The Angler Magazine | April 2021 | Greater AtlantaEdition by Coastal Angler Magazine

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VOLUME 26 • ISSUE 314

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MAY 2021

Secrets of a Billionaire Revealed “Price is what you pay; value is what you get. Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.” — wisdom from the most successful investor of all time

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Jackpot! Hoard of 1881-S Morgan Silver Dollars Found & Secured Mintage accounts for only 1.94% of all Morgan Silver Dollars Struck!

In 1859, Nevada’s Comstock Lode was discovered, and soon its rich silver ore made its way across the nation, including to the respected San Francisco Mint—the U.S. Mint branch known by collectors as the source of some of the finest U.S. coins ever struck. That includes the 1881 Morgan Silver Dollar, which exhibits crisp details, blazing luster, and the iconic “S” mint mark of the San Francisco Mint. Now you have the chance to add these historic, 90% pure U.S. silver coins to your collection!

Here’s the breakdown: in 1881, just 4.25% of the total Morgan series was struck. Less than half of those coins came from San Francisco. In the end, the 1881-S Morgan Silver Dollar accounts for just 1.94% of the entire series—and that’s before the mass meltings that have left so few coins for collectors to secure. And we can expect that even fewer of the survivors are of collector grade...

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 Sealed in protective holder  1881-S accounts for just 1.94% of all Morgans Struck

Actual size is 38.1 mm

Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS)! Grading service varies. The condition of these coins are as though they were struck yesterday, despite being minted 140 years ago to circulate in commerce! And yet they have survived with a quality level of eye appeal that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

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The Morgan Silver Dollar was struck from 1878 to 1904, and again in 1921. In the 100 years since, most of these beautiful U.S. Silver Dollars have been worn out or melted down for their silver. It’s estimated that as little as 15% of all Morgans struck exist today in any condition. Even fewer come from this particular mintage.

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THE BASICS

By Michelle Dalton

Flying OF

Kites T

here’s something about kite fishing for big pelagic gamefish that gets me going. Flying kites presents baits with a natural appearance and allows you to cover lots of water for higher catch rates. Also, the technique provides the ultimate adrenaline rush, as you get to watch the strike happen. For those unfamiliar with kite fishing, let’s go over the basics. Captains consider everything from water color and clarity to baitfish and birds to determine where to start fishing. I like fishing edges, where water color turns green to a deep blue, usually somewhere in 100 to 300 feet of water. There are different kite designs for different wind velocities. Kites are typically launched and retrieved with electric reels. Launching kites is not a piece of cake, but with the right equipment, patience and steady winds, a beginner can practice and perfect the skill. Attached to your kite line are three release clips.

Each clip is assigned to a rod. An experienced crew will fish three live baits off one kite, with each reel’s line clipped to the main kite line. Although it seems like a potential tangled mess, it’s rather organized. For the bait lines, I use high-capacity baitcasting reels spooled with 20- or 30-pound monofilament. Attached to the mono, above the leader, there are a few terminal tackle items that make up your rigs.

First, a ceramic ring is attached to the kite line using release clips. Next, a neon float dangles in the sky above each bait to help track them from a distance. From there, a small egg sinker maintains the vertical drop that keeps baits at the surface. Finally, a bead separates the sinker from your leader. Your leader depends on the targeted species. For the toothy critters, I use an 18-inch wire leader connected to fluorocarbon with an Albright knot and a 7/0 live bait hook. For sailfish, I use 10 to 12 feet of 60-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 7/0 circle hook. By paying attention and adjusting the lines, the angler keeps the baits on the surface where they make the slight commotion predators find irresistible. The rigs suspend in air above the baits, completely out of sight of the fish. I prefer fishing goggle-eyes, threadfin herring and sardines. Healthy bait is far more likely to be eaten. Ahead of tournaments, my team and I spend weeks feeding and nurturing bait to keep it healthy. If you’re fortunate enough to hook a sailfish, don’t immediately clear the other lines. Sailfish often travel in groups. Leave those other baits in the water for a chance at additional bites. Traditionally, when winds start to die at the end of spring, the number of boats trolling offshore grows. However, kite fishing goes on year-round in South Florida. Even with very little wind, a kite will fly with the help of a helium balloon. Next time your friends want to troll around offshore, tell them to “go fly a kite!” Michelle Dalton books charters through her social media pages: @Bombchelle_fishing.

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MAY 2021

NATIONAL 7

Humbled

ON THE DAVIDSON By Nick Carter

he Davidson River in Brevard, N.C. is one of the most widely publicized trout streams in the Southeast. It’s a challenging fishery with beautiful water that holds some very nice fish. Part of the Davidson’s appeal, or its main drawback, is easy access. The river flows roadside through most its publicly accessible length. There is small water in the headwaters accessible only by foot, but for the most part it is a park-and-fish kind of place. On a gorgeous summer weekend, a buddy and I heeded advice from the guys at Davidson River Outfitters to join the dawn patrol. We arrived on

the river at first light to find a pod of big fish, maybe four or five in the 16- to 20-inch range, hovering near the bottom of a bellybutton-deep run. They were clearly visible in low summer flows. For the next hour, we worked the run together, one or the other of us making the same drift repeatedly as the other man tied on a new fly. It was a challenge that bordered on infuriating to see those trout, an occasional belly flash belying the fact that they were eating… just not what we offered. We tried everything, right down to a size 22 red midge pupa recommended at the fly shop. Finally, because we had tried everything else, I

tied on a white Woolly Bugger—another Davidson River staple. Just twitching it through the hole, a fish we had not previously seen streaked from the periphery to slam the streamer. Those big fish didn’t even flinch as I stripped in a pretty 11-inch brown. As I released the fish, an older gentleman waded down the side of the run. He glanced out at the pod of big fish still sitting on the bottom. “Wasn’t the one you were after, was it?” he asked. My response was to offer him a shot at the run. He declined. “Don’t want any part of it,” he grumbled. “Spent all afternoon yesterday standing right where you are.” That’s a snapshot of what fishing the catch-andrelease, fly fishing only section of the Davidson is like. The river is full of fish—and some big ones. It is also frequently full of anglers. The steady pressure makes trout wise. Of course, there’s always a guy who lights up Internet message boards with a photo of a big old bruiser. He’ll give advice like, “Use a little split-shot to get it down,” but I suspect there’s more to it. Pressured fish are on guard. Catching them requires perfect presentation of the perfect fly and also being in the right place at that right time. Arriving early, staying late and fishing hard makes it more likely you’ll be there when a 2-foot-long trout makes a mistake. This story is an abbreviated excerpt from the book “Flyfisher’s Guide to North Carolina & Georgia,” which includes maps and GPS coordinates to access points for all the region’s best trout fisheries. Purchase the book on Amazon or by contacting the author at nsc8957@gmail.com.

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MAY 2021 PUBLISHER: BOB RICE

A FREE PUBLICATION THE ANGLER MAGAZINE IS DISTRIBUTED ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST. THE ANGLER MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY B & B PUBLISHERS P.O. BOX 766 MADISON, GA 30650 706-614-8231 WWW.THEANGLERMAGAZINE.COM REPRODUCTION OF CONTENTS IN ANY FORM IS PROHIBITED

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: HENRY COWEN DR. ANDREW COX JIMMY HARRIS CAPT. CEFUS MCRAE CHRIS SCALLEY GARY TURNER NOEY VINEYARD O'NEILL WILLIAMS RENE J. HESSE JIMBO MATHLEY JAMES BRADLEY DAVID HULSEY WAYNE WOOTEN JAY STRIKER WAYNE MOORE JEFF DURNIAK DICKLESBY KIM NUNERY CAPT. DAVID HARE GRAPHIC DESIGN: KATHLEEN CARREIRO PHOTO BY KENNY SIMMONS, FROG HOLLOW FLY FISHING

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LOCAL RIVERS & FLY FISHING PRIMETIME FOR TROUT

Contributed by James Bradley Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide www.ReelEmInGuideService.com (706) 273-0764 May is an outstanding time to be up in the North Georgia Mountains. Signs of life are everywhere from the opening of apple houses to seeing lawn keepers weed eating. Being a guide, I have always loved the month of May. It is perhaps the best fly-fishing month on the calendar. Many may argue the likewise, but it’s hard to beat this month with its ideal water temperatures. By having prime water temperatures, this allows trout to become super active eating and chasing food items to eat. Don’t forget that it will not be too much longer until the water gets to a comfortable temperature for us to wet wade most mountain streams. Retiring those old worn heavy waders for nothing more than nylon fishing pants is a delight. I’m looking forward to this as much as the trout are to looking up for some of their daily meals! Although I am not a dry fly purist, May is an outstanding month for the surface bite. Trout only take about 10 percent of their diet from the surface. The remaining balance is taken subsurface. But, the excitement of this time of year is having trout rise to dry flies. To see a large trout come from the depths to inspect a fly is an undeniably adrenaline rush! It could be a huge 20-inch trout appearing to slowly take your

2 ATLANTA

MAY 2021

fly or sadly even turn away. Or what if it’s one of those little feisty wild rainbows that come up from the depths like a rocket heading to Mars to smash the hair right off the fly. Yes, this is right around the corner in just a matter of days and counting. Your setup can be from a dry fly to hopper. Even using search patterns like a dry/dropper combination will work well. Dry fly search patterns are more commonly Stimulators. Dropper flies can be small caddis flies, mayflies, stoneflies, or even wets or emergers. Dry fly time in the mountains has sprung, so get out there and tie one on! If you are a beginner wanting to learn how to fly fish, we have a great staff of instructors who have been schooled in the art of fly fishing. One of the best ways to learn about fly fishing is to spend time with those of us who are professional full-time guides. Don’t forget to ask us about our float trips! Currently, we are doing floats on the Toccoa Tailwater and on the upper river as well. Give us a call to book your amazing trip on the water and don’t forget that we offer gift certificates! Reel ‘Em In Guide Service operates as an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Outfitter in North Georgia’s Historic High-Country region. They have been offering their services to fly anglers since 2001. They have permits for guiding in North Georgia and North Carolina, offer over 7 miles of private trophy waters across Georgia, and operate float trips on the Toccoa River in GA and the Tuckasegee River in NC.

MAY FLY FISHING REPORT Contributed By: Henry Cowen www.henrycowenflyfishing.com May gives anglers an opportunity to catch both striped bass and spotted bass on topwater flies and lures and in big numbers! We just need to hope the water heats up gradually and not go from 60 to 75 degrees in ten days. Then all our patterns start overlapping and the fishing changes from good to great to poor in a flash. However, if the topwater bite comes and lasts, it is positively the most exciting way to fish to our local area gamefish. There are multiple patterns that may exist in the month of May. First and foremost is the early morning and late day topwater bite. Now is the time to grab a nine or ten weight rod rigged with a floating line and one of Charlie Bisharat’s Pole Dancer flies or Flat Fred flies and have at it. If you have never seen a striper eat a Zara Spook or Top Dog lure off the surface (for conventional anglers), then you have no idea what you are missing. A Pole Dancer is just that; a fly angler’s Zara Spook. It walks the dog when retrieved and striped bass do not just eat it…THEY CRUSH IT! You can also toss other types of poppers, sliders, gurglers and Wiggle Minnows at these fish, but in my opinion, nothing works better than a Pole Dancer. If you want to simply catch lots of fish, then toss a Game Changer fly on an intermediate line on the lake’s tapered points. A Game Changer is one of the best flies ever as it mimics many types of baitfish, and when retrieved, looks like a living/breathing shad or herring. After the sun comes up, you can switch over to a sinking line and start tossing either Coyote flies or baitfish type patterns like a Cowen’s Baitfish or Puglisi type fly off the points. The key to this pattern is to keep moving. It’s all about fishing the points! The more points you fish, the more bites you

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will attract. While low light is the preferred time to fish, do not discount midday when it gets a tad windy. This is also when fishing a point off the main lake river channel can get a topwater eat from any fly that is slowly worked on the surface and makes a seductive Vlike wake. Conventional fisherman can continue to toss Redfins on all the points. Fishing big 7” long Redfins can be very effective on windy days. On sunny days, use a chrome sided Redfin, and on cloudy days fish a matt colored Redfin. Fly anglers can use a large slider type fly on a floating line to mimic the action of a Cordell Redfin. A large weightless Bass Assassin can also be a good choice at this time of year. Along with the daytime bite, the mild weather allows for some pretty good fishing for stripers and large spotted bass on dock lights all over the lake. This is easy fishing as game fish seem to get really dumb when fished to on a dock light. While I prefer a sinking line when fishing these fish, it is also fun to toss a slow sinking intermediate so that you can actually watch for the bite when your fly passes over the light. There are lights that might hold twenty to thirty fish on it. May is a great time to be fishing the lakes of North GA. We will discuss our carp fishery a tad more in detail during next month’s report as this fishery should be firing up too.

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ATLANTA 3

LOCAL RIVERS & FLY FISHING THE BASIC TROUT FLY BOX

The Situation: The most critical

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

Fly fishing for trout appeals to many anglers because of the sport’s challenges, from casting to hatchmatching, but those challenges can be intimidating to anglers who want to give the sport a try. We’re here to help! Let’s simplify one of the first challenges; your starter fly collection. For Southeastern trout, give this basic 12-compartment box of only a dozen fly patterns a try. A row of four dry flies, a row of four wets, and a row of four attractors will get you into fish in most cases. Let’s take a look at its contents. Row 1 has four dry fly patterns to match adult insects riding the water surface. Try a parachute adams (dark mayfly), parachute light cahill (light mayfly), tan elk hair caddis, and a yellow stimulator (stonefly). For the first three patterns, buy 2-3 flies in each of these sizes: 14, 16, and 18. Stock the stimmies in sizes 14 and 16. Row 2 holds your wet flies that resemble immature stream insects crawling on the bottom and drifting in the current. Stock up these four compartments with gold-ribbed hare’s ear nymphs (#14, 16), pheasant tail nymphs (#16, 18), sexy Walt’s worms (#12, 14) and brown Pat’s rubberlegs (#10). The first two patterns imitate a wide variety of stream bugs, while the Walt’s will cover caddis larvae and the Pat’s resembles stonefly nymphs. Row 3 contains my four favorite attractor patterns. The first is the best fly ever created; the black woolly bugger (#10). You can’t fish it wrong, so try dead-drifting, swinging it in the current, and then stripping it in like a fleeing baitfish. Next is a bead-head prince nymph (#14), which is both flashy and buggy at the same time. It’s a great searching nymph when drifting deep or fast water. Third is a peach glo-bug (#12), which imitates fish eggs and Purina pellets. Eggs are hot for wild and Delayed Harvest trout during fish spawning season (December through March) and for hungry stockers in spring when GAWRD plunks them into your favorite streams. The last pattern 4 ATLANTA

MAY 2021

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•

matches the spring/summer “thunderstorm hatch.” It’s a red squirmy worm (#12). Storms wash in earthworms, discolor the water, and put trout on the feed. Hint: use heavier line (tippet) and carry a big net! This basic box of 12 patterns should get you started in the trout game. Fish them well and you’ll be hooked on the sport. Soon, you’ll look like me, the “Michelin Man” with a vest bloated by too many fly boxes. But know that, despite toting around half a fly shop, I’ll usually knot one of my top dozen to the end of my line. Call 706-878-3083 or visit our fly shop if we can help you further. Also, give the awesome Orvis Learning Center a look (https://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/). WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/THEANGLERMAGAZINEATLANTA/

• • • • •

LOCAL RIVERS & FLY FISHING

NG CHATTOOGA RIVER

Many great days of fishing have been going on with all of our guides with clients on the waters surrounding the Chattooga River Fly Shop. Both the big rivers and small streams have had great hatches so far this spring and look to continue into the early summer. Our water levels have been a bit high at times from some tremendous storms through the middle of April. Fishing on the delayed harvest sections has been outstanding with large fish being caught with dry flies. We have been fishing the riffles to the heads of the pools with the most success. Dry fly fishing the slower water areas when the hatch is happening has also produced great

numbers of fish as well. On early mornings and late afternoons, longer casts with long swinging dead-drifts of flashback nymphs and emergers has been the key to success. Crystal clear water means that the fish can see movement from a further distance. Lengthen the leader and a size smaller tippet will make a difference with finicky and wary trout. As the hatches progress with the warmer weather, we look forward to seeing many more Mayflies and Caddis. Please stop by the fly shop and check out the “hot list” for hatch updates. Another large emergence is of the oak worms. These fine little creatures are a tasty treat that even the largest of trout cannot pass up as they fall from the trees into the rivers. Casting imitations of these under the over-hanging bushes and dead drifting them with a twitching

technique will be very beneficial. Anywhere you find these worms dangling from their silk lines from the trees, do not hesitate to stop and watch the worm finally hit the water and see what happens! The next process is to work your way into a good vantage point to make your cast to the fish which just ate the natural. Do not worry about a delicate cast as even splat the worm on the water will be just as effective. As the late spring temperatures rise, fishing the shady areas of the rivers will be essential as the fish will move out of the high sun and warmer temperature waters. Let’s all remember “leave no trace”. Packing out with what you brought in with you is essential. Keeping our streams clean now means future generations will be able to enjoy what we are enjoying now! Check out our daily posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, giving you the daily water conditions on the Chattooga River, and please share your big fish pictures with us! We hope to see Dan Whitmire from Evans, GA with a everyone out on the rivers! great Chauga brown trout.

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ATLANTA 5

LOCAL RIVERS & FLY FISHING THE CASTING CORNER LEADERS MATTER

Contributed By: Rene J. Hesse Certified Casting InstructorFederation of Fly Fishers & Atlanta Fly Fishing and Camping Meetup Organizer

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A few years back, I took a trout fisherman out to bass fish for the first time. He brought a 7 wt. rod and a bass taper WF line to balance it. The plan was for me to be paddle boy in the canoe and he was going to catch more fish in a day than he ever had. It ended up that way, however, right at the beginning of the day there was some difficulty. How do you tell someone who is a better trout fisherman than you that they are doing something wrong? Let them get frustrated and then tell them you want to change the fly and make some adjustments. So what do you think was wrong with the situation? We had a great caster, no wind to speak of and the right fly. It was the equipment. The leader was a trout type leader: 9 foot 4X and we were casting a big bass popper. All we had to do was cut about 2 feet of line off the tapered end, and now we have about a 1X. With a big bulky fly, we need more of a mass profile in the leader to help turn over the fly. With bass, we don’t need to make gentle presentations, so a shorter leader is generally a

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MAY 2021

safe bet. So let’s look at the other end of the spectrum; when we are using a weighted fly. If we have a 7 foot leader and are casting with a 0X or 1X, the fly will tend to kick over or to the side due to the energy of the fly line leader not dissipating the energy. The answer to that is to lengthen the leader, and if you can, drop down in the diameter of the tippet. Maybe a foot or two of a 2X or 3X will do it. Watch what the fly is doing on a consistent basis. Is it not making the target because the line is collapsing? Is it going off target at the last second? These are generally leader issues. They don’t take long to fix, and it is worth it. Now you can buy leaders designed for whatever you are going for or the type fly you are using. Just make sure you switch out if you switch situations. So back to my buddy who was a great trout fisherman and caster. All we had to do was cut a few feet off his leader, and he was casting like a champ, hitting the target and catching fish. The only downside is he started calling me paddle boy.

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We get the questions all the time. Where are the public access points on the Toccoa River? How do I get to the best fishing areas on Coopers Creek? I’ve heard of Fires Creek but how do I get there? It’s hard to decipher the public/ private land deal in North Georgia and Western North Carolina. The National Forest lands are sometimes intertwined with private property and figuring out where to fish can be difficult. Getting a ticket is no fun for anyone but can easily happen if you stray onto the property of an angry land owner. That’s why we launched a new trip for the angler wishing to explore new areas without wasting precious fishing time trying to find a good fishing area. The Blue Ridge Trout Trek takes you to the best public fishing areas on 6 different streams in the North Georgia and Western North Carolina Mountains. All three different Trek days are about 6 hours long. No more wasting time and guessing if you are ok fishing here or not. On Trout Trek Brown, we take you to the 3 wadeable public access points on the Toccoa tailwater. Timing your trip to avoid the generation from the Blue Ridge Dam and where to wade this sometimes tricky piece of trout water will be covered in addition to fly selection and specific holding areas for trout. All

three have different approaches to being successful. On Trout Trek Rainbow, the upper Toccoa River access above Lake Blue Ridge will be covered in addition to Coopers Creek, Rock Creek and Noontootla Creek public access points. These small streams are great destinations for the fly angler and are just a few minutes away from one another. Forest service roads run beside each providing easy access to these crystal clear tributaries to the Toccoa River. Fires Creek and the Nantahala River in Western North Carolina are both “must fish” destinations for the visiting fly angler or local fisherman too. Trout Trek Brook reveals the fairly easy access in addition to good populations of both wild and stocked rainbow, brown and brook trout that beckon anglers from all over the Southeast. These two streams are within an hour and a half drive from Blue Ridge, Georgia, the epicenter of fly fishing for trout in the lower Southern range of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our mission is to make fly fishing for trout easy and fun for everyone from beginner to expert! Give us a call if you are interested in checking out some new fishing water. We can get you familiar with where to go and what to use to be successful.

TRANSITION TO SUMMER ON THE HOOCH Contributed By: Chris Scalley River Through Atlanta Guide Service Stonefly, mayfly and caddis fly hatches will have run their course by mid-May on the Chattahoochee tailwater, and anglers should look to other food sources for trout. Most notably this year, we should see the 17 year cicadas along with other land based insects like ants, caterpillars and hoppers. Unlike the spring hatches, where trout feed on the various stages of the lifecycle within the water column on larvae, pupae and adult, the terrestrial bite is exclusive to the adult stage almost entirely on the surface. Large attractor patterns will entice fish to the surface even though there is no steady rising activity like you

George Franco lands a colorful rainbow trout in Blue Ridge guided by Hulsey Fly Fishing. 8 ATLANTA

MAY 2021

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see during the spring. Prospecting with large attractor patterns in seams, bubble lines and undercut banks is so fun because the rise is explosive and unexpected.

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OCONEE ON THE FLY-MAY FORECAST WOULD A GUIDE HIRE A GUIDE?

Contributed By Capt. Wayne Moore USCG www.oconeeonthefly.com You bet he would! Especially if the guide he is hiring is none other than Henry Cowen. I had the pleasure of fly fishing for stripers on Lake Lanier on March 14th, and I am going to tell you about it. The takeaway here is, if a guide will hire another guide and you are looking to learn more about fishing a particular lake or species, you should too! Henry has been fly fishing for stripers on Lanier for at least 20 years. Unlike many guides (myself included), who learned from other guides, Henry had to learn mostly by observation. I met Henry (at an undisclosed location) around 3:00 pm. I had two eight weight rods, one with intermediate line, the other a fastsinking line. I ended using the intermediate as the stripers were shallow. I was using a fly Henry designed, the “Somethin Else”. It is

like a small Clouser, and you can get them at The Fish Hawk in Atlanta. On my home lake (Oconee), it is my go-to fly for stripers and hybrids. We first fished a narrow area in the back of a creek. The cool thing was that Lanier is so clear you could see the baitfish. I cast to a pod of rising fish and connected with a nice striper. I did it again and lost one. Henry’s advice was to let the fish run out the slack while maintaining pressure on the line with the rod hand, then when the slack is out, use the reel. Great advice as I was trying to take up the slack line by reeling. The next fish was at least 10-pounds and was quite a fight, but using his advice, I landed it easily. Henry has a new book, ‘Fly Fishing for Freshwater Striped Bass’, sharing all the information he spent 20 years learning. If you get a chance to book a trip with him, you will

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enjoy his company as much as you do the fishing. He is one of the nicest guys in our sport, but do not tell him I said that. May Forecast Hybrids/Stripers – Finally, May is approaching. The striper bite has been solid on most days. As of this writing, the shad spawn has not happened. My guess is it will happen on the full moon, April 26th. This means that by May they may not hit a bass minnow as quickly as a shad. There should be good fishing at the dam and on humps between the dam north up the Richland Creek branch all the way to the Ritz. Right now, they seem to be keying in on small threadfin shad. The best bite is early morning. May Forecast Crappie – The spawn will be over and long lining will produce. So will fishing with minnows over brush piles. For long lining, troll over the submerged

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LOCAL RIVERS & FLY FISHING LAKE ALLATOONA Forecast By: Capt. Robert Eidson www.firstbiteguideservice.com eidson6260@att.net Linesides fishing is good! The spring bite has started. The white bass are making their spawning runs up both the Etowah and Little Rivers. The hybrids and stripers are feeding heavily down on the main lake and should start their spawn migration run north on the next full moon. The south end of the lake is fishing very well right now. The threadfin shad are moving into the backs of the creeks and pockets and the stripers and hybrid are migrating with the bait. Thead-

fins fished on flat lines and planer boards has been our better bite. The fish are very aggressive and are blowing our bait completely out of the water. We are also catching some really nice fish blind casting jerk baits. Mid-lake is also fishing well right now. We have seen some sporadic topwater action out in front of Bartow Carver at first light. We aren’t catching big numbers mid-lake, but what we are boating are quality fish. The striper and hybrid bite on the north end of the lake has been slow compared to the south end, but that will change in the next few days with the upcoming full moon. Now it’s time to dust of your reels, grab the kids and hit the water.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST LAKE BURTON

APRIL/MAY ON ALLATOONA By Tim Dangar ltdangar@tds.net

Here we are already middle of April, and my how things have changed on Lake Allatoona. As you recall, last month I stated we need water. You best be careful what you ask for! The lake went from 10 feet below pool to 4 feet above pool in about a week. As you can imagine, that changed everything when it comes to water color and where the fish are. As I’m writing this article, the water color is back to normal and we are at full pool. Now the fish are making a comeback to the spring hot spots, and we are hoping for a couple more weeks of normal spring weather, and crappie should be wide open again. Water temps are up and down, but should level out around 68-72 by mid to late April. Last week was spring break here in Cherokee County, so my grandkids were able to get in on some of the action. For all my bow

Forecast by: Capt. Wes Carlton Georgia Lake Fishing 770-318-9777 www.georgialakefishing.com

fishing buds, be sure you have your bow in the boat while fishing. One of my grandsons, Chase Goddard, was able to make a perfect shot on a long nose gar. It measured 4 feet 8 inches long. The carp and gar should be in the shallows coming up real soon. I was able to get out for a while this morning and caught several nice crappie on a curly tail jig. Until next time, stay calm and fish on!

Water temperature: 61 degrees, lake level: full pool, clarity: clear. Bass: The bass bite has finally turned on! We have caught fish shallow, deep and in the creek rapids. Trick worms have been working well mid-morning in pockets. Jerk baits have been working best on main lake points. We have seen a lot of topwater action the last few days with some bigger fish eating a Lucky Craft Sammy 100 (herring color). We hope to see this bite continue for the next few weeks as we transition towards the bass spawn. We have lost some blueback herring the last couple of months due to all the rain we have had. Hopefully, this will make the late spring and early summer bite better.

Brown Trout: The trout have been consistent the last couple of days. Most of the fish still seem to be congregated midway back in the creeks (Moccasin Creek, Wildcat). We have had our best luck casting to these fish using a Super Rooster (white) with a dual blade. Expect to catch spotted bass while fishing for these brown trout. They are working the same areas along the shorelines. The bite should get better as the water warms and the fish surge towards the southern portions of the lake. Walleye: The bite has been slow the last few weeks with only a few fish being caught. The spawn is over, and most of the fish are making their way back down the lake. Trolling jerk baits like a silver/black Smithwick have been working a little. It has been hard to fish the creek and river channels lately with all the fresh rainfall. Look for this bite to pick up in the next few weeks. Good luck!

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST ATLANTA SALTWATER CLUB TOURNAMENTS By Chuck Alford, ASWSC, chuckalford@comcast.net In the saltwater world this time of year, we are in the middle of great inshore fishing, and offshore is on the verge of really getting hot. Along with our annual sailfish tournament at West Palm Beach in January, the club has held two inshore tournaments so far, March 19 & 20 at Panama City Beach, FL and April 9 & 10 at Steinhatchee, FL. The weather was chilly and windy for the PCB tournament, and it was a little early for the speckled trout to move out on the grass flats, but a few were caught in the creeks. The Spanish mackerel had moved in a week earlier and made up for it. They were on fire in the bay and pass. A lot of both mangrove and red snapper were caught, (yes red snapper are in the bay if you know where to look), along with flounder, black sea bass and sheepshead. The redfish

bite was slow for some reason. Only a few were caught, but the tournament was won by team “Grumpy Gills” on the strength of a big 38” bull red. The tournament was based from my dock which is on a lagoon off the Intracoastal in St Andrews Bay, with everyone chowing down on gumbo at the awards banquet in the backyard. Steinhatchee again had to deal with winds (that was the Saturday a tornado hit Panama City), but they had a lot of fun. Everyone caught lots of trout, and there were king mackerel, redfish and black sea bass caught. One of the anglers with a flounder along with the other four species mentioned caught five different type fish in the tournament. A young angler who turned eight during the trip caught four trout all by herself, which will really help her quest to repeat as Jr. Angler of the Year.

Team “Sashimi Seeker” won the tournament, helped by catching the largest fish, a 36” king mackerel. Considering that the weather was challenging on the weekend, and most of the contestants were fishing Steinhatchee for the first time, they ended up with a good bit of fish. The tournament was appropriately based at Good Times Marina with everyone enjoying the great food during the awards banquet at Who Dat restaurant. When this edition of Angler Magazine is printed, the club will have held our Savannah offshore tournament April 29-30. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, and the bigger boats can make it to the Gulf Stream where the mahi mahi are typically on fire this time of year. After Savannah, everyone’s attention turns to Apalachicola and fish boxes full of huge red snapper and grouper. The Savannah tournament kicks off the main offshore season when thoughts turn to snapper, grouper, tuna and the occasional billfish along with mahi. There will be other inshore opportunities during the summer, but it does get tougher when the heat is up. It is fun though until the fall when the inshore scene

really cranks up again. We have a full slate of tournaments scheduled this year with some great locations. Check out our website for the dates and contact us or come by a meeting to join in on some amazing fishing trips. The Atlanta Saltwater Sportsman Club (ASWSC) is for saltwater lovers in the metro area and beyond. For more information about ASWSC: www.aswsc.org, info@aswsc.org, and like us on Facebook “Atlanta Saltwater Sportsman Club”.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST MAY ON LAKE LANIER – TIME FOR TOPWATER Contributed By: Jim “Jimbo” Mathley www.jimboonlanier.com

Lake Lanier is arguably at its very best during the late spring and early summer due to the consistent availability of an aggressive topwater and swimbait bite during this time. This is an excellent opportunity for anglers to catch spotted bass and watch the action as wolf-packs of monster spotted bass chase your topwater plugs! In this month’s installment, you will learn the necessary tackle, equipment, locations and resources to catch topwater fish on Lanier. Location: Now, at the end of April and heading into May under normal weather conditions, most of the spotted bass on Lake Lanier are finishing the spawn, and in doing so, will begin aggressively feeding to recover from the spawning process. After a short period of inactivity, the larger female spots will begin their migration from their spawning haunts to key features at the mouths of the major creeks as well as main lake areas, and can be found on or around long-running points, rocky shoals, and underwater humps/islands throughout the lake. Locating these areas and the man-made cover that is often found on them which will often concentrate the fish will be important to your success. Trust your Lowrance HDS units to find these brush piles around the features mentioned above. Focus in the 20-25 foot depth range. For topwater action, you should utilize either a medium or mediumheavy bait-casting or spin-casting outfit, rigged with 12 to 17-pound

Seaguar monofilament line. Monofilament fishing line floats, where as fluorocarbon line sinks, which makes either monofilament or braided line the best option for presenting topwater baits correctly. As far as choosing a rig for fishing these topwater baits, consider the weight of the bait as your deciding factor. Lighter poppers and smaller walking baits are often better presented on spinning gear which allows for easier casting of smaller baits. For swimbaits, I like to present the larger, heavier, mechanical-type swimbaits on a heavy action rod that is at least 7 feet long. My big swimbait rod is from G-Loomis and is a beef stick! It can handle the biggest of swimbaits or A-Rigs. I appreciate the extra rod strength to cast these big baits and manage the big fish I catch on them. As far as the many other soft and hard swimbait options, you can scale back to a medium-heavy rod if you prefer, but I definitely recommend keeping the length at 7 feet or more. Lures and Presentation: Now that we have explored the location that the spots can be found in May as well as the tackle necessary to fish them, let’s examine some of the techniques and lures that can be used to catch these fish. Remember that even though we are discussing topwater and swimbait presentations in this article, when the females first come off the bed, they are lethargic, so the use of more subtle techniques such as a Fluke or a Castleberry head and worm

combo can be the ticket. As the postspawn period progresses, the fish will become much more active and aggressive as eating becomes a major part of their recovery process from the spawn. The fish at times will feed voraciously, and it is at these times that you should focus on fishing fastmoving baits such as the topwater and swimbait presentations we have focused on through the course of this article. 1. Topwater - Nothing beats being able to watch a fish crush your topwater bait! There are many choices of baits here: poppers, walkers, waking baits, etc. The preference of the fish will change day to day, so make sure to experiment daily to identify the mood of the fish as well as their preference in presentation. Excellent topwater baits for Lake Lanier include: Lucky Craft Sammy, the Heddon Zara Spook, Pop-R, a Storm Chug-Bug, and a Cordell Redfin. All of these lures as well as all the G-Loomis rods and Shimano reels you will need to present them can be purchased at local tackle shops such as Hammond’s Fishing in Cumming, GA. 2. Swimbait – Swimbaits offer great versatility as they can, based on the model, be fished at any depth you wish. Once the post-spawn has advanced, this becomes a great bait to throw around points and humps in both creeks and on the main lake. Popular hard and soft swimbaits are made by a number of different tackle vendors, to include many local options. As far as the mechanical type swimbaits, I am a HUGE fan of the Sweet Herring Swimbait, especially the JR, made by Sweet Baits, a local vendor in the Lake Lanier area. In the soft bodied swimbaits, I prefer the Lanier Baits Swimmer and Keitech Swimbait offerings. 3. Underspin from GA Blade – When the topwater/swimbait bite

is tough, pick up your GA Blade Underspin and go to work. Fish the same areas you would normally present your topwater baits and experiment with different depths of the water column. Also, work these lures over brush for big spots. Try a Fluke, a Lanier Baits Swimmer, or Keitech swimbait as a trailer. I still have some dates available in June 2021, so call me to book a trip today and reserve your opportunity to come experience some of the best spotted bass topwater action in the country! For more information or to book your trip, contact Jimbo on Lanier! 770-542-7764. Jimbo’s website: www.jimboonlanier.com.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST LAKE ALLATOONA

LANIER STRIPERS Forecast by: Clay Cunningham www.catchingnotfishing.com 770-630-2673 It’s been another incredibly busy spring here on Lanier. The number of people fishing is unprecedented. Ever since last spring, the number of fishermen has been incredible. Topwater time is also here. Most of the lake is clear and the fish are looking to eat. Nothing is better than watching your Berkley Surge Shad wake across the surface and it vanish as a striper engulfs it. Spool up a seven foot medium heavy Abu Garcia Veritas spinning rod paired with a Penn 3000 Conflict with 12-pound Trilene Big Game line and you are ready for action. If you want a longer cast, spool up with 10-pound line. Several baits will be needed for casting to the stripers. You will need a wake bait like the Berkley Surge Shad and a walking bait like the Berkley J-Walker. Look for the bone color and the chrome black back color and you have the two primary colors in the J-Walker and Surge Shad. Twitch the J-Walker so it zig zags across the surface. Once you catch one on a walking bait, you will be hooked on topwater

stripers for life. If the fish are wanting a subsurface lure, the Sebile Magic Swimmer is also a great bait. Cast these baits to points and humps across the lake and be prepared for some explosive action. If you need a more subtle presentation, rig up a 3/8 Berkley Fusion swimbait head tipped with a white paddle tail. Every day is different in the spring. Just because it worked yesterday does not mean it will work the next day. Live herring on a freeline across these same points and humps will also be a great tactic. This is the old reliable technique. Spool up a Penn Fathom II Linecounter 15 series reel with 15-pound Trilene Big Game and a Shakespeare Striper Series rod and you are ready for live bait fishing. Be sure to pick up some Gamakatsu 2/0 Octopus hooks, some Trilene 100% Flourocarbon, and some Spro Power Swivels for your leaders and you are all set. Pull these freelines across these areas at about 1 mph. As the water temperature increases do not be afraid to add a little weight to the freeline to get down a little deeper. As the water temperature increases, look for the fish to go deeper. May should be great weather and great fishing. It is a great month to be on the water before the summer heat. See you on the water and stay safe.

LAKE SEMINOLE Forecast By: by Capt. Paul Tyre paultyrefishing@yahoo.com The bass fishing on Lake Seminole has been very good through April! If planning a trip to Lake Seminole in May, make sure you have your topwater lures like buzzbaits and hollow-belly frogs in your tackle box. A buzzbait is the optimal choice for covering water to find the active areas that are holding bass. One of my favorite buzzbaits is a 3/8 ounce Strike King Pro Model in chartreuse and white. This 18 ATLANTA

MAY 2021

buzzbait has a unique sound that generates some ferocious strikes! My choice for the hollow-belly frog is the Spro Popping Frog in the leopard color. Fish the frog around and through the vegetation that is so prevalent on Lake Seminole. For the panfish enthusiast, the bream and shellcracker will be bedding in May and is an excellent way to introduce kids to fishing! For a Lake Seminole Fishing Adventure this May for bass, shellcracker and bream, email us at lakeseminolefishingadventures@ gmail.com and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @ lakeseminolefishingadventures.

404-919-4918 Spring is here and we sure get excited about the prospects for great days of fishing, and the little gem we have in Lake Allatoona starts to really shine. Our primary target species becomes hybrids and striped bass mainly because they fight like the dickens, especially the hybrids. Downlining fresh threadfin shad is hard to beat for the schoolies. They will often be pushing bait up against ledges and points early in the morning. If you cross paths with some topwater action, be ready to cast a Sebile, Redfin or spoon right into the mix. If you want to better entice a larger fish, be ready with a larger profile bait. This takes a lot of patience and discipline to not cast whatever is in your hand to surface feeding fish and having your big fish bait at the ready to deploy. May is big fish month. We have caught most of our bigger stripers, hybrids, and spotted bass during this month than any other in years past. It is big bait month, too! Even here on Allatoona the 3-5 pound spots, jumbo hybrids and 10-pound+ striped bass will sometimes only strike that one big bait you are ready with. Throw a Redfin C-10 and/or float at least one big bait to see these results for yourself. Having a large profile bait, especially if you are lucky enough to encounter a school chasing the bait and boiling the surface, can mean the difference of triggering one of the larger fish or not. My heart is beating quicker right now, reflecting on the anticipated strike along promising edges early in the morning with a 7-9” gizzard shad tethered to a planer board. We should still be finding crappie just off their spawn and now on deeper brush and along channel edges and creek mouths again. This does not mean they are not still in the creek backs, but as the water warms, access to cooler water typically prevails for these little discs of delight. The catfish bite is on! We have some catfish specific trips lined up for day and evening fishing of these

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river and reservoir monsters. Want to know what they like? They really like big fresh baits (cut and/or alive) and chasing and catching the right baits alone can be a day of fishing for bream and such and guerrilla-style throwing of the cast net in jungle-like coves hunting mongo gizzard shad. Guess what? We have a dozen species to come and catch here on Allatoona. It is not uncommon for us to bag 5-7 species in a single trip during May, even when targeting a specific one. There are some great shops in the area to stop and talk fishing. I have learned a lot over the years from chatting up friends old and new at the Dugout, Hammonds, Oakwood, and the Shad Shack, and they have everything you might need for fishing in the area and beyond. If you would like to enjoy a nice full-service Adventure, please do not hesitate to contact us directly by text or call to 404-919-4918 or email us any time. Please visit us at Heron Outdoor Adventures and be safe, stay blessed and tight lines, friends!

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LAKE MARTIN Provided By: David Hare Alex City Guide Service 256-401-3089 Surface temperature: 68-70 degrees, lake level: full pool, clarity: clear. April spring fishing has been great, and for the most part we’ve had to dodge a lot of stormy days, but that’s just part of it. I believe May this year is going to be our best big fish month in a few years. The stripers are very healthy and have been putting on a lot of weight this spring. You’re definitely going to have a good opportunity to catch some stripers on topwater this month. You should plan on very early morning bite and then the last couple hours of the afternoon. If you

enjoy fishing pier lights, then May is one of your better months for that here on Lake Martin. If you like to troll, then I would start getting your boat ready for that, and by mid-May, trolling should be good for the bass and stripers. This is also a good month to start catching some nice bream with your kids and grandkids. Load up with crickets, worms and bobbers and create some great memories with the family. If you’re thinking of a guided charter trip this year, then get a hold of us ASAP by calling or texting 256-401-3089. It looks like it’s going to be another banner year for tourists, so get on our calendar and let us show you a great time here on Lake Martin.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST THE BOATING SEASON IS HERE Dr. Andrew Cox

Both water and air temperatures are ramping up. This ushers in the boating season on area waterways. Our waterways are becoming crowded with pleasure boaters and anglers. Boating safety is important to minimize potential boating and other water related accidents and mishaps. Safe boating safety and operation tips and procedures can be easily located. A useful reference for Georgia boat operators is the Handbook of Georgia Boating Laws and Responsibilities. This publication is available through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (www.gadnrle.org). A similar publication is available for Alabama boat operators through www.outdooralabama.com. These handbooks will answer questions

about boat operation and navigation. As a boat operator on the increasingly crowded waterways in Georgia and Alabama, you may want to consider taking a boating safety or boat operator course. Both instructor led live course or online course instructional formats are available to accommodate your schedule and learning needs. Some are free or charge a minimal fee. Some potential boating safety or so-called boating education providers are listed below: • Georgia Department of Natural Resources. www.gadnrle.org; www. gooutdoorsgeorgia.com; www. georgiawildlife.com. These websites describe online and live boating education programs available within the State of Georgia • United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. www.uscgaux.info. Lists

various boating education programs available through this branch of the U.S. Coast Guard • United States Power Squadron. www.usps.org. Another source of boating education programs • Several non-governmental providers of boating safety and education programs are available to include www.boatus.org and boated.com. These sources include online boating safety courses. Useful information is provided for non-powerboat operators on Alabama and Georgia waters. Information useful to angling, kayak, canoe and other nonmotorized watercraft enthusiasts is available. You should also be aware of the licensing and boating operation regulations in effect for both Georgia and Alabama. These regulations can be reviewed through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Being knowledgeable in boat operation, being observant, and anticipating possible boating safety hazards can keep you and your boating passengers safe,

allowing enjoyable times on area waterways. Hope you have a safe and pleasurable boating season. Author’s Note: Dr. Andrew Cox is a contributing writer to outdoor publications and newspapers. His writing interests specialize in angling and travel, human interest, and general fishing technique oriented topics. He is a member of the Georgia Outdoor Writer’s Association. He has been fishing the waters of Georgia, Alabama, and north Florida for over forty years. Dr. Cox financially supports his fishing habits as Professor Emeritus at Troy University, Phenix City, Alabama. He may be contacted at andrewtrout@aol.com

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST CLOUD FISHING Contributed By: Noey Vinyard

A BEST GOOD FRIEND

She could run barefoot down a gravel road faster than most with shoes. Though she didn’t need to run often, she could whip all the boys in the neighborhood. She was completely fearless, and when it came to wading in the snake infested creeks where we used to hunt for crawdads, she could snatch one up faster than all of us. Our families would take the houseboat out on Lake Ponchatrain, and after we were anchored at night, we would be allowed to swim toward shore. That may not seem like a scary thing, but there are things in that lake that defy definition, but she was always the first to hit the water. We were eight. She was always the first one picked in a dirt clod battle, because not only could she throw, but she would get crazy fearless and lead the charge. Everyone grows up with that one special

EST.

friend, and mine was Stephanie Kraemer, and she is still my best good friend to this day. If you looked in the dictionary under tomboy, you would see her picture, but I also remember she could pull off the Sunday dresses as well and look pretty as a robin in one. She could also pop the first boy in the eye that laughed at her for wearing a dress. She graduated from playing in ditches to mastering boats and all the endeavors that go with that. After a pilgrimage to Israel, she came back and found her place in life, rescuing animals. We ran through those creeks when we were 8, and we are now in our fifty something’s. But despite the fact that time has passed and we both have made our share of mistakes in life, those precious few moments in the sun were our gold. Robert Frost wrote “nature’s

1976

first green is gold”, and we spent our green days like it was gold for a king’s ransom. Those incredibly innocent days of fun and friendship were for me the very definition of childhood. She taught me how to bait a hook and how to peel shrimp. She taught me how to shuck and eat crawdads. You see, I was just a guy who moved to Louisiana, and she is coon-ass through and through. So in this month’s story I pay homage to my best good friend. When times have looked bad for me, it was my memories of our

childhood that got me through. For me, she is the person that when you really need someone, that person that you know will be there for you without a doubt, without asking why, without complaining about the hour. They are the person you grow up with that knows your heart the best. They are the person like the old saying says “they see through you and still like the view.” I like knowing you are out there Steph, doing your thing, and I hope everyone has had the good fortune to have a best good friend like you.

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

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Water temperature: 65 degrees, lake level: full, clarity: 1 foot. Well, it’s been an interesting spring on Carters with flooding rains, brown muddy water, extreme pollen, and what seemed like never ending cold fronts. It just never seemed to stabilize at the beginning of last month. Despite the less then favorable conditions, there’s been some great days of fishing. The walleye bite was right on time, and we had some great days and nights catching shallow feeding fish. Most fish came on either live shad pitched to the banks or minnow-tipped jigs bounced around timber. The average fish has been about 21”, and like most fish in Carters, fat! The walleye bite

will continue to be good as we move into May both early in the morning and after dusk. The striper/hybrid bite was tough with the super muddy water but steadily increased with the water clarity. We have seen some really nice fish in the 20 to 25-pound class in recent weeks. Most fish came on big alewives or medium gizzard shad pulled behind planers close to the bank. Steep banks where the predators keep the baitfish pushed close to shore have been best. I prefer the ones that keep a shadow cast on the water after sunrise. This works in the stripers favor as an ambush predator. I’ve been pulling the boards at 1.5 mph with roughly 50 feet of line behind them. The night bite fishing over the Hydro Glow lights is getting better every day as well. I’m starting to see more and more fish show up to check out the commotion.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST CHIRP, WHAT IS IT?

By Ken Sturdivant www.southernfishing.com 770-889-2654

15544 Hwy, 515, Ellijay

One of the most asked questions we get in our SONAR classes is what is CHIRP? CHIRP (an acronym for Compressed High-Intensity Radiated Pulse) is a game changing technology that has been used by the military for decades in both radar and sonar. Instead of pinging a single frequency like traditional 2D sonar, CHIRPing devices transmit a sweeping range of frequencies. It’s not so much a new type of sonar but rather a better way to process and display traditional 2D sonar. CHIRP Sonar was developed in the 1950’s as a military technology, and it’s recently been introduced by all the major fishing electronics manufacturers, but there has been precious little information produced about what CHIRP sonar is, what it does, and how you can use it to catch more bass. CHIRP uses bursts of different frequencies, and units with CHIRP technology are able to compensate for inconsistencies in the way different objects and materials reflect the sonar pulse. By scanning over multiple frequencies, CHIRP units can produce much more detailed images than non-CHIRP units. Here is a good way to learn how these technologies can help anglers. Spilt the screens on SONAR; One with 200 kHz on one panel and on the same panel add a HIGH CHIRP. Now anglers can see the benefit of what the differences are with these two panels side by side. How can CHRIP help you catch more fish? Adding CHIRP sonar to your electronics suite will provide measurable gains to a number of important aspects of a sonar image. One of the most impressive things that CHIRP does for

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anglers is that it provides anglers an unprecedented representation of the water column and a much better picture of bait in the water. With CHIRP, anglers have been getting target separations of less than two inches, making it easier to differentiate their weight and bait while drop-shotting. Having that level of detail gives anglers a much better idea of how bass react to their baits. Another huge improvement CHIRP technology provides is in image clarity, which can be a big deal for ledge fishermen that frequently try to categorize the images of fish on their units. CHIRP sonar will also allow anglers to better understand how game fish relate to baitfish and distinguish predatory fish from the image of the bait. CHIRP sonar allows you to see those predatory fish even if they’re inside a ball of bait or directly under it. Here is a good example of CHIRP technology. This is a brick on the bottom with two tennis balls attached to the brick. Regular 200 kHz beams see a “bump” on the bottom. The CHIRP beam sees “something” on the bottom. But, this is still a Sonar beam and at 20 feet deep the circle of sound on the bottom is only 8 feet in diameter. Learn how to use your machines with our exclusive 8 hour ON THE WATER School on Lake Lanier. For more details, go to our website and look at the SCHOOLS PAGE for ALL the details or call 770889-2654. For a FREE! SONAR SET UP SHEET to get you started for ANY sonar machines, send an email to kensturdivant@att.net and tell us what machine you own. Screenshots courtesy of Lowrance.

LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST WEST POINT LAKE

Water temperatures are mostly in the 70s and low 80s. The lake is mostly clear and right around full pool level. Bass: Good - Largemouth are being caught on several different patterns. Topwater baits such as Pop R’s, Zara Spooks and buzzbaits can be extremely effective for shallow and aggressive fish, especially around bream beds. The second pattern that works really well is to look for spawning shad. Try fishing rip-rap around bridges with spinnerbaits, small crankbaits, and Zoom Super Flukes. Additionally, some big tournament sacks of largemouth are still being weighed in by guys who sight fish, targeting fish that are locked on bed. This can be an aggravating way to fish, but can pay off in a tournament win. Lots of spotted bass are caught by casting Spot Remover heads loaded with Shaky Tail worms or just dragging a Carolina-rigged Zoom finesse worm or mini lizard around sloping gravel banks. These tactics normally work very well for numbers. Linesides: Excellent - Spawned

out hybrids and stripes show back up down lake in May. Expect the downline bite on live bait to be awesome! Some fish started surface schooling on the main lake and can be caught on small crankbaits, topwaters, pop-n-cork rigs and Storm Swim Shad lures. Crappie: Fair - Spawned out fish will typically move out and hold on deeper brush and structure or under docks for a while to recover. Night fishing should also improve in May. Bream: Good - Don’t forget about our bream and shellcracker. Finding an active bed can take a little effort, but when you do, you can have a ball! Bedding usually takes place on the full moon cycles in May. Look for shallow cover in the backs of pockets. Sandy flats and stump beds tend to draw the fish like a magnet. Use live pink worms, crickets and small jigs for the best results. Catfish: Good - Lots of channel cat are being caught by the few anglers that target them. Live and cut baits (and worms of course) fished on bottom will catch cats all over the lake as long as fairly deep water is nearby. Jug fishing is also fun and productive. To target flatheads, go to a larger bait like a 4-5 inch bream or large shiner and fish the same areas. Be sure to increase the size of your rigs as fish in the 20 to 30-pound range are fairly common.

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MAY 2021

RESPECT GOES A LONG WAY Contributed By: Jay Striker www.jaystriker.com While fishing a tournament in years past, it was customary that you would kindly just move to another location and fish when you saw another angler fishing in a place. However, as the bass tournaments became increasingly popular, the younger and more eager anglers have missed abiding by simple respect. I have chosen to write about angler etiquette and help educate the up-and-coming anglers wanting to rise in the ranks of bass fishing. Many rules are unspoken in the tournament circuits. I only want to cover three primary points to consider for many new anglers just entering the sport. Fishing Rules: One of the most important unspoken rules in tournament bass fishing, when fishing from the back of the boat, is to respect the areas in which the boater at the front of the boat is fishing. There are no hard and fast rules that say you can’t cast. However, my advice is to avoid throwing toward the boat’s front where the boater is fishing. It’s always best to ask if you have any doubts about where the boater is casting, so that you don’t get your lines crossed and disturb an area where they are concentrating on. Most times, co-anglers will find that the boater is just working hard to catch fish. His investment in the event might be much more significant than yours, and it’s just standard fishing etiquette. So if you are a nonboater new to tournament fishing, then work with your boater to make your experience much better. Boating Rules: This one rule covers boaters that are fishing in the tournament. This unspoken rule is violated more than not. When an angler is fishing an area, it is customary to allow that boater to continue to fish the area and not get too close or what anglers refer to as “cutting you off.” It seems to occur more with anglers who are just learning to fish tournaments from the boat’s front. Many of them don’t understand the respect afforded to other anglers fishing around them. If you want to fish an area that an angler is at, then ask if he or she

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minds if you are fishing behind them. If you do get the chance to fish in the area, stay back far enough respecting the other boater. Doing so will give you credibility and respect, and the same respect will be given to you. Trust me, word travels fast in the world of fishing. Information Rules: Another way to respect each other on the water is to respect the information you have received from other anglers. I have seen it where co-anglers use their phones to record locations of the boater’s fishing spots and pass that information on to other anglers. It takes a great deal of practice to locate fish and gain a competitive edge. Be very careful who you share information with and whose information you are sharing. The simple rule is not giving out other anglers’ fishing locations or giving information about their lures. This will only make your career short in the bass fishing industry. Let me close by saying that respect on the water goes a long way. If you are new to the industry, work hard to pick up on some of the unspoken rules of tournament bass fishing. Bass fishing is a reputation-driven sport. Having a respected reputation amongst your peers is the highest level of complement an angler can have. Tight lines and remember to follow me on Instagram, Facebook and also at www.jaystriker.com.

LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST

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LAKE EUFAULA By Capt Sam Williams hawk184@earthlink.net 334-687-6266 Water temperature: 70’s, lake level: 189.92, clarity: heavy stain to muddy. The bass are working the shallows really heavy now and the blade baits are doing very good. Soft plastic on a Texas rig, jigs and shaky heads are getting more consistent all the time. The frog bite is picking up, and as the pads and cover continue to develop, it will be even hotter. The old pad areas behind some of the islands are beginning to develop underwater and the baitfish and bass are moving into these areas as well. Topwater jerk baits, Spooks and poppers are doing the trick here. Bladed jigs are always a good choice in dirty water. The deeper fish are hitting deep cranks and Carolina rigs baited with big plastics.

Crappie are getting better on minnows in the trash piles. The night fishermen are out in good numbers around the causeway and bridge pilings fishing under lights. They will be in the shallows soon, and jigs cast to the cover will be the way to go. Shellcrackers and bream are beginning to do well on the beds, especially down south at the dam. Catfish are settling in from the inconsistent weather. The jug fishermen are getting a great mess for the table using shad and cut bait. The bottom fishermen are doing well using worms and crawlers. Remember the Alabama Classic Bass Tournament is coming up June 12. Visit www.alclassic to keep up with our latest news and sign up for the newsletter. We want to thank Alfa Insurance for joining our team as our new Title Sponsor and guaranteeing our first place team a $5,000.00 check, increasing our total payout for the top 15 teams to $15,000.00. The big fish pot is now a side pot split 60/40 for

the two biggest bass weighed in. That is a 100% pay back on big fish pot. Be safe on the water. With the Covid mess, we are seeing many more folks on the water fishing. Pray for one another and remember that our Lord and Savior is in total control. As Christians, we know how this story ends. Praise God.

Jesse Walton from Marietta and Chris Green from Alpharetta fishing Lake Eufaula with Capt Sam Williams.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST LAKE CHATUGE

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Eric Welch Welch’s Guide Service www.welchsguideservice. com 706-455-2323 Water temperature: 61-62 degrees, lake level: 1.5 feet below full pool, clarity: clear. Fishing is starting to pick up as the lake is starting to get back to normal after all the rain we’ve had over the last month. The spotted bass are trying to spawn on the pebble rocky banks, points and flats. I usually drag a creature bait, 3.5” tube and a Strike King 3.25 Rage Swimmer on a 1/8 oz. swimbait jig head. A lot of the bites feels like a bream. The spotted bass are just moving the bait away from the spawning areas you can’t see. Most of these bites come from just fishing it slow and feeling them pick it up to move it away from their spawning areas. The largemouth bass are moving up and cruising around

in the back of pockets and creek runs. Some are already spawning. My baits of choice are swimbaits and swim jigs for cruising bass. The ones already locked on beds, I like flipping something in white like a tube or a crawfish so I can see them pick it up. Most of the spawning should be over by the 2nd week in May. Then the fish should really start feeding. I like throwing a trick worm or fluke around docks and laydowns for the fish that are still protecting fry. Good luck, and remember that we guide on 8 different lakes. So if you’re looking for some great fishing, give Welch’s Guide Service a call. We’re your #1 guide service, and we’ve been doing this since 2001.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST

ST OLD DOGS…NEW TRICKS By Capt. Cefus McRae Nuts & Bolts Fishing Series Hartwell, GA Look in my tackle boxes, and you’ll find a lot of lures, hooks and rigs that have been catching fish for decades or longer. Those unimpressive purple plastic worms rigged on a Tru-Turn bass hook with a bullet sinker still fools bass. The WhoopAss bucktail jigs continue to catch stripers, hybrids, snapper, grouper, cobia and a variety of other species, and my scratched up MirroLures will catch just about anything that swims. These rigs have been doing the job for as long as I can remember. For the most part, they still are a vital part of my go-to portfolio of confidence lures and rigs. Every season, tackle manufacturers debut new lures that are sure to be the next wave in fish-catching. Some of them are so realistic, it’s almost impossible to distinguish them from the real thing. In truth, many of them are essentially the same lure with a different coat of paint, a slightly different swimming action, or a different size, and, yes, they will also catch fish. Every so often a rig comes along that has a distinct impact on the sport. Remember when the Alabama Rigs first came out. They were so effective, many tournaments banned them from use. Some state regulations now only let you have three hooks on a fivehook rig. It is crazy how these micro versions of the time-tested umbrella rig attract game fish, and a lot of companies jumped on the bandwagon to produce similar (but improved) versions of that rig. The Captain Mack’s MiniMack and Project X X-Rig are two good examples of taking a good idea and making it even better. Hard plastic and soft plastic swim baits have been around forever and are probably the most continuously updated lure style. My grandfather had one of the original Animated Minnows, and lots of lures from Creek Chub and Heddon. They all caught fish. Fast-forward fifty years and in-

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novations in manufacturing have created more lifelike action and amazing graphics. Two that come to mind are the Sebile Magic Swimmer and Savage Gear’s 4 Play 2.0 look like real baitfish swimming in the water, and they catch fish. In the soft plastic realm, the paddle-tail lures have really come into the limelight. New ways to rig them, like using a Flutter Hook, are putting lots of fish in the cooler in both fresh and saltwater. Spoons and jigs have been used since caveman days. Although they were primitive, they still put meat on the table. Today’s shinier versions work on the same principles, but now we have terms like Slow-Jigging, Deep-Dropping, and Butterflying. These tactics all revolve around dropping a heavy piece of metal over the side and use a variety of retrieve tactics to entice a bite. Our ancestors did the same thing with their homemade rigs. They just called it “fishing”. They say you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks. After thinking about it, I’d say the old tricks worked pretty good back then and still do today. But regardless of whether you’re fishing with this year’s latest gadget or a rig that your grandfather used, the key is to get out on the water and start fishing. I really don’t think a hungry fish cares whether it’s the latest rage or a time-tested favorite. So while you’re re-stocking your tackle box for spring fishing, consider blowing the dust off some of those old standbys from a few years ago too. I’d wager if they caught fish a few years ago, they’ll still catch fish today.

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LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST CHATUGE HYBRIDS AND SPOTTED BASS By: Darren Hughes Owner: Hughes General Store & Bait Shop The Angler Magazine Fishing Team & Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service www.bigolfish.com 828-361-2021

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The hybrid bass bite is in full swing. These Lake Chatuge monsters are right in the midst of their spring spawn. Currently, they are feeding pretty aggressively on bait in the backs of creeks and in shallow areas around the mouths of creeks. The far south end and far upper ends of the lake have been pretty decent. We are seeing most of our fish in the 25 to 35 foot range. Your early morning and late evening bites will be the best. Pulling planer boards and free lines with live blueback herring and shad will be your best technique. Towards the end of this month, we’ll start to see these hard-fighting fish school up in the mouths of creeks and off points around the lake. When these hybrids school up, it can most certainly make for an unforgettable fishing trip. We typically average 30 to 60 hybrids in a morning and sometimes in less than 2 hours. These fish will range in sizes from 6-15 pounds and fight like no other. Also, look for an awesome topwater bite to get fired up soon. I usually keep a RedFin or a Spook at

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30 ATLANTA

MAY 2021

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the ready. The spotted bass bite has also been excellent. Fish should be coming up off their beds and are super hungry. They will be schooling up off shallow points and humps throughout the lake. Recently, we have been boating 25 to 30 fish a trip. A lot of these spots have been averaging 4 to 6 pounds. Focus on shallow areas around creeks and off points and humps. Downlining live bluebacks has worked the best. Also, watch for a strong topwater bite to start. When these schooling spots start chasing up bait and busting on the surface, they’ll hit almost anything you can throw at them. May is a fantastic month for catching a lot of trophy hybrids and spots on this North Georgia lake. Give Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service a call and let the area’s #1-rated guide service put you on some of Lake Chatuge’s best trophy hybrids during the fishing trip of a lifetime. We are Blairsville, Georgia’s premier full-time guide service, specializing in striped and hybrid bass. We also serve Lakes Hiwassee, Nottely, and Lake Blue Ridge. So, come fish with the pros for the opportunity to be featured in Angler Magazine, and let us help you get your fish on!

LOCAL LAKES AND FORECAST

s also e comsuper ooling humps ly, we fish a e been cus on s and nlining e best. pwater ooling d bustalmost em. th for ds and a lake. rvice a guide f Lake s durme. We remier alizing We also y, and h with to be e, and n!

LAKE NOTTELY STRIPER NOBODY SAID IT HAD TO By: Shane Goebel Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service & The Angler Magazine Fishing Team www.bigolfish.com 828-361-2021, 1-844-4-ANGLER It’s time for some monster trophy stripers in North Georgia. Yup, it’s May and it is most definitely the best time of year for trophy fish. May brings in the warmer weather, which get these stripers in the mood for spawning and really fires up the bite. We’ll also start catching number as well. So if you’re looking for something to do or an avid fisherman looking for that record fish, give us holler and get your fish on with the area’s #1 guide service.. Check out our Facebook and Instagram page Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service and give us a like. Currently, Lake Nottely is around 3 feet below full pool. Clarity is mostly clear and slightly stained in the rivers. Water temps have been in the mid 60’s. The striper bite has been wicked lately! We are starting to catch some good numbers, averaging 15 to 20 stripers a morning. The majority of our stripers have been in the 15 to 30-pound range. In the

early part of the month, you’ll still find a lot of these fish in their spring spawning areas in the backs of creeks and in the river. As the month progresses, they’ll start working their way back to deeper water in the mouths of creeks and around shallow humps all over the lake. The early morning and late afternoon bite has been the best for catching these beasts. Pulling planer boards and free lines with live herring will be your best technique. As the sun comes up, it never hurts to throw out a couple of down lines. Try to pay attention to areas that are holding a lot of baitfish as the stripers will be close by. Also, watch for an awesome topwater bite to fire up. I always like to keep a RedFin or a Spook at the ready to work the banks as we troll around. May is a fantastic month for catching a lot of trophy stripers on this North Georgia lake. Give Big Ol’ Fish Guiding Service a call and let us put you on some of Lake Nottely’s best trophy stripers during the fishing trip of a lifetime. We also serve Lakes Hiwassee, Chatuge and Lake Blue Ridge. So, come fish with the pros for the opportunity to be featured in Angler Magazine, and let us help you get your fish on!

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Wall of Fame Morgan County sheriff Robert Markley along with his brother and father Jim travelled to Louisiana and caught these pretty redfish

Bill Hunter with a big 9 pound largemouth caught on Lake Lanier.

WIN A FREE ANGLER MAGAZINE CAP! One will be given away each month for the best reader submitted photo!

Retired Lanier striper guide Don Roberson with an enormous red snapper caught in Apalachicola, FL.

Sean Boswell with a giant brown trout caught on Noontootla Creek guided by David Hulsey.

Doug Geyer caught this big rainbow fly fishing with Reel Em In Guide Service.

Beckett Martin age 10 pulled in a 17-pound striper and brother Xavier age 8 pulled in a 12 pounder on their staycation fishing with Andrew Hammond from Big Bite Charters on Lake Lanier.

WINNER!

While fishing with Kenansville Guide Service, this 7.8 pound largemouth was caught by Lee Anne Powell with a swimbait. This is Lea Anne’s new personal best.

Alicia Perry with a monster 12 pound, 27 inch largemouth caught on Lake Lanier Alicia’s twin sister Betsy Warner shows she knows how to catch the big bass too.

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FISH SMELL 1000X BETTER THAN WE DO. Underwater. In current. And even in nutrient-dense saltwater, fish can pick up a scent at the parts per billion level. Think that’s impressive? How about a bait with the ability to trick that sense of smell into believing it is even better than real food. In scientific tests, Gulp!® proved so effective on saltwater gamefish, it actually outfished real bait time and time again. Not only does the scent outperform real and artificial bait, it has 400 times the scent dispersion of the best competing soft plastic bait. Now, Gulp! is available in all of the most popular sizes, colors and actions, including the new Firetail options. Berkley® Gulp! We’ve done the science, now you catch the fish. berkley-fishing.com ©2020 Pure Fishing, Inc.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE BITE Berkley Saltwater Gulp! Continues to Outshine Live Bait for Coastal Anglers

ll along the coast, as the highways near the busiest launch ramps, the bait shop signs announcing what’s for sale reinforce what most anglers already know: natural bait does a good job of catching fish. Live baitfish and live shrimp are almost always on the bait shop menu as they present the most natural food source. But even the frozen slabs of baitfish and chunks of cut bait that are also widely sold—baits which have no action to them whatsoever—are eaten by saltwater species if presented the right way. But why? The answer is simple, as it all pertains to one of the most misunderstood senses in fish biology: a fish’s sense of smell. It’s this sense of smell that inspired the development of Berkley Saltwater

Gulp!, the line of baits that has transformed saltwater fishing with their effectiveness, ease of use and value. For as effective as live or cut bait can be in saltwater fishing, it’s far from the perfect solution. Live bait can be very expensive and difficult to keep alive. Unused bait becomes a treat for pushy pelicans or gets dumped into the water. Presented with a problem, the scientists at Berkley set out to find a solution. Fish smell on the parts-per-billion level, the equivalent of a single drop of water in an Olympicsized swimming pool. This powerful sense of smell is extremely important to a fish’s ability to feed. Fish rely upon their sense of smell because they live in an aquatic environment filled with particles

and debris that can look like food. Their noses tell fish the difference between food and other organic compounds. Berkley scientists set out to make the first artificial bait that really appealed to a fish’s sense of smell. The first step was getting scent to disperse from a soft bait. While fish attractants and scents are nothing new, all of the competitive versions were oil-based. And just like the old adage reminds us, oil and water don’t mix. An oil-based scent that is smelly to a human has no effectiveness on fish since it is not soluble in water. That’s why Gulp! scents are water-based. The water-based scent formula, now known as Berkley Gulp! and which has since become synonymous with saltwater fishing across the country, caught more fish than live bait in headto-head tests. This scent, combined with the proprietary material used in Berkley Gulp! baits, disperses scent 400 times more effectively than any other soft bait, meaning it creates a scent field that is easily detected by fish and which continues to expand as the bait is retrieved. “I started really using Gulp! in about 2007, a few years after it came out,” said Capt. Jot Owens, who operates out of Wrightsville Beach, N.C., where he specializes in putting his clients on big redfish, flounder and other species. “And from the first year I started fishing with Gulp!, we were catching more and bigger flounder than we had ever caught before—and we were fishing in the same areas we had always been fishing. I don’t

know what the magic formula is, but it really wakes fish up.” Capt. Owens said he prefers Berkley Saltwater Gulp! for a host of species, but especially for redfish and flounder. His go-to set up for flounder varies slightly depending on whether he’s fishing inshore or farther out. The set up consists of a 6-inch Saltwater Gulp! Jerk Shad (Chartreuse/Pepper/ Neon or Firetiger) on a 3/8-ounce long-shank jig head. Because Gulp! baits are wet inside and out, they can come unrigged, so Capt. Owens relies on a Berkley Fusion19 jig that has lead lips and a wire hook to keep his Jerk Shad rigged properly. When fishing inshore, he uses a medium-fast Fenwick HMG Inshore paired with a Size 2500 or 3000 PENN Battle III DX spinning reel, which is spooled with 15-pound braid and a 30-pound fluorocarbon leader. Farther out, he will increase the line size to a 20-pound braid mainline and a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader spooled onto a Size 3500 PENN Spinfisher. “Just make sure the bait is bouncing on bottom; I’m typically jigging with the rod tip pretty high,” Capt. Owens said. “It’s not that you won’t get bit dragging it on the bottom, but the bait is more effective bouncing up and down.” For redfish, Capt. Owens has his clients using 3- or 4-inch Gulp! Shrimp (Sugar Spice Glow or Chartreuse) on a 1/8- or 1/4-ounce jig head, increasing the weight of the jig based on fishing depth and current. The rest of his redfish set up is similar to that of his inshore rig for flounder:

medium-fast Fenwick HMG Inshore paired with a Size 2500 or 3000 PENN Battle III DX spinning reel, which is spooled with 15-pound braid and a 30-pound fluorocarbon leader. “The best retrieve is a hop-hop; let it sit for a second or two then give it another hop-hop,” Capt. Owens said. “Redfish are really bottom feeders, so they’ll almost always hit it on the drop or while it’s sitting on bottom for the brief pause. The way the Berkley Saltwater Gulp! Shrimp is putting out scent, redfish pick it up with the same excitement as they would a hunk of cut bait even though it’s not moving.”

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Troll and Watch Bottom for Spring Grouper By CAM Staff

I CALL FOR YOUR LOCAL DEALER

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t’s a lot more fun to fill fish boxes when the various Gulf and Atlantic grouper seasons open in spring. These days, advances in electronics have made finding good grouper bottom easier than ever. There is, however, a trade-off. In the good old days, captains precisely timed their courses out of the pass in hopes of coming off throttle near a fish-producing rock pile. Before GPS and sonar, the best indicators of productive bottom were boats already there and catching fish. Successful anglers even welcomed new PHOTO COURTESY OF CRYSTAL LAFOSSE boats to the party, reasoning that more baits in the water served to excite fish into feeding. In case you didn’t notice, that’s not the way things work any more. Now any yahoo with a boat can plug coordinates into their navigation system and sleepwalk straight to a ledge or wreck. Community holes and artificial reefs are crowded and sometimes picked clean of fish. To avoid this, a good set of numbers is a jealously guarded secret. Camaraderie on the open sea is officially a thing of the past when picking up and moving off productive bottom is a logical step to avoid being marked in the mapping system of a passing vessel. We’ve traded open sharing of information for technological advancements the old salts couldn’t have dreamed of. With advanced radar, sonar, mapping and GPS, it’s up to the angler to spend time on the water to locate their own magic numbers. With grouper seasons opening in state and federal waters off the southern states, most species have finished with the peak of spawning. They have begun moving to deeper water and are hungry to feed-up and regain what was lost to the rigors of the spawn. However, grouper are also spread out more thinly right now than they are when they group up on deep-water structure in summer. You might not have to run as far to reach productive bottom, but you will likely have to do more spot-hopping to fill the boxes. It’s a good time of year to troll. Some fish will still be shallow enough to target with deep-diving lures. Using planers and downriggers, it’s possible to get lures down to 60 feet or deeper, and some very deep-diving plugs can get down to 40 feet on their own with the right braided line. This allows you to cover ground on and around those ledge coordinates you have marked. It’s a throwback to the olds days, when trolling up a grouper was the method for finding an area to stop and drop baits. If you keep an eye on the bottom machine, you might even spot a small formation you didn’t know was there. These small blips are the honeyholes that produce when the larger reefs and structure succumb to constant fishing pressure. Don’t care for boat rides and watching rods? Traditional bottom fishing may still be the best method. Check your shallower coordinates as you head out this time of year. Many boats ride right over good structure on the way to their deeper summer spots. Reefs or rocks as shallow as 40 feet will hold fish before they head out to their mid-summer haunts. Just be sure to drop some chum down upstream of the structure to bring them out of their hidey-holes. See your state’s saltwater fishing regulations to determine which species of grouper are open for harvest where you fish.

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MAY 2021

NATIONAL 17

On the Swordfish Ledge

off Marathon

By Capt. Quinlyn Haddon

f you’ve ever been swordfishing out of Marathon, Fla., chances are you were deep dropping the same area I was in April, when the U.S. Coast Guard ticketed us for fishing in Bahamian waters. Dropping for swordfish is exhausting. Staring mindlessly at one single rod tip, it’s easy to lose your mind questioning if every other wave was a bite. It is also possible to spend an entire day doing the crazy-eyed swordfish rod stare and never get a nibble. During a slow drift along the ledge in 1,800 feet of water, our luck finally changed. A flock of diving terns approached and crossed behind the

boat. We opened bails on the flat lines and let pinfish swim toward the commotion. Immediately we hooked up and stole a school of mahi from under the birds. With four mahi hooked up along the port side, we had just begun the assembly line from hook to killbox when we were informed the U.S. Coast Guard was about to board our boat. Approaching from starboard to accommodate our fishing, three “Coasties” boarded to conduct a routine safety check. After about half an hour with our official guests on board, we finished with the school of mahi and decided to reel up the sword line. We activated the electric reel, and— distracted by our visitors—it took a moment to

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Together. Carrying what matters most. 18 NATIONAL

MAY 2021

COASTALANGLERMAG.COM • THEANGLERMAG.COM

realize we were hooked up. The Coasties were going to have to put a pin in it. “Hang on fellas; we’re hooked up!” For the next half hour, we didn’t hear a word from our visitors. As the fish began to surface, the line scoped out underneath the Coast Guard cutter raft. We radioed asking them to move. After a lot of chaos and tight boat maneuvering, we landed the 150-pound swordfish with the Coast Guard on board. They even took the catch photos. It was all high fives and celebration until they asked us for our Bahamian fishing licenses and informed us we were illegally fishing in the Bahamian Exclusive Economic Zone. Later on, extensive research by Steve Steenstra, owner of Blue Magic Charters, revealed the Bahamian EEZ line runs about 24 miles from land, straight across the U.S. sword ledge. None of us, not even our GPS mapping knew about this line. A law enacted some 40 years ago had just been enforced for the first time. We were the first vessel cited. As I understand it, after visiting the Coast Guard Station in Key West, the EEZ line was drawn straight down the middle by default. Now that they’re enforcing it, recreational swordfishing from the Keys is threatened, along with the livelihoods it supports. As the situation unfolds, it would be wise to stay up to date before venturing offshore from the Keys. Capt. Quinlyn Haddon and Blue Magic Charters are following this situation closely. Contact her at (504) 920-6342 or through Instagram @CaptainQuinlyn and @BlueMagicCharters.

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ach spring, inshore anglers are greeted with big winds, big tides and small baitfish. There is no time where the size of your lure can make or break your trip more than the spring season. With the abundance of small baitfish in the water, it can be difficult to get the attention of your target species, especially when you are fishing with artificial lures. It is also very common to find gamefish gorging themselves on tiny glass minnows. This is routinely evident when you land a fish and they spit up these miniature meals. As anglers, we have two obstacles here: the sheer amount of forage in the water competing with your lure and the small size of the lure required. What I have found to be the most successful tactic is to use the smallest lure I can cast and appropriately present to the fish. Both hard and soft lures can be effective. Another key to success is color. I prefer a white-and-silver combination that closely matches the natural forage. I like to fish these lures on the edge of large bait balls when possible. I try to keep my lure on the edge or under the school to let the fish focus on a single target rather than a large mass.

By Capt. Michael Okruhlik

Using a slow-sinking lure is an advantage at this time of the year. A lure that will suspend or slow-sink is ideal. This allows the predator time to target your lure, and it also gives the appearance of a wounded baitfish, which is always a plus. When the bait is this thick, your lure needs to stand out, but you still need to match the forage in size and color. The use of tandem rigs allows for a couple of advantages. Casting two smaller lures could equal the weight of one of your typical offerings. This allows you to cast farther and still have the appropriate size lure. Rigging two small silver spoons with white bucktails is a great combination when fishing glass minnow schools. I also like to use a small floater/ diver with a small spoon trailer. The diving action in conjunction with the added weight of the spoon is a unique combination of action to entice strikes. Downsizing your lure presentation in spring can definitely up-size your catch. Capt. Michael Okruhlik is the inventor of Knockin Tail Lures, Controlled Descent Lures and the owner of www.MyCoastOutdoors.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KNOCKIN TAIL LURES

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MAY 2021

NATIONAL 21

“For Me, It’s a Fishing Tool”

The 2021 Must-Have Anchoring System

“T

he easiest way I can explain ‘boat position’: if you’re at the baseball game, you’re either playing—which is fishing—or you’re watching the game, which means you’re not…” Capt. Mickey Brelsford decided he’d rather be in the game than on the sidelines, so installing the Rebel EZ-5 became a no-brainer after researching product information and helpful documents on the company website, then calling the drum anchor winch plate design that allows the drum to free-spool when the manufacturer’s technical support team for additional pointers. clutch plate is disengaged. To get that “ good, solid anchoring In the past, using a windlass yielded poor retrieval results position,” press and hold the “raise/power up” side of the and left no room for customization, like adding special button for about five seconds: this will cause the clutch plate to attachments or splicing rope and chain. Now, Capt. Brelsford once again rotate, but this time clamping down on the drum says his Rebel free-fall unit is the perfect fishing tool, providing and holding the boat at anchor. him a “good, solid anchoring position.” “Once I deploy my anchor and it goes into a free-fall, it’s “I don’t know how many times I’ve been on boats where straight down to the bottom as quick as it can go…” Brelsford [the line is] hanging up, snarling, getting knotted up in the said. “And then, once I set the anchor, I can free-line out as windlass or shredding line.” Brelsford said. much anchor rode as I need: that’s what I call ‘boat position’.” A retired policeman, Capt. Brelsford enjoys his time fishing As an added bonus, the Rebel drum anchor winch is near the coast of St. James City, Fla. on his 37-foot “Nostalgic compatible with an E-Z Anchor Puller wireless long-range Lady”: a 1981 Hatteras Sportfish that carries 300 feet of ⅝-inch remote, which controls your drum anchor winch from rope and 20 feet of heavy-duty chain. After adding a pulpit to anywhere on the boat. Capt. Brelsford purchased his on the his vessel, Capt. Brelsford used to pull up all his rope by hand, wasting time company website, ezanchorpuller.com. and energy on multiple retrieval and deployment attempts as he tried to find “This [unit] here—don’t worry about it—it just rolls right on and keeps on the perfect “boat position.” rollin’. That’s what it is: E-Z!” Unlike E-Z Anchor Puller Mfg. Co’s two direct drive series (the Hero To learn more, call 1-800-800-1640 or visit ezanchorpuller.com. and Patriot series), the Rebel drum anchor winch has a clutch and friction

22 NATIONAL

MAY 2021

COASTALANGLERMAG.COM • THEANGLERMAG.COM

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