The Big Bend Outdoors Show 06.29.24

This is the Big Bend Outdoors Show with Joel Baldree

Original Airdate 06.29.24

Today's guests include: Captain Paul Tyre, Dale Bessey, and special guest host Captain Kenny Mullins.

Tune in to new episodes every Saturday at 8am on 96.5 The Spear in Tallahassee and on demand with the free iHeartRadio app

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the Big Bend Outdoor Showwith Joel Baldry. Today's guest include Captain
Paul Tyer and special guest Dale Bessie. Here's your special guest host, Captain
Kenny Mullins. Good morning everyone,Welcome back to the Big Bend Outdoor Show
with Joel Baldry, who is againnot here this week. He is still

(00:22):
in Texas. Sure is. Sowe got fishing with Kenny. Yeah,
with Tanner Tanner, Tanner Tanner.They're both ka are getting lessons from Kenny.
Fish boy. I hope they gotsome big ones. They need to
send us some pictures. Yeah,yeah, So today we have Captain Paul
Tyre, yes sir, and CaptainKenny Mullins, Yes sir. So let's

(00:42):
get started. We're going to talkabout the uh the weather. So today
Saturday is a low of seventy nineand a high of eighty nine with seventy
percent chance of thunderstorms. And tomorrowis the same low seventy nine, high
of eighty nine with eighty percent it'sthe thunderstorms. And Saturday the high tide

(01:03):
eight thirty eight am at a threepoint three to two low tide at three
oh six pm with a zero pointseventy nine and tomorrow is nine high at
nine twenty eight am at three pointfour five and a low at four thirty
two pm of zero point four nine. So we have some decent water movement.

(01:25):
Sundays a little more water movement.It is a waning crescent moon.
The winds on today there will bea low of three miles per hour with
a max gust at eight miles perhour throughout the day, and tomorrow is
a low of four miles per hourwith a max gust of nine throughout the
day. But keep in mind asthose as we get a slack tide,

(01:48):
those winds really die down and there'snot going to be much wind movement at
all. However, when these stormsroll in, Paul, I'm sure you
see it on the lakes too.As you get a thunderhead move then the
winds pick up. Oh absolutely absolutely. You know that that wind is relative
to the weather conditions as well,that's right. And you know this time

(02:10):
of year, you know, iswe're starting to finally get some cloudy or
weather some you know, some rainstorms coming through. But you need to
be very aware when you're on thewater. I pay very close attention to
that because you know, there's alot of storms you can't really outrun,
you know, so I want tomake sure I predict ahead of time,
you know. And one thing tokeep in mind, like you talked about,

(02:34):
you can't always outrun them. Onething you don't want to do,
especially and if you're out in thegolf or you know, in the ocean,
you never want to run away fromland to get around the storm.
Oh I could, Yeah, Icould see. That makes total sense.
Yeah, if you get caught andyou don't feel safe running in the best
thing you do is stay put.You do not want to head out to

(02:57):
see And this happened last year.I think it was last year. I'm
trying to remember everything. The yearskind of run together. But I saw
a storm building up on land,and the radar showed it going inland,
which is typically what happens this timeof year. And all of a sudden,
I felt the wind shift and itwas it started blowing out towards the

(03:19):
towards the gulf, and we Iwas on a scallot trip and I told
my people, hey, you gotto get back in the boat. I
think I told this story, youknow, a few weeks ago and that
storm changed directions and when I toldthem we gotta go, we gotta go
now, and we ran back in. I seen an air boat heading out
and it ended up capsizing. Wow, it just got out there too deep
and it was trying to go aroundthe storm the head towards steam HATCHI come

(03:45):
back in and couldn't make it.And that goes for any body of water.
Really, I mean, you're betteroff getting to land or so you
know you can you can get insome of these winds. So these storms
that comes to you can get thirtyforty to fifty mile pour gusts and straight
line winds that can that can reallyput you in a bad situation in a
hurry. So you just got toreally be aware. Oh yeah, I

(04:09):
got caught one year on the SwaneeRiver. We were gator hunting and there
was zero percent chance of rain,and next thing I know, we were
caught in a lightning storm and therain just started hammering down. And I
immediately went to the river bank andwe went up to look like an old
abandoned house. It was someone's fishcamps what it was, and we got

(04:30):
under shelter. Yeah, I pulledthe boat up and next thing, I
know, the boat's thinking, ohgosh, yeah, my billage punk quit
working. But it was raining thathard on a zero percent chance night.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, that'ssomething else there. Yeah, so weather's
something you don't want to play with. No, absolutely not. I definitely
want to have you know, youwant to respect the water and you want

(04:51):
to respect the weather. And youknow, especially when you're having customers with
you, you know, you knowtheir life's in your hands. I'd rather
air and beat the storm in andain't go around and miss it then be
in it, you know what Imean. It just just makes more sense.
Yeah. Many times I'll go outand storms will pop up, and
I'll just run back in, sayhey, let's just wait for this to

(05:14):
pass, and we'll go back out. Because this time of year, I
mean, just about every day isseventy eighty percent chance. That's right.
Finally we're finally getting some weather likethat, and we need it. We
need we need to need to cooloff because you know, last time I
remember being this hot this early,we had Hurricane Michael. I don't know
if we want one of them again. No, it's and you know they're
saying that this is going to bea record year as far as tropical systems.

(05:39):
Yeah, and as hot as thegolf is right now, that's scary.
Yeah. What's your water temperature inthe golf now? Well, it's
been a little bit cooler. Surfacetemperature has been in the late or I
mean late upper eighties, low nineties, but in the mornings it's been around
eighty four eighty five and then increasingthroughout the day obviously. But you remember

(06:00):
two weeks ago, I told youwe were in two and a half three
feet of water and it was ninetytwo degrees. Yeah, that's warm.
Yeah, yeah, that's really well. You think about a tropical system coming
through that and what it does.I mean, they just build and build
and build. That hot order addsfuel to the fire, you know.
Yep. But the good thing aboutthis weather, we've had a lot of

(06:24):
cloud cover. You know, it'sbeen cloudy, Yeah this past week for
sure, Yeah, which I reallylike. Yeah. Absolutely, how's it?
How's it affected you're fishing? Ithas been pretty good. We Uh
last week was we had a strongeast wind and h a week ago and
that that I don't I don't knowabout you, but I don't like a

(06:46):
strong east wind for myself. Youcan still catch fish on a strong east
wind, but it makes it alot tougher. I don't know why that
is about old saying when the windblows from the west, you catch them
the best. When it grows fromthe south, you catch them in the
mouth, and it blows from theeast, you catch them the lease.
That's pretty much true. And itblows the north bast stay but at the
house, you know what I mean. But I find that to be true.
But I've caught them in all differentwind directions. But man, right

(07:10):
now we've got more of a westerlyflow, more south southwest. We got
some cloud cover, we're building upsand rains. So, yeah, they've
been they've been biting pretty good.I can't wait to go tomorrow. Yeah,
So I kind of play on thoselittle sayings. Yeah, you know,
we're having a slow day and thewinds out of the west. Yeah,
wind out of the west, theydon't bite the best if I'm having
to slow do just playing, yeah, and you know I've caught you know,

(07:36):
of course, we caught fish inall different kind of wind directs.
But it seems like in general,you don't seem to fish to be quite
as active on a strong east wind. Yeah, And like we talked about
last week with Pat, it reallyaffects it in the Gulf when you have
a wind that's going against the currentflow. Yeah. So if you have

(07:57):
an incoming tide and you have awind out of the north or east where
we're at, you know, northeast, you know that's going to keep that
water from moving in as strong.Will that affects your current flow, which
is definitely right, Yeah, yep, because you know, just a trout's
always about finding bait, the rightkind of water and finding the bait.
But they're gonna go where the baitis right, for sure, say them

(08:20):
with all fish are you know?And and you know, I think that
has a lot to do with it. How it repositions your grass and how
the fish set up different when youhave a different wind direction, So you
have to you have to adjust accordingly. Yeah. And one thing I don't
talk about a lot, you know, I don't know if you get out
on the golf very much, youever, well you probably see it on

(08:41):
the lakes to the white birds.Yeah, yeah, because most people don't
know what y'all have down their seagulls. We got ease up here we got
these white birds. They are kindof like scorts, but they're taller and
they're shaddy. That's what we haveon the coast, you really, yes,
And I tell everyone if you payattention to that, those birds are
gonna be where the that's right onthat short time all the time, and

(09:03):
fishing on the Gulf you see thosethat especially the more of this time of
year, but all times of year. It's where your red fish are going
to be, yeah, because that'swhere the bait is, you know.
And when we get into the coolermonths, the trout's going to be there
too. The bait's there. Rightnow, the water tempts are so high
the trout's pushed out, the majorityof the trout pushed out. But so

(09:24):
that's you probably see the same thingon the lakes. Well, on the
lakes, I'm finding you know,if you have a lake with a lot
of vegetation, especially hy drilla,it tends to hold debate better than lakes
at Dalton. And then those fishwill move out to to uh cover near

(09:45):
drops, near ledges, because youknow you have structure, then you have
cover on that structure. And thenif you have things like brim bedding,
well, that's going to bring yourbasting around where the brim or bed in
that because it conjregates them into onelittle area. You know, they just
pick him off when he get radeat one. And that's how how I
was catching him. Just this pastweekend, I had a little tormat I

(10:05):
was in a State Federation Classic andcaught most of my fish doing that.
So yesterday I was I was flyinga drone over a piece of property that
a friend of mine has and wewere getting some footage for him. And
it's, uh, it's along theGlenn Saint Mary's River and so I I
just flew it down low to thewater. I was just following that river

(10:26):
like like you were tubing or kayakingor canoeing down that river. And it's
a shallow area. And as Iwas going along and I was looking at
the screen, you could see brimbeds the whole way. Oh that's cool
on that river. That's cool.And uh, that river is actually tidal.
Did you see him? Did yousee any big bass around him?
No? No, I didn't.The water was really low. I guess

(10:50):
like I said. They he wastelling me that it's tidal. It always
flows the same direction, but youknow it does rides and fall with the
tides. But that was that waspretty neat to fly that drone. And
I did see some fish, butthat wasn't what we were there for.
Right, he had done some cleanup work, and uh, I was
like, all right, so Iwas flying the druss, so I gotta

(11:11):
fly that river and check it out. And it was. It was pretty
awesome. You know, I lovea river. I don't know if you
spend much time on rivers. Ohyes, something there's there's there's three of
them that feed, like someone will. You got the Flint, the Chetach
River and the Spring Creek and whichthat's not as big a rivers of course,
the Flint and the Hoots. Butman, it's fun this time of
year because you know that water iscooler up those rivers and you get a

(11:33):
little more flow and it keeps itcan keep the fish a little more shallow
and more active too. Right,Well, let's keep this thought and we
will get back to this after thebreak because I want to talk more about
rivers, so I haven't touched on. Okay, sounds good. All right,

(11:58):
everyone, Welcome back to the BigBend Outdoors Show with Joel Baldry,
which again is not here, soit's myself can captain, Kenny Mullins and
Paul Tyre. And before we wentto break, we were talking about rivers
and I just wanted to touch onthat because I love a river. I
you know, saltwater fishing is mypassion, that's what I grew up doing.

(12:20):
But just something about a river.It's peaceful and this time of the
year, you know, it's hotout, that's right. The thing I
like about a river is you canfind sheade, that's sure, you sure
can. You can get on thoseuh those shady banks, and and and
you can find creeks feeding into riversthat you can go up in and get
us some shade. That's fright.That order Churich will be a couple of

(12:41):
degrees cooler. Oh yeah. Andthere's a lot of rivers in the area,
oh absolutely. You know in theBig Bend area. I mean we
have the Swanee River, the finnHolloway River, the Ekafina River, Saint
Mark's River is my favorites. You'vebeen on it, Oh yeah, that's
I've got a gator hunts on there. And you know, one thing,

(13:03):
we got the o'clockney that i've youknow, there's there's a lot of rivers
in the area, but I lovethe Apleachicola. Yeah. You know the
first time I went on there,I was gotting a gator hunt and I
had actually I didn't do any scouting. It was a last minute call.
The guy says, hey, Igot gator tags and I had a guidelined
up and he's not doing it anymoreand I need someone tomorrow. I said,

(13:26):
okay. He said, I havea cabin booked, and you know,
I got the equipment. I said, I have equipment if we need
to bring it, and he said, yeah, yeah, let's bring yours.
So I went out there just completelyblind, and I called a friend
of mine who works for the fWC, and I know he frequents that
river, and he gave me sometips. And man, it's just cool
the house boats out there, youknow, and it's so you go along,

(13:50):
there's just big bluffs. It remindsme like you're in the mountains.
Yeah, yeah, that's right,you know, in the right there by
the Terrea State Park. You haveyou been there, so absolutely there you
have the the the part of thatdead lakes, that river Chipolo river.
Man, that is a beautiful river. Oh yeah, goly, that is

(14:13):
really pretty. You know. Theone thing I found fascinating about the terre
of State Park is that's one ofthe only places where the terre a tree
is faust, which is gopher wood, that's right. And what was made
out of gopher wood? Yeah?Do you know, I don't know is
art? Noa's art was well,man, I tell you no, it
was art. So it is believedthat there was there was a pastor I

(14:37):
think it was back in the seventiesthat he believes that the Garden of Eden
is actually right here in Florida.Really hmm, so that's neat. There
was only three places in the worldwhere the terre a tree is found,
one of them's here. And thenthere's some biblical stuff about the rivers coming
to a head, which would beyou know, Lake Seminole and right right,

(14:58):
So I took my dad there tomy dad is uh, my dad
is an ordained pastor. He's beena pastor and evangelist for years, so
you know, I wanted to takehim there and show him that. And
yeah, it was pretty neat experience. And yeah, that's that's awesome.
I know, the hurricane Michael madea put a pretty big hurdle on that

(15:20):
that whole area, you know whenit came through it. Yeah, it
sure did. Yeah we still seesome of the ruminants of that. Oh
yeah. Yeah. And after Igot that gator hunt, I said,
you know, I just I lovethis. I want to take my family
back here. So we went backand I took the kids out there,
and and we pulled up to thisbank and we were rather all day,
didn't see another boat. I mean, it was crazy. And uh so

(15:43):
we pulled up to this bank andwe're walking along and we found some fossils.
We found like some pre form arrowheads. It was it was just a
fun day. And then you know, my boys, they when they found
out we were going there, theydid some reason church and right there by
the Terrea State Park there's that bluff, well there was there's been mastaton teeth

(16:04):
found there, so the kids wantedto go and see one, you know.
But it was just a fun day. The water was cool. It
was summertime. It was hot,but the water was cool. It was
now it was y'all on Lake Seminole, part of the did y'all stay at
Torea State Park. Is we didnot. We put in Three Rivers State

(16:26):
Park, got you, No,we we put in there. I think
it was Bluntstown. Yeah, andwe put in there. Trying to remember
the name of that land o CheesyLanding, yep. Yeah, you know,
we went up that way. Wewent all the way to the dam,
and then we went even further downriver. We went a long ways
and uh, we were just yeahand that and that and that beautiful scenery

(16:47):
down there. Yeah, I can'tremember. I think it was Owl Creek
or something like that. We actuallyloaded the boat up and when then we
trailer down there and we went inthere and that was just amazing. Yeah.
And that's a big air. It'sa big creek too. Oh yeah,
that's some good fishing in there too. Oh yeah. I turned the
bottom machine on and I'm going overa bunch of brush and it's just lighting

(17:10):
up with fish everywhere. That's somethingI don't normally do. Yeah, And
and man, we just we hada blast. We didn't even take any
fishing rods, you know, wejust went exploring fun and we went way
back in some of these uncharted creeksand you know, you'll get way back
in there and it'll open up andthere'll be like four or five house boats
there. Yeah, and be likea like a little lake. Oh yeah,
yeah, that's really neat. Yeah. Then we went back in the

(17:33):
fall and you could sit out thereand fish. But you'll hear you'll hear
people hunting, running, running,deer dogs and just that. You'll hear
the dogs racing, and it's justyeah, it's an awesome experience. Yeah,
it is that just getting out anddoing something outside outside the normal routine.
It's just it's fair. Yeah,absolutely. And there's a lot of

(17:56):
places there that people can go andfish from the bank if they don't have
a boat. That's right right therein below Chattahooche you can right you know.
And we went by that. UhI think it's o Cheezy Landing I
think is what it's called. Butthere was a lot of people fishing from
the bank there. It looked likethere were cat fishing. Yeah. What
about the lakes. Is there anywherewhere people could fish from the bank.
Yeah. On the near the landings, there's there's serve different landings where they

(18:19):
could kind of fish up. There'spiers that kind of go out Booster Club
Landing right above Chattoochee on the FlintRiver side of the lake. You could
fish out of there at E's campGround, a marina, they have a
lombrine you can fish off their theirdocks there. But not a lot of
bank fishing because we have a lotof vegetation, right and you'd have to
walk through cut grass to get tothe water, you know what I mean.

(18:41):
So yeah, you don't get alot of that like you do maybe
on Lake Talquin, right, Andthat's why I wanted to mention mention some
of the rivers. You know,there's there's places on Saint Marks River where
you can fish from the bank,the Swanee River especially, I mean there's
places all over the Small That's anotherriver that's pretty man. I love that
place. I mean there's some cypresstrees down there that're like, you know,

(19:02):
two three hundred years old. Ohyeah, yeah. And then if
you go around like the Mayo DowlingPark area, it can get treacherous.
I mean, if you've never rana river, you know, when you
when you come to a turn inthe river, you know, typically the
outside is going to almost always theoutside is going to be the deeper portion,
right, You know, the thingwith the Swanee on those straightaways a

(19:26):
lot most of the time the centeris shallower. Yeah, yeah, you
know, so you want to bemindful and pay attention to your your water.
But I tell you you could youcould put in around Dowling Park,
Mayo, any of those areas andyou can just spring hot. Yeah,
you know, you can go fromspring to spring to spring. That's pretty
cool. And there's a lot ofthem you can you can drive to,

(19:48):
you know, Blue Spring State Park, stuff like that, and that's fun
for the kids. Yeah. Yeah, I actually want to take my family.
And we talked about this driving toofar ago Argo, Georgia with the
kayaks, putting it at the SwaneeRiver and kayak downriver all the way back
towards Mayo. Oh wow, that'dbe something. And there's camp sites along

(20:10):
the way, you know. Andwhen Joel and I was doing that storm
clean up, one of the guysthat was on my boat, because what
we did is we we captained theboats and we took what they call monitors
that were and basically their job wasto take pictures of these barges working and
the stuff that they were cleaning upout of the river. So that they
could prove that to the federal governmentthat what work was being done, so

(20:37):
it could be the state could bereimbursed. Well, one of the guys
I had on my boat during thattime, he's actually made that kayak trip
from Fargo actually all the way tothe mouth of the Swanee Wow on the
town of Swanee Uh. I thinkhe told me, if I remember,
I was seven to nine days wow. But he was telling me all these

(20:57):
places you can camp at along theway that doesn't cost anything, and it's
actual state campgrounds. And he saidthere is some that's better than others,
and there's some you have to pay. But so they didn't take any food.
They caught fish the whole way.They they didn't even take a tent.
I mean it was they roughed it. But you know, they said

(21:19):
they never went without food. Theycaught fish the whole way. Wow.
You know, But what a coolexperience. Yeah, that would be that
would be a really you know,i'd be a cool experience to take your
kids, you know, when they'reat the right age for Oh yeah,
yeah, And my my boys areare thirteen and seventeen. My oldest will
actually be eighteen in two weeks.But I was talking to them about that.

(21:41):
Dad, that's a long ways.I'm like, yeah, that'd be
that'd be cool. No engine tocrank up when you get tired of uh
balan no. And I told him, I said, that's why we're going
to put in at Fargo and we'regoing down river. We're going to have
another vehicle part to the end.Absolutely, and you're still going to get

(22:02):
a lot of exercise. Oh absolutely, Yeah. Yeah. You know that's
something that my dad did with mewhen we were kids. We did a
lot of camping and canoeing. Canoeingwas big then, it wasn't so much
kayaks right right, you know,but you know, I'll never forget those
experiences. You know, that's thekind of experience that lasts a lifetime.

(22:23):
I think, kind of getting craftedin you and you you know, you
want your you want to have yourkids experience that with you. Yeah,
And you know, I sit hereand I think about it. And I
was involved in a program called RoyalRangers, which is similar to Boy Scouts,
but it was through through our church, and uh you know, through
that program, we we got whatwas called a cutting chopped card where we

(22:45):
learned how to use a hatchet andan axe and a knife, you know,
proper safety practices, learn fire buildingtechniques, and you know, we'd
have little competitions who could who couldbuild a fire in the flame reach high
enough to burn in this string thatwas going across. You know, that's
I haven't done that stuff with myboys. You know, it's life just

(23:07):
life's changed so much and we livein such a fast paced world that we
forget to slow down and reflect onthings and do things like that with our
kids. Yeah, that's right,that's right, you know. And uh
so that's what made me think aboutthis kayak trip, and yeah, that
would be fun. Oh yeah,Well, we have got to go to

(23:27):
break so when we come back,we've got some breaking news and we will
fill you all in in just afew All right, welcome back to the
Big Bend out Doors Show. Wehave some breaking news and that breaking news

(23:49):
is the release of the gag grouperdates for this year. Oh boy,
So, the n O a AFisheries has announced that the gag grouper season
for the Golf Waters will be Septemberfirst at twelve oh one am until September
sixteenth. That's not much of aseason six, there's that few gag groupers

(24:12):
into Gulf of Mexico, depends onwho you ask, So, well,
how do they how do how dothey? I'm just curious because I don't
do a lot of offshore fishing,So how did they come up with that?
How do they know? What's their? Have you studied that? So
they do creal studies? I mean, how do you do that? Now?
I'm just curious. Yeah. Agood friend of mine, he was

(24:32):
a captain for FWC Research vessel andthey would actually go out there and catch
fish and you know, they'd havedivers go out there. Well, they
also have do surveys and depending onwho you ask, it's so I'll say
this, most of the guides willtell you and most of the recreational fishermen
will tell you that they don't seea shortage of gag grouper. So the

(24:59):
general consensuses this is not warranted orjustified based on what the people out there
on the water are seeing, right, but based on the data that the
fisheries is using, they're saying itis. But the data they're using is
from I believe it's twenty fourteen,so ten year old data. Yeah,

(25:27):
So it's you know, it's excitingnews that people are going to be able
to go out there. Have theynot been able to catch a gag grouper
for a period of time and nowthey can. It's only sixteen days long.
So this this just recently changed lastyear, Sarah, there's been a
shortage of gag groupers. No,okay, kind of like red snapper.

(25:48):
I mean if you go offshore rightnow, I mean you can you can
hardly get to the bottom for catchingred snapper. And so that's what I'm
season them. There's plentiful red snapper, and I guess that's what's keep making
that being the season being so good, is that the FWC is managing it
so well. Yeah. And somepeople you ask, you know that they

(26:11):
talk about how like goliath grouper areprotected. Well, goliath grouper are just
devastating fisheries depending on who you ask, right, So this is a very
controversial topic. But if you wantto catch gag grouper, get out there
from September first until September sixteenth.And what's the best baits to catch gag

(26:33):
grouper with? I typically use pinfishpinfish, some people use cut sardines.
You can go on some of thesebigger party boats and some you squid.
But I'm a pinfish fan. Soif a person's out there fishing and they
say before septemb first, and theycatch a gag grouper, they immediately have

(26:55):
to release that fish back into theYes, you have to vent it.
You have to vent it. Youhave to use a ventning tool and then
release it. So you also,when you're fishing for a refish, which
a gag grouper is considered a refish, you have to use a circle hook.

(27:15):
Okay, And would your snapper beconsidered a refish? Yes, and
you're yeah, okay, makes doublesense. Yeah, so you want to
use it, you have to usea circle hook. You have to have
a vending tool if you don't venomthere. When did that law come into
effect about using a circle hook.I can't remember. It spent at s
time. Yeah, And do youfind that to make to be easier on

(27:37):
the fish to having the fish released? It definitely is because the majority of
the time it's going to hook themright in the corner of the mouth.
Yeah, you know, you haveyou have less fish gut hooked. That's
what I noticed too. Yeah,it's and in shore, I don't use
a lot of circle hooks, primarilybecause I get a lot of South George

(28:00):
bass fishermen that I cannot get themto stop trying to set the hook like
bill dance. Yeah. Yeah,I've had I have some experience for the
circle hook, and when I firstlearned to use it, I lost several
several several of them when I wasfirst learned how to use it. But
there's definitely a technique to that.Oh yeah. But once I've learned it,
I don't send to lose them anymore. No, And I try to

(28:22):
tell everyone it doesn't matter what hookyou use it. I tell everyone the
same thing. Real until you findyour you feel tension, yeah, then
set that's right. But you knowI do understand large mouth bass fishing and
the need to set the hook.Yeah, I'm not going to fall out
of the boat set in the hooklike a lot of these people I get
on my boat. That's right,that's right. But what's your thoughts on

(28:45):
hook set for Well, there's it'sit's the for bass fishing, is you
know, especially what you're using.If I'm using a topwater bait with trouble
hooks. Then I'm and I'm usingbraided line, I'm gonna have a rod
that's more of more of a nota fast action, but more of a
maybe a medium heavy moderate so Ican kind of lean into the fish and

(29:06):
as I'm reeling it, so Ican kind of pull into the fish.
If I'm throwing a jig on twentypound floor carbon line, I want to
set I'm on a slight line andset the hook hard to get that I
gotta eat that bigger hook through thefishes, you know what I mean.
It just depends on what you're doing. If I'm using a light wire EWG
hook, I might not just setthe hook quite as hard, right,
you know what I mean? Andso that is it's basically on what technique

(29:30):
you're using and what size hook you'reusing. Because if I'm flipping and flipping
eighty pound braids through three foot thickhydrill the mat, trying to get a
four aut flipping hook through a eightpound er his head, trying to get
him up through the grass, thenthat's a different hook set within itself too,
and you have to tee I haveto, I find I have to

(29:51):
teach those different hooksets to people.Based on what technique we're using, you
know. And I'm glad you mentionedabout the different styles of hooks, different
size, no different diameter wire,because one thing I see a lot in
the saltwater world is people try tomatch the hook size to the fish size,
and you're supposed to match the hooksize to your bait. Yeah,
you know that's right, because youknow, Dell just just came in with

(30:17):
us and he actually ties some incredibleflies, and he took me fly fishing
for the first time. And thelittle hook is using you know, you
got fly rods pretty limber, youknow, and you just you just kind
of pull the line and hold onand he hooks himself. It's kind of
made me rethink how I'm doing someof my bass fishing up there with some

(30:37):
of this lighter stuff, because Inotice when I'm bass fishing, if I've
got a like a circle hook andI'm using a light wire circle hook,
all I do is just raise therod and reel and as the fish turns,
he hooks himself, right, youknow what I mean, There is
no really no hook set with that. But so it's that's diameter wire,
diameter and rod is everything. Iagree of the hook, and like us

(31:00):
on the Salt Water World, youknow, if you have something that you're
going to use over and over,you better use a black nickel coated hook.
Yeah, you know, Yeah,well I don't. I don't use
stainless. Uh. I personally don'tbelieve in the stainless hook because if fish
does happen to get hooked further downin, I want the hook that's going
to rust out. That's right,that's right, right, they'll rust out,

(31:22):
but not but I use black nickelbecause I don't want them to rust
too fast in between trips. That'sright, that's right, you know.
But you know, talking about differenttechniques. You know, you were talking
about top orter. You know.One of the biggest mistakes that I see
made on top water is they'll seethat fish blow up on it and they'll

(31:42):
try to set the hook. Oh. I have that happen a lot.
I tell you. I tell people, I said, when they'll say we're
we're like, I got some folksI'm taking tomorrow from actually Tallahassee. We're
going up on like simon On,and we're gonna be doing some frog fishing
and some topwater fishing, probably paintsand I want to say, I want
when I have to tell them whenthe one strikes it, you need to

(32:06):
say Tyler hassee Florida before you setthe hook. You've got to have them
time for the fish to get itbecause I'm using braided line, and braided
line doesn't have a lot of stretchas zero stretch. And if you go
pulling away from the fish too fast, you're not gonna get the hook him.
You got to give them time.You can be too fast. Now.
If they say mast don't have hands, well they don't, but what

(32:27):
it sometimes seems like they do.Hey, guys, how y'all doing good?
How are you doing that? I'mdoing great? Man. Listen,
I'll got a question for you,Kevin Paul. Uh, I really have
a hard time figuring out hooks,and you guys are having a conversation.
I just walk in. You're havinga conversation by hooks and everything. My
biggest thing is, uh, ofcourse, what I'm sure others have is

(32:51):
the size of hook to use.I know that a small hook will catch
a big fish, and a bighook will miss every fish you try to
catch. But the uh twelve inchman worm? What hook do you use
with a monster? Worm like that. And I got these worms and I'm
I'm my plan is to use themand and everything to throw them and the

(33:13):
catch a you know, the catchbass on, et cetera. But man,
what kind of hooked am I supposedto be using with a big worm?
LI depends on the cover you're fishing, Okay, for me, it
will. I mean, I thinkon Texas, Texas rig everything, Okay,
if you're if you're if I'm fishinggrass and I'm fishing it, say,
the debate is, I don't havesay, fishing on that. I

(33:35):
fish a big worm up that don'ta carryin a rig a lot. I
want to use a five ault oceanitystyle hook. It's a it's an offset
hook, but it hasn't has it'snot an EWG hook. And so that
worm will actually when it lays onthe grass, it'll come through the grass
easier then versus an EWG, whichis a wide gap hook. It'll that
that'll that'll tend to hang up alittle bit more. And I won't that

(34:00):
slender, especially this time of year, I'm wanting a slender profile where it's
kind of like an eel, becauseyou know, we got eels up on
like some of them. I'm surethere's eels and a lot of your freshwater
legs. Are they eels down thereon the flats too? Oh yeah?
It does the fish eat them?Oh yeah? You have bass do up
there too, So you're trying toresemble an eel. So you want something
that kind of gives that bait plentyof movement. People that worm fish,

(34:22):
they're actually imitating an ill. Notnecessarily a worm could be could be a
small snake too, yeah, small, but eels typically all right, now
on those big worms, uh,you know you're talking about giving the fish
time, saying Tallahassee Florida, orwhat that's like on the top water,
the top water with the frogs andthe prop baits and stuff. With a

(34:45):
worm, you know, you alwaysget that tap tap when you're fishing a
worm and a bass picks it upwith those larger worms, What is your
time? What is the how longdo you wait? Because you know,
all my life, six inch supreamefiretail, you know, as soon as
he heads it real down, setthe hook because they like to say he

(35:06):
don't have no hands. But there'stimes when and of course it depends on
the size of your fish. Butthere's times when they'll usually this happens in
the middle to late spring. They'llwhen you're when you're a fishing a soft
plastic along a sandbar and they'll comeup. They'll kind of lay on the
bait. They'll press down on they'retrying to kill it, but they're not
eating it. They'll just push onit. You'll feel like we're gonna have

(35:28):
to hold that off for just asecond where you have to go to a
break. All right, everyone,welcome back to the Big min Out Short
Outdoor Show. And Captain Paula,you were speaking with us before break.
You were giving some advice to Dell. Yeah, about about about the different

(35:52):
using a big worm. You know, this time of year is a great
time. I like to use aten inch to all the way to a
twelve inch worm, and like Isaid, depend on the cover. I'll
either use a fiveault hook, butit's typically a Gamma Cots Gamma Coots who
makes o Shanity style offset worm hookthat works extremely well. And are you
putting any weight on it? Areyou just letting the weight of that worm?

(36:13):
Well, a Carolina rig is you'llhave a ounce weight about with a
with a bit to a bead toa swivel to a leader about anywhere from
twenty four to thirty inches, andthen it'll be tied your hook and you're
warm beyond that. So when youthrow it, this works really well on
like talk. When you throw itout there on the ledges, your weights
goes down and then your bait comesfalling behind it and it doesn't have the

(36:34):
only thing it has is just theweight of the hook. So it comes
falling down real slow behind it.You just slow drag or you feel your
weight hit a shell or stump.You know. I've caught fishing in termins
for where you had to get theweight up on the stump and let it
sit there. I don't know why, but they would pull. They would
just start pulling your line down.Not in on the Carolina rig. I
like to let the fish pull myline. I'll pull it with a with

(36:58):
a with a bell relief, startthe thumbar, you know, with the
line to come out with a bellopen, and I'll just drag it and
if one hits it, because they'llhit it and start moving with it,
especially there's a group there. Ifthere's a group of fish, there'll be
one get it trying to take itaway from the others. That's how you
know if you're on a school offish, the Texas rig with the bullet
weight. Yeah, the bullet weighttwelve inch worm. I mean, are

(37:19):
you even used Should I even beusing a weight? Well, it depends
on how deeper fish. If you'retrying to get down deeper in eight nine
ten foot of water, and youcan get down there fast, yeah,
you'll you know, anywhere from afive sixteenth to a three eighths. But
there's times on Lake Seminole because wehave a lot of hydrilla and I'll throw
those big worms without no weight.Yeah, okay, because the weight of
the worm's heavy enough. But ifand they'll suspend, depend on what weather

(37:43):
conditions are. They'll suspend. Afish is going to be on the bottom,
near the surface or somewhere in themiddle, and they'll usually suspend.
And if that bait falling down,it just falls real slow and it'll get
them that way. Also, Sowhat's interesting in salt water, we rarely,
we rarely use in our area.That's guides I can I can speak
on. We rarely use Texas riggingor Carolina rigging. Yeah, pretty much,

(38:06):
weight everything that's right. Now.You use a lot of paddle tails
with jigs, right, yes,but even even like using a worm or
eel imitation, you know, mostof the time we're going to use a
keel weighted hook like a VMC dropdead weighted kill weighted hook and they're a
little longer hook. Yeah, that'sright. Those are word you can use
those too. Those were if youwant that bait. Now, now your

(38:29):
bait's gonna fall horizontally, kind oflike a Sinco. Yep. That's one
thing that I that I do isI'll instead if I don't have a kill
weighted hook in the boat, I'lljust add a drop shot weight to it
and then I make the bait falljust like it was a Sinco too.
Yeah. And then another technique willwe'll use a lot, especially kobe or
tarpin fishing, is we will justnose hook them like with a circle hook.

(38:52):
And is that how you catch them? You said you had paddle tails
on our popping quarts a couple ofweeks ago. You would just the salt
flass like a fluke. That's reallycool, and it's just hooking at one
time, it's not feeding the hookdown through it. You know, it's
a lot of tourists with shrimp they'llfeed the hook down the whole body,
or people freshwater fishing, they curlthat worm up, yeah, you know,

(39:14):
instead of just just hooking it.And you know what, a lot
of people fish the way they weretall they know no better. And they
fished the farm pond which had afish every square inch, so that rig
worked great. That's right, that'sright, that's right. So I'll tell
you something interesting. A friend ofmine, he's a YouTuber, and he

(39:35):
just went to the mountains with hisdad and they've been going since he was
just a little I think he said, six years old. Wow, And
they went up there trout fishing.I learned something because what you just spoke
about, I was taught, youknow, just bunch that worm up on
a hook. I never knew that. I guess I should have known.
I never knew that a worm hasa head and a tail, and I
never knew how to tell the difference. He was showing on this YouTube video

(39:59):
that I didn't have pay attention tothat part, but he was showing that
there's the there's a headside, whichis what they used to dig with.
And he said, you wanna youwant to hook He hooks them through the
tail side and then the worm movesmore because they're used to digging with that.
Hell oh there you go. Yeah. Well they were pitching these on
the river and you know, andletting the current take it, much like

(40:22):
a fly. Yeah, sure,just letting it let pitching it into the
shallow live worms, pitching it intothe shallow and then letting it go down
into the pools. Actually, yeah, we actually have I mean, I
say, we uh people to flyfish. We have artificial worms that are
real, real tiny that we canfeed on the hooks. Uh, you

(40:45):
know, put them up on thehook and we use a little strike indicator.
It's just like fishing a bobber rigon a zep go, you know,
but it's on a flyde you know, that makes all the difference.
Uh so they say, But catchingrainbows and browns and and everything up there,
that is one of my biggest passions. I love that. Yeah.

(41:07):
They were in the mountains, actuallyin the mountains of North Georgia where they
were, and they were catching rainbowsand giant trout. Oh yeah, it
makes me want to take the boysup there because they got Yeah, they
rented a cabin and then they wentout there and they dug the worms.
Yeah, you know. And andhe he put in the video that his
dad taught him when he was sixyears old to take a stick or a

(41:30):
rock and just drag it much likegrunting worms. Oh yeah, and that's
what he was doing. And theywent out behind the cabin and they picked
up they got all the worms fromthe ground, and then they went to
the to the creek and caught supper. That's a big deal, right that.

(41:52):
Fly fishing up in the Smokies isone of the greatest things I've ever
experienced. And I think I wasjust talking about with a friend of mine
earlier and I told him, Isaid, it wasn't as much. I
mean, it was really cool tocach rainbows and especially browns. That was
my my bucket list fish was thebrown trout. I said. What was

(42:13):
really cool about it was the scenery. Oh yeah, man, oh cow.
Well, you're fishing and you feellike you're doing an article for filled
and Streams or something. You're upthere and you know, I fished.
I fly fished all the way upto I've been in New York and Pennsylvania
and all up and down the EastCoast. And one of the most greatest
things ever experienced in the world wasmy wife's friend up in New York outside

(42:38):
of Buffalo. Her husband took meout and I asked him, I said,
can I wait out there? Andhe said, yeah, go ahead.
I said, thank you. Isaid, I'm not used to being
able to wade where there's no elegators. I said, this is a blessing,
you know. Oh yeah, yeah. So we were talking earlier,
you know, about how we arenow living in such a fast paced world.

(43:05):
Today has been one of Yeah,my buck's been attacked by drag car.
And you know, a few weeksago, I was in Pennsylvania.
We went and went to Amish countryand all that. It made me reflect
on life and and you know,I got to thinking about the things that
my dad did with me when Iwas a kid, and it's things that
I haven't done with my kids,you know. And and that's one of

(43:28):
them. We used to go tothe Smokies every year every summer. Oh
yeah, when I was young,it was Gallenberg Gallenburg back then, that's
not the Gallenberg. It is nono, And it's so up until five
or six years ago, we usedto go to, uh like Cherokee and
Deep Creek. Deep Creek, welove it. I don't know if you've

(43:49):
ever been there. Not Deep Creek. Oh it's not. It's not as
touristy, right, you know.And you can go there and you can
fish there. You can fish onthe Indian reservation. But took the boys
to one of those stock trout pondsand had a blast doing that. But
I'll tell you, as long asthe kids are having a great time,
that's all that matters, That's right. You know. Wendy and I last
time we were, we went upin Bryson, Bryson City, and that's

(44:13):
where I finished I finished out Brysonwith the fly fish and the smoky outfitter
up there. Eugene yep, thesuper nice guy man. He is down
to earth as they get. Anduh, this a great operation. And
you know, we went up thereand we were just driving around, Winnie
and I. We didn't know reallywhere we were. And we come up

(44:34):
on a hatchery. Oh wow,and the gate was open and I pulled
in, you know, being politemannerly, I went into the office and
no one was there, and Isaid hello, hello, and there was
two men that were there and theywere cleaning the office, and the everybody
had left to go stock. Tookthe truck full of fish to go stock
somewhere. And I just asked whenI said, can me and my wife,

(44:57):
you know, take a look around? Boy talking about getting the back
door at that entrance to Disney World. We I seen more little fish and
big and then I seen the giants. Oh boy, And I was like,
you know, what a great placeto be because all the majority of
if not all of them, youknow, they stalk the rainbows, but

(45:19):
the browns are wild, and thatbrown trout is a tiger. That's a
fighting fish right there. But yeah, the beauty of it all, man,
being up in the mountains and everything. And I seen your pictures on
Facebook with your family and great time. I seen the catfish and and everything,
and I was like, well,I said, catfish or no catfish,

(45:40):
That those children are having a greattime, and that's all that mattered,
you know. So uh, youknow, God bless the families that
can get out and take their familyfishing, and people like you and Paul
that offer charter services to to getpeople out that normally can't go. Uh,
that's you know, that's experiences thatthey never forget are I did the

(46:04):
half day rafting trips, and myguides up there were superior and and uh,
I just I couldn't wait to comeback. And that's what I love
about about what I do. Probablyyou as well. Absolutely I do love
fishing, don't get me wrong,But for me, it's that that being
able to be a part of somehelping someone make memories exactly, you know.

(46:29):
And speaking of that, how howcould they get ahold of you?
Paul? Well, I tell youwhat they can give me. They can
give me a call at eight fivezero two six four seven five three four.
You can reach out me on Facebookat the Captain Paul to our fishing.
And you know I've got told aboutthat. I've got a customer I'm
taking tomorrow from Tallasse again and it'sa young man fifteen years old getting into
fishing, excited about the opportunity totake the Maybe hopefully we can teach them

(46:51):
something. They might, but theyalways teach me something too. I find
that to be. Oh that's that'sbeen that awesome learn from God's Oh yeah
yeah. And it's and you know, I still got to get with you
and do that because you know myboys, they they've saltwater fished. You
know, I primarily fish out ofKeaton Beach, Real Epic Charters and you
can find me on all the socialmedia platforms ree Epic charters dot com and

(47:15):
uh, but it's nice to dosomething different. And when I go do
something different, I book another guide. Yeah. So the main thing is
get your kids out there, getyou, you know, take time to
spend with your family, you know, slow down from the fast paced life
every now and then, and uh, you know, go enjoy the outdoors.

(47:36):
It's that that's that's right, right, Well we are out of time.
Oh man, well that onele itsure did. So we will see.
Well you will hear us next week. You've been listening to The Big
Bend Outdoor Show with Joel Baldry.Join us every Saturday morning at eight am
on ninety six five the Spear andon demand with the Free Art Radio app