Transcript: PODCAST INTERVIEW: Jake Darling of Unicoi Outfitters

S5, Ep 126: Jake Darling of Unicoi Outfitters

Join Marvin Cash and me on The Articulate Fly as we discuss my fly fishing journey, becoming a guide at Unicoi Outfitters, mentors, guiding for shoal bass, and upcoming trips.

2023, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
http://www.thearticulatefly.com

Generated Shownotes

Chapters

0:03:01 First Fly Fishing Experience with His Dad
0:05:53 Mentors and Fishing Community in His Upbringing
0:07:00 Fishing as a Bonding Experience with Father
0:10:37 Fishing as a Lesson in Life and Manhood
0:12:59 The Generosity of the Fly Fishing Community
0:19:41 Starting Guiding Career Through Unicoi Outfitters
0:22:09 The Secret to Being a Good Guide
0:24:58 The Misconceptions of Being a Fishing Guide
0:28:23 The Attractiveness of Shoal Bass as a Fly Fishing Species
0:30:38 The Seasonality and Tackle for Shoal Bass Fishing
0:39:47 Exploring the Bass Fisheries in the Area

Long Summary

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash is joined by Jake Darling, manager of Unicoi Outfitters. They begin the conversation by discussing Jake's earliest fishing memory, which involved catching huge rainbows with his dad at a local pay-to-play trout pond. They then delve into Jake's journey into fly fishing, including burying a popper in his dad's back and handlining a stock trout. Marvin asks Jake about his mentors in fly fishing, with Jake expressing gratitude for the guys from the local shop who became father figures to him after his dad passed away. They also talk about the generosity of the fly fishing community and share stories of the "OGs" of fly fishing.

The conversation then shifts to Jake's journey into becoming a fishing guide at Unicoi Outfitters. Jake explains how his history with the shop and his passion for fishing led him down this path. Marvin and Jake discuss the challenges faced by anglers before the internet and advanced gear, highlighting the wisdom and work ethic of the older generation. They also talk about what makes a good fishing guide, emphasizing the importance of building relationships and being an excellent teacher and fish catcher.

The main speaker, Jake, then explains how he became a guide for shoal bass instead of trout. He shares that he wanted something more localized and unique, so he started guiding for shoal bass. Jake describes the allure of shoal bass, highlighting their limited range, habitat, and feeding behavior. He compares shoal bass to smallmouth bass in terms of strength and mentions different flies and tackle used during different times of the year. The main speaker asks about bug presentation, and Jake explains that it varies depending on the water level.

Finally, the main speaker mentions Jake's career at Unicoi and the diverse fishery in North Georgia. They briefly touch on upcoming trips and events before wrapping up the conversation.

Brief Summary

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, I join Marvin Cash to discuss my journey into fly fishing and becoming a fishing guide at Unicoi Outfitters. We talk about my earliest fishing memory, mentors in the fly fishing community, and the qualities of a good fishing guide. I also share my shift from trout to guiding for shoal bass and discuss their unique characteristics. We touch on upcoming trips and events before wrapping up the conversation.

Transcript

Intro:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
On this episode, I'm joined by Jake Darling, manager of Unicoi Outfitters.
Jake shares his fly fishing journey, and we take a deep dive into North Georgia fishing and shoal bass.
I think you're really going to enjoy this one, but before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items.
If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out.
And I'm excited to bring the business and consulting skills I've developed off the water to the Articulate Fly community.
If you're in the industry and feel like you're leaving money on the table or the day-to-day grind of running your business is killing you, let me help you find a more profitable and enjoyable path in the sport.
Over to www.TheArticulateFly.com, and let's start our conversation today. Now on to our interview.

Marvin:
[1:03] Well, Jake, welcome to The Articulate Fly. Thank you, Marvin.

Jake:
[1:06] I'm excited to be here.

Marvin:
[1:10] Yeah, you bet. I'm excited to have you and we have a tradition on The Articulate Fly. We like to ask all of our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.

Jake:
[1:18] So my earliest fishing memory, I don't remember exactly how old I was, but what I do remember is that my dad and I were at a, there was a local pay-to-play trout pond, and I had a little bitty Snoopy rod.
The rod couldn't have been any more than two feet long.
And when you came up to this trout pond, they fish with the cheese that you get in the cracker sticks at the gas station that's in between liquefied and solid.

Marvin:
[1:59] I do.

Jake:
[2:01] That is what they used as bait. And you would ball it up and you'd put it on a hook and throw it out into this trout pond. And I was hooking these huge rainbows that were well over 20 inches.
And they were literally just screaming the guts out of this little Snoopy rod that I had.
And I remember my dad having to hold me by my belt loop to keep from getting drug into the pond.
And I thought it was the best thing ever, because we filled up our bucket.
And I remember my dad saying, we got to get out of here because you're going to break me. Yeah.
And so that would be my first fishing memory ever.

Marvin:
[2:41] Yeah, it's funny. I had a trout pond experience. It wasn't my first fishing trip, but I remember the whole discussion about do you pay by time or do you pay by the pound?

Jake:
[2:49] Yeah. You got to take all of them home with you and it gets pretty expensive pretty quick.

First Fly Fishing Experience with His Dad

Marvin:
[3:01] So, Jake, when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?

Jake:
[3:06] So, my first fly fishing experience, my dad was a really big angler in general.
He was a member of the Bass Club way back in the day. He conventional tackle fish, he fly fished, everything about him was fishing.
And when I was in elementary school, we had a little john boat, and my dad would come picking up from school to go to a local lake and we were brimming bass fish and the first memory I have of fly fishing was when I buried a Betts popper in his back right between his shoulder blades.
But I don't remember many details about that day other than him getting very frustrated because he had this big number four popper stuck right in the middle of his back that he couldn't reach and I couldn't get out.
So I'll tell you my first trout fishing, fly fishing experience.
My dad was on a fishing trip in Michigan, and I was pretty young into the fly game.
I'd only been a couple of times.

[4:15] My mom, I was pestering her to take me fishing.
And so my mom took me to the Tallulah River northeast Georgia.
It wasn't far from the house.
And I had an old fiberglass rod.
And I had a Martin reel.
And this was back in the day. You remember the little plastic pieces that you used to use on the end of your fly line to connect your leader, where you had, you would slide your fly line through it and tie an overhand knot, and then you'd slide your leader through it and tie an overhand knot?

Marvin:
[4:50] Yeah, I do.

Jake:
[4:52] Yeah, so I had that on my rig. I thought we were big-timing with the equipment that we had.
And so, I made a cast underneath this tree with a white brim popper because I didn't know any better, and the stock trout came up and ate it, and I set the hook on it, and I literally like froze.
I didn't know what to do, and so I chunked the rod onto the sandbar that I was standing on, and I ran out to the tip of the rod, and I grabbed the line, and I literally started hand lining the trout in to me.
And I landed him and I was so proud of him that I put him on a stringer and I literally walked him up and down the dirt road there at the Tallulah River like a dog to the point that I wore the skin completely off of the fish.
That would be my first fly fishing experience that I really remember.

Mentors and Fishing Community in His Upbringing

Marvin:
[5:53] Yeah, that's very neat. And, you know, as we like to say, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, you know, who are some of the folks that have mentored you on your fly fishing journey and what have they taught you?

Jake:
[6:05] I mean, how much time do we have?

Marvin:
[6:07] All the time you need.

Jake:
[6:10] There's so many people. A lot of people don't know this side of kind of my story and where I come from. But growing up, my dad knew all the guys at the store. Every weekend we went to the shop, every weekend we were fishing.
My dad was friends with the guys that worked at the shop.
He never worked in the industry, But, you know, we were constantly fishing.
And so I grew up fishing around and with the guys who were making a living doing it.
Back you know this would have been mid 90s mid to late 90s.

Fishing as a Bonding Experience with Father

[7:00] And so, I grew up fishing with them, and when I was young, my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he ended up passing away when I was 14.
So, in that time, there was a lot of guys from the shop that were friends with my dad literally stepped in almost as a father figure to me.
Um, you know, a couple of guys like I'm, I'm sure I'm going to miss a few or leave a few out, but some of them that jump out to me the most, um, would be a guy named Doug Weckmorland, which happened to be a really good friend of my dad's.
My dad worked at a, was during the last part of his life, he worked at a car store in Comer, and Doug had a automotive shop there.
And so Doug and my dad would fish together and we would all go on camping trips.

[8:08] And Doug, he was a man of, you know, he had a lot of integrity, and he knew a lot about fishing, But the biggest attribute to Doug was he was always the one that was willing to lend a helping hand.

[8:24] And when my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, my dad told Doug, he said, you know, he said, I would like to go fishing with Jake one last time.
Time. And so Doug and my mom arranged for me and my dad to go fish.
On the same river where I caught my first trout ever on fly, and that was the last time that I fished with my father before he passed.
And I still talk to Doug to this day, off and on, and we don't get to fish much together anymore, but he's still an important part of my life.
When my dad passed away, I remember they had the funeral service here at Carcel Baptist Church right down the street.
We're sitting there having the service and I look across the back room.
It's probably 15 or 20 guys standing back there that are all in blue jeans and fishing shirts.
And it was all the guys from the shop, you know, that all the guys from Unicoi had come to my dad's funeral.

[9:37] And I remember Jimmy walking up to my mom after it was over and he said, he said, don't worry, we're going to take care of him.
And that's exactly what they did. You know, I mean, to name a few guys that were, you know, important to me.
And when I was young, in that time of need would you know number one first and foremost would be Jimmy.

[10:05] He's always been like a father figure to me. He's always been influential in in my career and you won't find a guy that is any better than him.
I mean he is as good as they come no question.
There was also a couple of guys in there, Julian Burr and John Browning, those guys were guiding back then.

Fishing as a Lesson in Life and Manhood

[10:37] And they took me fishing, they taught me about fishing.
But I think more importantly, more than anything, we were fishing because that's what brought us together, but there was a lot more to it.
You know, they were teaching me more about life and what it meant to be a man.
And these guys invited me into their hunting club. They invited me, you know, to hang out with their families.
And so, you know, that, that meant a whole lot to me.
Um, and having somebody that was, that was willing to put their arm around me and say, you know, come on over and, and, uh, and help me out along the way.
I've got another one. Thank you. Bye.
You know some others that come to mind with you know Jeff Derniack.
You know when right after my dad had passed Jimmy and Jeff would take me and another young gentleman fishing.

[11:36] You know when I was young you know Henry Cowan he I didn't know Henry, Henry didn't know me but the first time I met Henry he has a very strong draw toward you know people want to be around him.
He's a lot of fun. He's a good guy. And I just remember him taking me fishing when I was younger.
And we just kind of hit it off from there, you know, he was calling the store, we were chatting.
I talked to Henry, gosh, probably two or three times a week now still in my life. And, you know, he's always kind of giving me advice or helping me connect with people.
So always, he's always willing to go out of his way to help me better my career.
There's a couple other guys at the shop. Dale Waters, official my dad.
John Cross, he was the manager at Unicoi. He's the one who gave me my start at a young age.
A few other guys in there that were guiding that, they just kind of took time out of their life to take me fishing and just kind of shape me and mold me into what I became.

The Generosity of the Fly Fishing Community

Marvin:
[12:59] Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic. And I mean, I always say the fly fishing community is probably one of the most generous communities of people I think I know on the planet?

Jake:
[13:10] There's no question. I mean, everybody that you meet are down-to-earth, humble people that are more than willing to help somebody out.

Marvin:
[13:21] Yeah. I'll give you a funny Henry story. Henry called me on my birthday and sang happy birthday to me.
I did? Yeah, he did.

Jake:
[13:32] He just did the same thing to me a couple weeks ago.

Marvin:
[13:34] Yeah. It's all good stuff. And so, you know, you're starting your fly fishing journey, you know, I think I was telling you before we started recording, I think the last time I saw you was probably, I don't know, gosh, probably 10 plus years ago in the shop.
And I think probably around that time you were doing the team stonefly thing.
And I was kind of curious about, you know, kind of what the competitive fishing experience was like and how it impacted your future fishing.

Jake:
[14:03] Yeah, I enjoyed the competitive fishing.
I played soccer growing up and I actually had a scholarship to play in college and it's always had that competitive side.
I was a lot younger and so I probably was more competitive than I am now.
Um, but I got a call from Gordon Vanderpool one evening and he invited me to come in and, try out for the team, so to speak. And they were just forming the team up.
And so, uh, I came in and fished with them and ended up joining the team.
And, um, when I first got into it was, I don't know if you remember or not, but they used to have a casting competition to get into the fishing aspect. Do you remember that?

Marvin:
[14:57] That I don't remember. Okay.

Jake:
[14:59] Yeah. So they had, uh, basically way back when you would show up and cast and say there was 30 anglers and the top, they would take the top 20 and they had accuracy in distance.

[15:18] And the first tournament I showed up at, I didn't make the casting cut. I didn't get to fish.
It was on the broad river there that feeds into Lake Lure.
And it was a really humbling moment, because here I was surrounded by all these great anglers, and I thought that I was really good.
And I didn't even get to fish, because I didn't make the cut.
And I like that format, you know, I went home and started practicing casting.
And I like that format, because what...
The way it was formatted was, however you placed in the casting competition, was who got to pick what bead of water they wanted to fish.
And so, I think that to be a good angler, there is definitely some element of casting involved in it.
But anyhow, later on they kind of switched how it was formatted.
The biggest thing that it taught me was how to best use your time on the water, because you're on limited time and you're trying to score the highest points that you can.
And it also taught me how to fish water that is in front of you effectively, even though it may not be the best water on the stream, this is the hand you're dealt right now.
And so how do you approach this water and how do you fish this water to get the most out of it?

Marvin:
[16:47] Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, I know some people don't like comp fishing, but I always kind of equate it to like, they're sort of like the Formula One team for the automobile manufacturers.
And you know, I always think of those guys as kind of being on the front line of solving fishing problems.

Jake:
[17:03] Yeah. I mean, there was some really solid sticks that were fishing back then.
I mean, guys that were really talented.

Marvin:
[17:14] Yeah, I'm just trying to think. So, uh, let's see who were some of those folks, Ben, like Michael Yelton was probably one of them, right?

Jake:
[17:21] Michael Yelton.
Um, Josh, uh, Oh gosh. I want to Josh's last name. It's not, uh, Josh Grafham.
Um, gosh, it'll probably come to me a little bit. Um, Gordon Vanderpool, the guy that, you know, I fished a fair amount of, uh, team tournaments and I fished with a guy named Chris Smith.
Um, that would be, I mean, that's gosh, that's been a long time ago.
That's probably the first names that come to mind at me. Just the guys that I was closest to.

Marvin:
[17:56] Yeah, it's funny. I've, uh, I've gotten a chance to fish with Gordon over the years. And, uh, I mean, it's a pretty amazing thing to be on the water with him.

Jake:
[18:05] Yeah, he is a very talented fish. fisherman. He can always wade to where you can because he's like six foot seven.

Marvin:
[18:15] And he's a big dude, so he can like go fish the other side of the ripping current too, right? Yes, yes, yes. So, at what point of your fly fishing journey did you get the guide bug?

Jake:
[18:28] So when I decided it was what I wanted to do, I got a scholarship to play college at Emmanuel College. And my freshman year, the high school team I come from was pretty good team.
And my freshman year, I showed up and it had become more like a job.
And we kinda split this season, I think we were like 10 and 10.
And I'm sitting there and there wasn't really anything that I wanted to study.
And so I walked into my coach's office and I said, hey, I said, you don't have to worry about working me up a scholarship for next year. I'm not gonna be here.
And he said, okay, so what are you gonna do? And I said, I'm gonna go back home and I'm gonna get in the fishing industry and I'm gonna go to school at night and I'm gonna study business.
And he literally laughed at me.
And when I came home, it was full bore guiding from that point on.

Marvin:
[19:32] Yeah. And so did you kind of break into that part of the game like through Unicoi or did you kind of start doing something else and then migrate to the shop later?

Starting Guiding Career Through Unicoi Outfitters

Jake:
[19:41] No. Everything I've ever done has all been through Unicoi.
I mean, I guess it was kind of, it was destined to happen.
I mean, I, I grown up around those guys, I faced with them, um, as a young teenager, all the way up.
And so, I mean, when, when it come time that I decided that that's what I wanted to do, then that's who I went to.

Marvin:
[20:09] Yeah. Yeah. Got it. And so, you know, I know you mentioned a bunch of folks, you mentioned those guys earlier in terms of fly fishing mentors, kind of any new guide mentors that you want to give a shout out to? You.

Jake:
[20:21] Like in today. Mm-hmm Yes, I mean, I'm still I'm I'm gravitated towards those What I call the OG's The guys that kind of paved the way for everybody else to to have an opportunity the guys that were doing it before it was cool So I kind of put my myself in in that group of guys with the older guys So I think they have a lot of wisdom They're all very honest, hardworking guys that have always done everything ethically, and I respect that.

Marvin:
[20:59] Yeah, I think the other thing too, right, is kind of the older guys didn't have the internet. So, I mean, they really had to figure stuff out and you couldn't buy everything you needed to be successful.

Jake:
[21:09] No, no. I mean, I remember when we started fishing, you know, we had glacier glove waders that the feet were made of nylon and they were pointy like Tinkerbell shoes.
You know, they didn't have Sims Gore-Tex waders back then.

Marvin:
[21:33] Yeah, it's interesting. I interviewed Kevin Howell and he was telling me that his dad an uncle used to buy Vietnam-era surplus combat boots, and they would grind the soles off of them and glue felt to them, and that's how they made the first wading boots.

Jake:
[21:49] Yeah, it was a lot different back then.

Marvin:
[21:51] Yeah, and he said, you know, the waders were so bad that you started wet wading in March.
And you know, just different, kind of a different game, but everybody figured it out, right?
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. So Jake, what do you think is the secret to being a good guide?

The Secret to Being a Good Guide

Jake:
[22:09] Yeah, so I kind of got four main things that I think are the secret to being a good guide.
I think if you look at all the successful guides in the industry, they all have the same characteristics to them.
First one for me is just being able to have the ability to formulate a day that's going to cater to your client's needs or wants.
And a lot of times that's on somewhat short notice.
You know, somebody walks in for a trip and you meet them and they may be like, hey, you know, I want to really work on my streamer fishing today, or I would like to learn how to dry dropper fish, or if you have some time, can you teach me how to double haul?
Or just whatever they want. Being flexible and being able to tailor a day to them and what is going to be a success to them, I think is the most important thing.

[23:09] Secondly, I think that, you know, being able to offer a memorable experience.
They're there for an experience.
Yes, the fishing is something they're interested in, but overall, they want to have a good experience.
And I think that's, you know, through entertainment and through conversations with your customers and kind of getting to know them, more so than just fishing together and watching your watch and waiting on four hours or eight hours to be over so that you can be on to the next one.
You know, some of my best friends that I almost treat, you know, that they're like family to me are some of my clients.
And we met through fishing, but now we, you know, we talk to each other a whole lot more than we fish.
And we care about what's going on in each other's lives. So, just building that relationship with them.

[24:01] You know, another thing that comes to mind would be patience.
I think as a guide, You have to be very patient and understand that we all started in the same place.
Even though you're a guide now and you're very knowledgeable about what you do, there was a time that you didn't know anything.
I didn't know anything about fishing.
I didn't know which end of the rod to hold, where to start. I was overwhelmed and somebody went to help me kind of gain a knowledge of what was going on.
And then the last thing I would say is you got to be really good at what you do.
You got to be good at teaching, you got to be good at catching fish, but you got to be able to make that not be the focal point of the day.

The Misconceptions of Being a Fishing Guide

Marvin:
[24:58] Yeah, got it. And Jake, what do you think is the biggest misconception people have about the life of a fishing guide?

Jake:
[25:06] The thing we hear often is, you got it made, you get to go fishing every day.
And it's not like that. Yes, we get to spend a lot of time on the water.
Water. We get to fish through other people.
We get to enjoy those experiences with them. But there's a lot of prep work that goes into the trip.
The only side that the customer may see is the eight hours that you spend in the boat while y'all are together.
But An eight-hour day is really more like a 12-hour day because you've got to get up, you've got to, you know, you have to prep the equipment, you have to prep the lunches, you have to wash the boat, you have to travel to the river, you've got to put it in the water, you've got to run the shuttle, and then when you get home, you've got to clean it all up and you've got to get going for the next day.
So there's a lot of work that goes into it.
And even preparation, you know, when you're not working, when you're not on the water, you're always out. You're always keeping track with what's going on with the fish.
You're always exploring new places, something that may be a new offering that you can offer to your clients. So, you know, there's always something going on in building your brand.

Marvin:
[26:34] Yeah, absolutely. And that's, you know, and then you got the multi-day guys, you're going to probably end having dinner with them at least once, right?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, and so, you know, I understand that now you primarily guide for bass, and I was kind of curious what drew you to bass over trout.

Jake:
[26:53] Yes, so my guiding career, I did my first guide trip by accident.
Then when I came back from college, I got into it and I was wade fishing for trout.
And then I migrated to where I was float fishing on the Toccoa River and the Tuckasegee River for trout.
And then I met at my girlfriend at the time, which is now my wife.
She was from over in that area, so I was still spending a lot of time gotting her on the Toccoa.
And then when we were gonna get married and she moved here, I kind of was looking for something more localized.
I was driving like 140 miles around trip each day to go fish.
And so I was literally getting up and leaving the house at like 5.30 and getting home at 7.30. and it was just a lot going on.
And I wanted to do something that was different, kind of differentiate myself from other guides, and landed on the shoal bass thing.

[28:03] And I grew up in the area, I fished the river a little bit when I was younger, but not a ton, and started fishing it more and more.
And then when I made the transition back here to guiding locally, that's kinda when I gravitated more towards the shoal bass.

The Attractiveness of Shoal Bass as a Fly Fishing Species

Marvin:
[28:23] Yeah, got it. And so, you know, what makes them such an attractive species to chase on the fly?

Jake:
[28:30] The shoal bass tell a cool story. I mean, you're talking about a fish that is a very limited range fish. It's not like you can go anywhere in the world and do it.
They live in a really pretty environment. there's nothing better than late spring dropping in and having the rhododendron and mountain laurel blooming all on the banks and the habitat that they live in.
The arena just feels right. It's what I like.
The way they eat a fly, they're an ambush fish.
They're going to get under something, and they're going to wait for something to come by, and they're going to run out and grab it. So most of the time the eats are visual.
I like that. And I like they're very migratory fish.
They're constantly moving for seasonal changes.
And I like that factor to where when I slide the boat in the water every day, I've got to go hunt them.
It's not going to be like it was yesterday. it's not going to be like it was this time last year. So I like that factor of having to put the pieces of the puzzle together every day.

Marvin:
[29:46] Yeah, pretty neat. How do they compare to small mouth?

Jake:
[29:50] I would say a shoal bass is everything that a smallmouth is. They just don't jump.
They pound for pound. They pull just as hard as smallmouth. They're just not an aerial fish.
They're going to pull their sleeves up and they're going to come to the boat and they're going to fight you at the boat.
But they dig really hard. They're visual feeders, so it's typically a clear water deal. You get to see it all happen.

Marvin:
[30:18] Yeah, I always think it's a fun to like in my part of the world to fish for smallmouth with like a white game changer and like one minute you see it and then the next minute it's gone.

Jake:
[30:27] That's the best bite when you see your fly coming in and it goes like four feet to the left or the right or it just completely blacks out.

Marvin:
[30:35] Yeah.

Jake:
[30:36] I mean, it never gets old.

Marvin:
[30:38] Yeah.

The Seasonality and Tackle for Shoal Bass Fishing

Jake:
[30:38] I do it every day.

Marvin:
[30:40] Yeah. And so, you know, Jake, what's the typical kind of shoal bass season look like?

Jake:
[30:46] Yeah, so we start fishing, they're warm-blooded fish, they like warm weather.
We start fishing late spring when the fish are pre-spawn, and usually that time of year we got pretty good flows, a lot of streamer fishing, intermediate lines, sink tips, eight weight, seven, eight weight, a lot of game changers, any kind of swim fly stuff.
Post-spawn. I usually won't fish a whole lot during the spawn.
I kind of leave them alone just because it's such a fragile resource.
I kind of let them do their thing.
In the summer, we start fishing topwater bugs, and that's usually six-weight on floating along.
It can be a lot of different types of surface bugs, and then we slide into fall and things start cooling down, fish start feeding them back up for the winter and start new kind of transition back to where streamer fishing again.

Marvin:
[31:46] Yeah, so it does sound a lot like a kind of a small mouth bite I would imagine, right? You probably get to fish form a little earlier than some folks do and probably, you know, get to fish pretty late because you're pretty mild climate, right?
Yeah, and so, Jake, in terms of tackle, what would be kind of a typical rod reel fly line combo if people wanted to chase shoal bass?

Jake:
[32:11] Yeah, so really I'd say you have to have two combos if you want to fish the whole season.
Usually fish a six with a floating line a lot.
That with some kind of topwater bug, and then we'll fish seven and eights with intermediate succinct tipped on them, and that's what we're streamer fishing with.

Marvin:
[32:31] Yeah, and, on the bug presentation, do they like animation or is it kind of like what we do up here in the summertime where we plop that cicada down and just let it drift until somebody eats it?

Jake:
[32:45] Yeah, I think it depends on what time of year you're topwater bugging.
Season, there's more water. They like it to move a lot more and you get a lot splashier bite.
I think that's more of a reactionary dill.
And then later as the water gets low, it becomes more of a subtle twitching bite.
And that's by far my favorite because it's It's more like hunting at that point, you're looking for a certain fish.

Marvin:
[33:17] Yeah, it's pretty cool too when you get to see them and you watch them when they're kind of like backpedaling, backpedaling, backpedaling, backpedaling, and then they eat.

Jake:
[33:25] Yes, yes, that's the best part. I jokingly say that you got to have ice running in your veins.
Because they will come out and they will headstand on the fly.
And I've seen them headstand up to 20 seconds before they ever take it.
A few years back, I remember I found this fish that was pretty large and these big fish, you know, the 18, 20 inch fish, they're really old.
They grow pretty slow, so they're fairly old, so they've been in the system for a while and they get pretty knowledgeable as to what's going on.
And I found this fish and I wanted to go back and catch it and we set the boat up, upriver of it, made a 45 degree shot down to it so that it had no idea that we were there and the fish comes up and it headstands on the fly and it literally pushed it with its nose twice and the third time it ate it.

Marvin:
[34:18] Yeah, it doesn't get much better than that does it?

Jake:
[34:23] No, no, that's the most addictive part of it to me.

Marvin:
[34:29] Yeah, so to back up just a little bit, how old were you when you started started working in the shop.

Jake:
[34:36] My first job at Unicoi, my mom would drive me to the shop and I would pick up the trash on the river and clean the trouts. I probably was 15.

Marvin:
[34:43] Yeah, very cool. And so, you know, how has your career at Unicoi kind of evolved over the years?

Jake:
[34:53] Yeah, so started out with just guiding and mostly wade fishing for trout and then did that for a few years and then I got an opportunity to move in to the retail side and come on as the assistant manager.
And during that time, I was still guiding and working retail and, um, got to dabble a little bit into the purchasing side of the business and, and did that for a while.
And, and then, uh, John, who was the manager for a long time, he retired and I took over his position as manager.

Marvin:
[35:30] Uh, super cool. And, you know, I always like to ask this, uh, question of fly shop folks, cause I always believe every shop kind of has its own personality.
And, uh, I was kind of curious how you would describe Uniquay Outfitters, uh, shop personality and kind of what makes it unique.

Jake:
[35:45] Yeah. So kind of our tagline would be that we're friendly local experts.
And so many times I've been in doors that, you know, not here in this area, but traveling.
And you walk in and people acknowledge that you walk in the door, but they don't show as much interest.
They don't start a small talk of, hey, you going fishing? Have you been fishing?
And kind of maybe lend a little bit of advice. The one thing that we always try to do is to try to be approachable to people and also go out of our way to help them.
And whether that be through knowledge or product or whatever it may be, but just to help them have a better day on the water.

Marvin:
[36:39] Yeah, absolutely. A little southern hospitality goes a long way, right?

Jake:
[36:43] Yeah, it does. I mean, honestly, for the guys working behind the counter, it helps the day pass a lot quicker because you're engaged with the customer.
And so it makes everything go by a lot quicker. So I like that part.
I like to be able, you know, people ask me all the time, they're like, what do you like the guy anymore? Or do you like the retail more?
And honestly, I like the mix of the two.
I did the guiding thing full time and it's a busy season to where you make all of your money in a few short months and during those months you're really grinding.
And then I've been on the retail side too and I like the mix.
I like for people to come in the store and get to interact with them and engage with them and talk to them about whether they're they're going fishing, whether they have been fishing.
And then I like to be able to take people fishing too as well.
Um, I jokingly say that that's kind of like a day off when I get to lace up the boots and go fishing.

Marvin:
[37:46] Yeah. It's kind of neat too. Cause I mean, at least kind of from on the other side, I mean, I really enjoy, you know, building those relationships over time, right. With people in shops and, you know, kind of to your point, like, you know, you know, how friends that were started out as guide clients.
And I think that's the thing, too, in kind of this day of e-commerce is that it kind of makes shops sticky for people, you know?

Jake:
[38:09] Yeah, I mean, honestly, for us, brick and mortar, that's all we have is the experience that we offer when customers come through the door.
You know, in this market, everybody who sells product signs an agreement to sell it at the same price.
And so really all you have that differentiates you is your service.

Marvin:
[38:29] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and you're close to Atlanta, so that makes it even more challenging because you got so many more people and, you know, more shops and all that kind of stuff too, but, but, you know, Jake, one to me, one of the great things kind of about the Southeast and North Georgia in particular is you have such an incredibly diverse fishery.
Right. So, I mean, you know, you've got so many other angling opportunities in addition to trout and shoal bass. And I was wondering if you could kind of share those with our listeners in case they don't know about all of them.
And then I'm pretty sure you guys got for all of them too, right?

Jake:
[39:01] We got for most of them. And if we don't, then we know somebody who does.
Um, and so that's the good thing about everybody here in the industry is, is, you know, everybody gets along really well and everybody helps each other out.
And, you know, I just think that's part of being in the South.
So even if we don't specialize in something, we know somebody who does.
But to get back to your question.
You know, we've got stripers, landlocked stripers. You know, there's guys who target them on the lakes.
We do some striper trips in the spring of the river, fishing out of a jet boat.
That would probably be my second favorite thing to do.

Exploring the Bass Fisheries in the Area

[39:47] We have really good spotted bass fisheries around the area.
So we have highland herring fisheries.
We have really good spotted bass fishing in both lakes and rivers.
We've got a pretty decent carp fishery for site fishing for carp.
We have some pretty cool black bass around the area.
We have substrains of red-eyed bass. Right here in our general area, we have Bartram's bass and Chattahatchee bass, which would be a substrain of a red eye.
And then we also have, you know, I guess you could classify it as all the trash fish, the gar and the pickerel, and all those toothy critters too as well.

Marvin:
[40:39] Yeah, got to get those big nylon braided flies for those guys, right?

Jake:
[40:45] Yeah, yeah. The guys at the store have kind of figured out a way to hook them on a hook.
So it's a pretty neat deal and how they're doing it. But I know for the longest time, you know, the rope is, it works well, but it's really hard to, it's hard to get it out of their mouth.
So the way they're doing it with the hook is, is pretty unique.

Marvin:
[41:08] Yeah. And they've got pretty hard mouths too, don't they?

Jake:
[41:11] Oh, it's solid bone.

Marvin:
[41:13] Yeah.

Jake:
[41:13] Solid bone.

Marvin:
[41:14] Yeah. And so, you know, and if, if none of that stuff floats your boat, I know you guys have kind of recently added destination travel to your program.
You want to let us know a little bit about that? Yeah.

Jake:
[41:25] Yeah. So we've done some destination travel. We've been to, uh, Brazil and, and, um, a few other places in South America. And Jimmy's going, uh, he's got a Dorado trip, uh, next April.
Um, that that'd kind of be our biggest thing coming up for destination.
Um, which is something that I've always wanted to do. I haven't been able to do it yet, but hope to one day.

Marvin:
[41:52] Yeah, it's pretty neat. I know that's what the set guys and I had Gustavo on and I think I was telling you Before we started recording that I probably fished with him.
I hate to even say it almost 20 years ago, but uh, Kind of brought him on to talk about dorado stuff.
And I mean, they've got it pretty dialed in down there So I would imagine uh, it's going to be a pretty awesome opportunity Oh, i'm sure it's going to be an incredible trip Yeah, it's kind of interesting like they have the they kind of rotate you through and so you get to fish the big river with it you get the air conditioning that you're gonna get to go kind of back in the woods and kind of do for the almost like where you get to go to the nurseries and catch those baby tarpon and I know those guys are hospitality is awesome so I would imagine it's a horrible way to spend seven to ten days no I think it's a lot of flavors ice cream and it's just a matter of which one you want so I think it's great you know it's always incredible to travel to these other places and just see how they operate and how great their hospitality is and how they do things.
Yeah, absolutely. And I know, you know, we're kind of marching into the middle of October. So it's kind of that kickoff for Southern trout season.
But do you have any kind of upcoming events in the shop or kind of in the area you want to share with our listeners?

Jake:
[43:13] Yeah, so next big thing for us would be the Atlanta Fly Fishing Show is coming up 1st of February.
That's the next big event for us. We just had a fall kickoff a couple weeks ago, and then we'll be having a spring kickoff too as well where we kind of have a gathering at the shop and have some demo days and have some on the water instruction and whatnot, and just gets people kind of fired up for efficient season if we transition into that.

Marvin:
[43:43] Yeah, I tell you that Atlanta Fly Fishing Show has really, really taken off.
I mean, I would say it's probably after Edison in Denver, probably the largest show that Ben and Chuck put on.

Jake:
[43:58] Yeah, last year, you know, everybody was kind of scared after COVID what was going to happen as far as how people were going to turn out.
I had great attendance last year, and so I imagine that this year it'll be pretty close.

Marvin:
[44:15] Yeah, pretty funny having to fight all those little kids at the Lego thing that was next door.

Jake:
[44:20] I didn't get to experience that, but I did hear about it.

Marvin:
[44:23] Yeah, just made it hard to get lunch, that's all. Yeah. And, but it was good. And then, you know, watching little kids have meltdowns and you're like, dude, I'm going back in the fly fishing show.

Jake:
[44:35] Yeah, I get to watch that every day, so I know how it is.

Marvin:
[44:38] It's all good stuff. Well, Jake, before I let you go this evening, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners.

Jake:
[44:46] Yeah, so just to point a few things out, some people may not be aware, but we actually recently picked up two pieces of private water back in the spring, and they've both been fishing really well.
So we've got a little bit different experiences to offer to our clientele.
I think early on, people are always looking for knowledge and what may be going on in the area.
And one of our staff members, Jeff Derniack, puts out a weekly fishing report on our social media and on our blog every week that's full of intel from that week. So it's a really fresh report.
Wes puts in a hot fly list there for the week.
All of our guides are reporting in and it's got fishing intel from all across the state.
So really good place to, if you're thinking about going fishing that weekend or you just want to know what's going on in the area to gain some knowledge and have a better grasp on what's happening once you get out on the water.

Marvin:
[45:53] Yeah, I tell you too because I do fishing reports with various guides and shops.
I think if you go back and you like listen for an entire year, you'll learn a ton about the fishery too.

Jake:
[46:02] Oh, no question. No question. That was one thing that we wanted to do when we built the blog is we have archives over on one side of the webpage, which gives you the ability to go back and look year after year of kind of what's happening.

Marvin:
[46:18] Yeah, it's, I mean, I've learned a ton just recording them and you know, you want to let folks know, so you've got the Shop in Helen and then you've got the Country Store. You want to let folks know where they're located, hours and all that kind of good stuff?

Jake:
[46:29] Yeah, so the Shop in Helen is right just south of town on Main Street, it's 7280 South Main Street is the address.
That store is open seven days a week from eight to five.
And then the Uniquay Authors General Store in Clarksville is right in downtown and square.
The address there is 1420 Washington Street.
And that store is open Monday through Saturday, eight to five.

Marvin:
[46:54] Got it. And if folks wanted to find a website and social media and, you know, follow the shop and all the fishing adventures, where should they go?

Jake:
[47:01] Yes, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook to be our two biggest social platforms that we put out Intel on and then also on our website which also has a link to our blog too as well.

Marvin:
[47:15] Awesome and I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes for everybody.
Perfect. Awesome. Well Jake I appreciate you not going home to two little kids and sitting in the shop and recording with me this evening and look forward to crossing paths with you soon.

Jake:
[47:31] You bet. I had a great time. Thank you.

Marvin:
[47:33] You bet take care.

Intro:
[47:35] Folks, I hope you enjoyed that as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.
Tight lines, everybody.

Marvin CashOctober 18, 2023Comment