I talk about this and kinda, you know, someone asks or some tips for fish in the you, but let think outside the box, you know, get up on that rock and hang some supplies into that little, you know,

back eddie.

Look at the r and the inside seam and think about fish in the other deep slot on the other side of the river. Maybe those fish got pushed.

So

other tips as I sit here and think about the hub

is

I would say,

know the bugs,

the the hub

in the sense of

understand the ent, and that... That's really true on any river,

but

is I say I only fish ten or twelve flies anymore on the hub, But the the reality is that I've fine tune those ten or twelve over twenty plus years of fishing out there. And

a lot of that comes from

spending time looking at bugs.

And I probably have done that more on the Hub than any other river,

but

I'm always amazed

when

a fly fisherman.

You ask a fly fisherman have you ever turned over a rock or have you ever looked at bugs

and

many,

many have not. And I mean, if they have, they could probably count on one hand how many times they've done that.

And

I've always thought that it's just such a

an odd thing. It'd be like asking someone, you know, someone that plays the guitar plays an instrument that is never

listened to music. When many

We you do this thing, but you've never listened to anyone else do it or anything else out there. Well,

fly fly fishermen, we're trying to imitate insects with thread hook and

dub. And especially if you don't tie flies.

And you have never turned over rocks and looked at the bugs.

How do you know that fly in the fly box is actually the fly that

imitate the bugs that are in the water.

It's a lot of faith to put in somebody sitting behind the counter and a fly shop that hands you the nike care you need these. These work.

Well, ask I if you ever turned over rocks on the room I'm going to. And you were seeing what those.

Guarantee the answer is probably know.

So

another thing for the you, but his...

Look at the bugs. If you're gonna go spend fifty dollars or a hundred dollars on flies, and then you're gonna take your Saturday or your Sunday or you're... Whatever. Your recreation time.

Do a little bit of work

because you wanna be successful, turn over those rocks. Look at what it is you are I irritating with what you are buying out of that fly box. I guarantee you you'll be incredibly surprised.

They don't look a lot like a lot of the bugs in the box that you get sold.

And that's not a a knock on a fly shop or not a knock on

the fly tying

industry.

It's just the reality of,

if you walk into a shop, someone's gonna hand you most likely couple different types of patterns,

then you once you get there, have to decide which one to tie on. And maybe they handed you the right pattern. But if you don't turn over the rock and know what the bugs in there that are gonna be in the drift in that r are,

you don't know as an angle.

What fly to tie on. You you may have the right one.

They may have sold you the ticket.

But if you pick the wrong one out of little cup, then, you know, that's on you. So the other kind of tip I would say on the hub is spend spend time.

One of my mentors

told me

he, you know,

he said, you know, the first thing you should do

when you get to a river is not pick up your rod, but start looking. Watch.

Watch the river, turn over the rocks, look what's going on. Look in the bushes.

Take the ten or fifteen minutes,

that that actually probably takes to do a little work to kinda spend a little time.

Look and see what's going on and then take that information,

and use that

to go to the next step to rig up the rod. Isn't an n... You know, are we gonna N here? Their drive flies out. What's under the rocks. What's here? You know what and

It just helps. And the you was a place, I think where that

for anglers

gives just a little bit more of that experience

into the bank.

If

you go out and you... Your student of the river, your student of the conditions you're fishing in,

then it just adds more information and more points of reference for maybe that next time you go out and fishing a little tough.

Or the next couple years down the road. We, oh yeah I remember I was here the one day and then this and this and this, you can kinda go through the boxes.

So

the Hub,

I would never pretend to be an expert on the By Just spent a lot of time out there. I got a lot of points of reference. That's what I tend to tell people.

And

the river does not fish like it did five years ago. It doesn't fish like it did ten years ago. It doesn't fish like it did one year ago. Some days it doesn't fish like it did the day before.

And that's the beauty of the U. That's what keeps people coming back and that's what keeps it interesting.

Hopefully, that gives you some tips max and anyone else that's listening

that's interested in the home water of the lower hub river.

Alright. So the next question comes from derby

s c... Or... Excuse me, Derby, s h c of all the knowledge you've gained on the water fishing for striped bass? What was the hardest to learn? Or figure out.

That's a good one.

First of all,

when I

started going out to the lower sac outside of my house here in Chico,

fishing for stripe

I went out with a

bass fishing mentality

that had been added to

a lot of trout fishing

mentality or a lot of trout fishing knowledge

I was not a stripe fisherman.

I had done a lot of large mouth fishing,

and I had done

a lot more trout fishing.

So

the hardest thing to begin with

was

learning

that what I knew

didn't have a whole lot of crossover.

That I needed to as much as...

I guess as much as I was good, quote good at those other things

and that I had experience guiding for trout and experience guiding for large mouth and those things.

That

with stripe, I was starting over.

And I had to see the river,

I had to see water, I had to understand fish and weather

and structure,

in a completely new way.

Reality was, I didn't have much of a reference point

to build off of. I was in the dark,

trying to build a house,

and

I was fortunate

to have some great friends and mentors mike Costello John Sherman,

Leo At fish first, Will tu,

Jason Lo, a lot of guys.

The at least at the time.

Had spent a lot more

time

fishing than I had. Definitely my Costello definitely John Sherman and definitely Leo.

So I could ask them questions,

bounce ideas off them,

but

my water, the river, you know, where I was fishing.

They didn't fish. So

I had to take information from guys who were fishing, mainly the delta

and see or kind of figure out how

or if it crossed over to the river.

As

time went on, and I I adjusted

and built

this understanding of stripe in the water in the river

and learned

to see the river in in a very different way.

That was probably to start with one of the hardest things

to,

I guess rework in my brain

is

The river and water moved the same way that it did

On every river that Ever been on, the problem was that every river I'd ever been on,

I was targeting trout in.

In trout, don't need, don't behave. Don't do the same things that sc do.

So

I understood hydro astrology

flows and seams and depth, and all those things, but I didn't understand the fish

that I was targeting and how that fish related to those things.

That took a long time, and I think is something that I still

still still still to this day,

learn every time I'm out there.

Seeing water and understanding how fish react to it and behave to it is

I think a a a book that we never

never finish writing. We're always learning on that.

Because a lot of the places that we fish, the sack especially where we where I spend most of my time stripe fishing is always changing.

Always changing.

I'm always learning, you know?

So

I would have to say that was probably one of the hardest things to start with.

The

and

the second thing came

a few years. I I think it's a few years. But I I would have to say the second thing that was really probably one of the hardest things to learn as I go through it was

stripe

in bass in general.

And this was a thing that while I say I had guided for large mouth bass. I guided for large mouth bass when large mouth bass fishing was good. If the fishing was tough for large mouth bass, we went trout fishing. So

it... I I guided for them, but I did not

guide for them every day have to put fish in the boat even when conditions were tough.

So

with stripe,

the hardest thing that that I think I did to start out with is I I didn't guide for stripe.

I guided for Stripe really, like, the end of June through, like, the first part of August.

When I understood what they were doing when you had stable weather, stable water, like, the conditions were

like robotic stable every day.

So

as I realized

being a stripe guide was really what I wanted to do. I really enjoyed it. I had to figure out a way to extend the season.

So

I had to learn how those fish behave,

in different flows, different water temperatures, how weather,

how all those things that begin to change,

say, after August, and before June

affect those fish

When the barometer starts to shift coming into September and October, what do those fish do? What happens? When the when the wet water temperature start to drop,

What do they do? How do they behave? When the flows get dropped,

in October, what happened? When the water starts to get really cold in November and December If the river blows out in January, December, where do those fish go?

Understanding the fish and how they react to changes in their environment,

is still for me

one of the hardest things

about

stripe fishing are one of the hardest things to learn because they are so sensitive to the weather and the patterns of the weather and the light conditions and water temperatures.

And realistically, all the stuff that trout kinda shrug off

to be honest with you.

I've never, you know, trout fishing, you know, if the weather's hot, then it's hot, the rivers the same temperature. It's a tail water for most of us. You know?

And

June, they're gonna kinda eat the same bugs most of the month, and they're gonna eat kind of at the same time and in September and October, they're gonna eat the same thing and they're gonna kinda eat at the same time. If it gets overcast, it's gonna better if the barometer changes,

I don't really find the trout noticed that much or really care.

So

understanding all these things

was probably and better well, is one of the hardest things and is still one of the hardest things for me to figure out and learn.

Stripe are one species, and I think bass are this way in general is...

They're one of the few. I I don't have this experience with trout.

Bass,

like, will just stop eating.

And you can

run a fly, you can run. Cut bay, you can run a bleeding crippled pike min in front of them, and they will not eat it.

T, I have found that

especially as we talk earlier like the lower you, but I can find happy fish. I can find fish that are gonna eat. We're gonna find some fish.

Like we can get a fish

eventually or two or three to eat.

There's on the on lower sack for stripe

in these kind of off months or if the barometer just goes crazy.

There's moments, the bite will just shut off. They will not eat nothing. No bueno. I don't care if you're throwing a fifteen inch swim bait, a fly

or dragon live pike.

They will just not eat. I've never experienced fish in my life, like bass this way that just shut off.

Granted,

most of my experiences with bass trout. So

take what that is what it what it is.

The other thing

I would think that is or was incredibly hard.

Was

understanding

in controlling

a boat.

And I know that sounds

fairly

generic.

So

running a trolling motors not easy.

I don't... If you've ever tried to fish two people

out of a boat with a trolling motor.

It's not easy. Just like ron a adrift boat, the best make it look effortless.

And then you sit in the chair and you're doing donuts down all over the place.

Running a trolling motor while, a lot easier on your body than ron a drift boat

is not an easy thing to do. In understanding how to position

a boat.

So two people can fish and how the stripe in the various water

want the fly presented to them or moving through the water.

Has been kind of my new... I'd say over the last couple years hard thing to learn is I've really refined and paid attention to

how do they want the fly swimming? Meaning do they want it coming down the current across the current up the current. How are they hunting? Where are those bait fish? And then how do I position the boat? So

my guy that Stripe fishes twice a year once a year can make that

presentation?

With maybe not,

the longest or most accurate cast.

So

refining the process

through those kind of three things as we look kinda like through the years would have been the hard things.

The hardest things to learn out there. Would definitely be adjusting

my understanding of the environment

from that t guide, large mouth ba guide

perspective.

Second understanding

how weather patterns

flows and water temperature

really

are game changers when you're talking about bass fishing. In understanding

how and what to do in those situations when you can't just be like, hey, we're going home fishing sucks.

That's not an option. I have guys that, you know, book flights and stay hotels and travel from all over the country.

To come stripe fish. So

if I'm gonna sell this, I gotta figure out how to put fish on the deck

or at least give it the old

country try

to make their day the best. And that that was a hard hard thing to learn. And something I still struggle with. There's plenty of days this fall in winter. I've gotten blank out there. We've gotten a couple grabs,

and we haven't put a fish in the boat. What's really weird.

Is the day before we may have smashed them.

The day after it, we may have smashed them.

But the barometer does one weird thing and

man lights out.

And lastly, the thing I've been working on a lot lately

when you talk about presenting of the fly.

Most guys that fish the river

and most guys that try fish should bomb it out as far as they can.

Well, you... And that works a lot of times on the delta because you're not... You know, you're fishing current on the delta, but it's very, you know, and again, I have very limited experience fishing in the delta. But when I've been fishing the delta. I cast it out, count down in strip.

The river

isn't a I think personally, a much more dynamic

environment.

So

there's not a cast out and let it sink. Well, there is. That's one way to do it and in certain spots, That's how you gotta present the fly. There's other spots where

that's not how you do it. The currents going in one way. The boats go in the other. You gotta do this, that and this, You gotta a stack men here to get the fly under that current, You know,

understanding

presentation and how that relates to boat positioning and running the boat.

That's my

that's my new pete.

Alright. Hopefully,

hopefully,

that answers

that kind of question

for derby,

S h c, I think that's the handle

of the the hardest

things have had to figure out.

In that vein,

been to cha,

a a river warrior, as I would say, a a a good

good dude I see on the river quite a bit. Asked personal best of all species you regularly target,

favorite species to target and why.

So

personal best,

I could honestly

tell you

that I don't remember many of my personal best. I I can tell you and and here's a deal. My... Let's start. Let's let's back this up. So my favorite species to target if you... If

anyone is in doubt is striped bass

I

I fished for everything as, like, Picasso had his different phases and, you know, the stones had theirs and the beatles had theirs and all people and artists have theirs. I've had my

my steel head phase. I had my

tail water trout phase. I I had all these phases,

and I'm... I may have more. I hopefully have more in me. I hopefully have a...

I get addicted and have the financial wherewithal to do it to something

else.

I would say over the last ten to fifteen years, I've had... I've built my life around stripe fishing for many reasons. One, it's best suited

to the things that are important to me, and that is my family,

being home and available for my kids and my family.

It's a close tree. I I live

minutes from from it. I don't spend

two or three hours in the car driving back and forth to the the lower sack or the lower Hub.

It does not beat my body up, like running in a drift boat.

And the fish

are the the thing I always tell people about stripe or fishing

is

I've never been to any other... I've never... Well, I've never guided or really had the opportunity to fish

I'm sure there's other fisheries that exist,

where

the

gap between

what is possible

is so big.

As I talked earlier in the episode about the lower you by, I'd spent

much of my life On the lower you book. And

a fourteen inch fish is a great fish, good job,

net it, unhook it, let it go.

A twenty two inch fish like, we're pulling over and taken pictures. That's a that's a trophy. That may be the biggest fish. If it's a fat twenty two that most anglers ever catch on that river.

Well, that's like eight inches in difference.

That's...

I mean, that's not even a subway sandwich.

That's not a that's not a big

gap between what...

Is possible.

So

whereas

stripe fishing,

you could catch a two pound fish or you could catch a fifty pound fish on any day. In on a lot of days,

you're gonna catch a two pound fish and

probably see something in the

twenty, thirty, forty pound range. At least see it.

Maybe even hook it.

But that possibility

in that gap between what is out there is I've never experienced it anywhere else, and it it is also hideous addict when that is

a possibility.

So

without a doubt,

river stripe fishing,

favorite thing. I'm completely addicted to it. I

I would like to say,

Well, it's recreational and guiding wise pretty much what I do most of the time. Now.

So

personal best,

I

I think most anglers

don't

I don't remember a lot of my personal best. I remember a lot of my

personal best defeats,

I think,

like, the the largest fish I've lost.

I remember a lot of big fish that clients. I mean, let's be real. I I spent way more time guiding than I do fishing on my own, so I could tell you a lot about

memorable fish that clients have hooked and landed. I could tell you about memorable fish clients have

lost.

I would say two of my most memorable stripe

that I've

one I lost and one I landed.

One was probably

probably my personal best that I landed.

The personal best that I landed was

it it bog at

forty two,

forty two forty one, somewhere around there. To be honest. I forget. I just... It was over forty pounds.

I was

fishing on my own. I remember very well. I I think the kids and my wife were out of town. They were young. The boys were young. They weren't fishing yet.

They were out of town. I had gotten Taco truck, gotten At the Taco truck.

Was out in the afternoon, I think was, like August, August September.

And I hadn't been out for a while. I've been guiding really hard guiding a ton, and this was kinda I knew where the fish were. We've been banging them. This was this was this was guides day off. I'm gonna go... Beat up on these things I've watched other people catch for the last months. You know?

So

go out first run, right above what we call camp island,

throw out,

beat cast out

running line just mangled. Just turns into a knot.

And I know whoever put it away last. Let's be real is probably the client in the boat from the day before.

You know, messed it up, nod it up and just reel it up in there, and I'm cursing hit, and I'm un ent it, trying not to get, you know, by the...

I don't know, may have been thirty seconds felt like five minutes. I'm like, okay.

Hit the anchor on the trolling motors, sit on the deck, and I'm just...

I'm on tying nuts. Flies sitting out there. Who knows.

Probably snag all log gonna lose it.

So I un tang the line. It

When I look back on it, it may have taken

two minutes,

but for a guy that had been waiting and just in his mind psyche to go fish, it felt like an hour.

Finally get it un entangled,

start to kinda strip it in.

And, of course, as soon as I come tight to what I think is the fly,

it's stuck.

And I'm pissed. Now I'm gonna lose my fly that I just tied. I'm gonna breaking off. Now we gotta re reg do the whole thing over again, just, you know, delayed fishing once again.

And I get so pissed. I just start to double fish yank on it, and then all of a sudden. And I mean, I was yank on it for... Again,

probably like ten seconds, but it I felt like a minute.

You just feel those two...

If you've ever hooked a big one, You know what those first two head shakes are like that big back and forth, and there's nothing like it.

And I'd owe.

Oh, that's not a snag, and

I know.

I'd

try to set the hook on the fish. You know, who knows how long had been done there chewing on it. This... You know, the... It may have swallowed the fly and put it in its... Lower end intestine at that point. It been sitting down there so long. So

I try to get a good hook set on it. And I'm fighting Fight it out to the middle of the river, and I'm just thinking. I'm like, I have no business landing this fish. Like, this is a total

just

unearned

fish. Like this is... I felt dirty.

As all my clients that fish with me

multiple times here year spend thousands of dollars chasing fish. And here, I you know, walk out here,

throw cast it's sit on the bottom of the river for, like, ten minutes. Oh, there's one. You know?

So

I fight it. It's a great fight. I'm not gonna lie. It was awesome, and I get this thing up to the boat, and I'm just blown away.

Pulled into my pipe cradle weigh the thing. It it biggest biggest driver I've ever hooked.

No camera. Like, I don't have a camera. Left my purposely.

Right? Like, purposely left my phone in the truck. Didn't wanna be bothered just needed a day.

And so all all I have is the story in my memory, which is kinda cool, but at the same time, it's...

There's people with way better personal best stories than that.

The other one I have, which I would like to think was bigger than that

was

this was even before this. So this was many years ago... They, I don't know, many years ago, ten years ago, Let's say.

I was fishing with a good friend of mine. Casey Johnson at the time.

And

we were coaching baseball at the time together, and we were both big baseball fans. Obviously,

still am.

And we were arguing,

and this will tell you this will date it. We were arguing about the yankee keys, and we were arguing if Joe Tory was one of the greatest managers in baseball.

Now,

I still to this day argue that

Dot was a good manager. He had one of the greatest teams ever assembled, which covers up a lot of managerial heirs. Like that, you know, who knows how good he was. He basically just had to fill out a lineup card.

So

Casey on the other hand, believed he was one of the best managers in the history of Baseball, Dah dah.

So we're arguing. It's getting heated. We're cast and we're fishing these

snags

and

I cast out, and I'm I'm focused. We're in his boat. He's running the boat.

And

he says something I can't remember what he said, but I... Obviously he was wrong because I hideous disagreed.

And

kinda just stop stripping

for a minute

to

make my point or correct, Casey.

And then I pull the

fly line again to strip again and as I come, it goes tight, and I

get a kinda half hook set fumble

jo mess up

hooks set on it.

Feel the two big handshakes that felt enormous and the thing just started moving out to the middle of the river. That's like dead giveaway big fish.

Load up the rod on it, get a good couple more handshakes,

and it it cork... I think I was fishing at the time,

a ten week.

Immediately cork this thing. Felt I was being towed around while I was fishing at two week or something.

And I fought it for what seemed like a fair amount and and fighting it's a very loose term. I basically held on to this thing as it ran out into the middle of the river from this big snag wall that we were fishing.

And then it just went Slack through the hook.

And so

still to this day,

whenever I see Joe on Tv or he's that a baseball gamer where I see him interview interviewed, I kinda like sc and blame him for.

Being the reason I lost probably one of my biggest stripe ever.

Not Casey Johnson. I don't blame Casey Johnson. I blame Joe.

So Joe, if you're listening,

you suck

for helping me lose that stripe, but, you know, you weren't a bad baseball manager. So

Alright.

So

that concludes... I think we're sniffing up on an hour here, and that's gonna conclude our our listeners question

episode one because

I'm gonna be real I didn't get to many of them. Three is not... That I'm not scratching the surface. So, if you do have questions,

please wait.

Hold your questions until I get through everybody's, but I'm just joking. You can send in as many as you want. I I'd be happy. I I love the questions people send in and

If they're answer bowl with my thumbs and a a phone, I will definitely answer them in

instagram,

email, any of them. So

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