September 11, 2025 • 56 mins
Captain Kayla Hale shares multi-species fishing strategies for the northern Chesapeake, from striped bass tactics to smallmouth techniques. She reveals exciting news about her custom Rockproof jet boat being built for her guide service.
• Fish below surface commotion for bigger striped bass
• Minnow plugs and glide baits produce quality stripers in the fall
• Striped bass migration patterns change from Chesapeake Bay to New Jersey beaches
• Blue catfish pose serious threat to Chesapeake ecosystem unlike snakeheads
• Winter white and yellow perch fishing on ultralight tackle offers excellent cold-weather opportunity
• Brackish Babes all-female fishing team competing in Tiki Lee's rockfish tournament
• Finding joy in seeing others catch trophy fish is part of the guiding experience
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Capt. Kayla Haile (00:00):
Everybody gets all excited seeing fish
breaking on the surface and youknow they want to catch them,
which is great.
But yeah, a lot of your biggerfish just kind of hang out below
all that.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (00:15):
Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad
Fishing Show.
I'm your host, rich Natoli, andwe've got a show with a
returning guest but not from theFat Dad Fishing Show from when
I was on Salt Strong doing theSalt Strong podcast.
We have Captain Kayla Halecoming on.
She's got some news to share aswell and we're going to be
talking multi-species.
(00:36):
Now Kayla fishes the northernChesapeake, so you're talking
freshwater, brackish water,striped bass you know all of the
things that you're going towant to get up at.
Striped bass, I mean redfish.
She's got a ton of stuff in herfeed, so you should really
check it out if you haven'talready.
(00:56):
I want to let you know, if thisis your first time here
checking out this show, eitheron the podcast or live stream,
if you enjoy it, if you thinkit's halfway decent at all, it
would be great.
If you do a like, do somecomments, share it out to people
that you think might also wantto check out the show, leave a
review.
That's really going to help.
There are some guests not Kayla,but other guests that say well,
(01:17):
before I agree to come on, howmany people watch, how many
people listen?
I need to see your stats, sohelp us out with that?
That would be great.
I'm going to hit the sponsorsreal quick and then we're going
to bring Kayla on.
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(02:00):
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Be happy to help you out withanything that I can.
And with that said, we're goingto jump right in.
I'm going to bring Kayla Haleon screen now.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, it's good to see you again.
Capt. Kayla Haile (03:38):
Thanks, good to see you too.
Thanks for having me.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (03:42):
Yeah , I, I I getting the feedback.
When I have women anglers on, Ipick really good ones.
And you were on the live streamwith me and podcast, but it was
with Salt Strong and look, Idid Salt Strong for a while.
A lot of people listening andwatching.
But this is really what I likedoing over here with this group
(04:06):
of people and they haven't seenyou, so I was like I got to hail
it back on and you've got somestuff going on.
You've got fish that I'mjealous of.
You fish really close to mostof our viewers.
You know, most of our viewersare New York, new Jersey,
maryland, and almost all of themare willing to travel.
(04:27):
So, why not travel to see?
Capt. Kayla Haile (04:29):
you, you have to travel to find them.
So I go to Jersey, I've gone toNew York, I've gone to Rhode
Island, connecticut, maine,massachusetts.
Sometimes you got to go thedistance to get a bite used to
sometimes.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad (04:47):
Sometimes you got to go the distance to
get a bite.
So yeah and and but one thingthat I really like about you is
you're you're located in a greatspot for multiple species and
you hit multiple speciesthroughout the year.
So we're going to talk aboutsome of the different species
that you're targeting.
But before we do that, whydon't we just, why don't we
start by kind of jumping in,talk about your business, you
know where, know where are you,what do you do, what do you
(05:08):
typically target, and then we'llgo in and we'll start talking
about some of these species.
Capt. Kayla Haile (05:12):
Yeah, so I run River Queen Guide Service,
so 2026 will be my sixth yearguiding and I'm very, very
excited to share some news whichmany people probably already
know.
But I am currently in theprocess of getting a new rig
(05:35):
built, a new custom jet boat byRockproof Jet Boats.
They're located in Harrisburg,pennsylvania, so I'm sure some
of your listeners have seen someRockproof boats around,
especially in Pennsylvania.
So I'm sure some of yourlisteners have seen some
rock-proof boats around,especially in Pennsylvania.
You know they're all over theSusquehanna River, but I am very
, very excited to get this rigbuilt and get it done and get it
(05:56):
out on the water.
I actually just got back alittle while ago from seeing it
and I talked to andrew who's,who's been great with helping me
build it.
He's didn't give me an exactdate as to when it's going to be
done, but it's probably goingto be by the end of the month.
I mean, it's built, it just hasto go through the the painting
(06:17):
process all the fittings motoryeah, mounting the motor and I
picked out some pretty coolflooring for it.
I got some neat lights going onit and it's a custom, like it's
gonna be the first one, aone-of-one jet boat, and I'm
really, really, really excitedfor it, and that's awesome I'm
(06:38):
so excited to share it with you.
Know, future clients, pastclients, my family, my this has
been a dream of mine for areally long time, and just the
fact that it's now a reality andhappening, I'm just, I'm
itching so bad.
I want to share the news witheverybody, and I've been keeping
(06:59):
some pictures hidden, um, andto myself about it, and it's
just.
I can't wait to share it witheverybody.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (07:08):
I can't wait to see it.
You know it's.
It's funny we had I had a fewyears ago.
I had captain John Halkius on-and and he was talking about his
new boat, and it's almost liketalking to a parent who has a
new kid.
Oh my gosh, just the joy thatyou see in a captain's eyes when
(07:30):
they have a new rig coming.
That is one that they havedesigned and they have put
together with their business inmind.
You know, talk to ScottyStevens.
He's like you know, I have thisugly boat.
Other people would hate it, butit's perfect.
It's perfect for what he does.
It sounds like.
It sounds like that's whatyou're looking forward to.
Capt. Kayla Haile (07:49):
Yeah, I mean, like I, I just grew up running
jet boats.
You know, my, my dad was one ofthe first people on the lower
Susquehanna river, belowConowingo, to actually have a
jet boat lingo, to actually havea jet boat.
(08:09):
So you know, that's kind of howI just grew up.
Fishing was running shallow,skinny water, you know.
So, learning how to run a riverand read a river through him,
you know it.
Just it made me who I am today.
So you, you know, just havingthat that teacher show me how to
do it.
And then, you know, I bought myown jet boat from, actually,
(08:34):
another guide who guides up onthe Susquehanna river.
He was in the process ofgetting a custom jet boat built
for his business as well at thetime.
So I bought his old boat thathe guided out of for years and
it was a great stepping stone.
It was a perfect starter jetboat for me.
I ran trips out of it for years, you know, and I was more than
(08:59):
happy to then pass that boatalong to another young man who
bought it from me in July.
And I'm not gonna lie, I criedfor a couple days and when I saw
it leave, you know I shed acouple tears.
But I knew the young man thatbought it, I knew he was gonna
learn so much, take care of it,you know.
(09:22):
And I I told him I was like giveher hell, like yeah you know,
that's what I did and it taughtme so much and, yeah, I just
this process.
It's like my little.
I don't have children yet, butif, if, this is anything what
it's like to have a kid.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (09:41):
Well , look, it's, it's exciting
anytime that you know anyone,whether it's a boat, a kayak,
whatever it is, that you're atruck, if you're, if you're a
surf fisherman, you know all ofthese things there.
I mean, it's, it's yourplatform, it's it's exciting and
(10:01):
I can't wait to see you know,see some.
I can't wait to see thepictures from the first bloody
deck that you have on that thing.
And so, let's say, you get itat the end of this month.
So late September, earlyOctober, what's your first trip?
I know you're going to take itout yourself.
You're not doing a charter dayonce.
(10:21):
You're going to take it out forthe shakedown and all that
stuff.
What are you targeting to startoff with?
Capt. Kayla Haile (10:27):
So it's funny .
You ask that my brother and Iwe were actually out fishing
yesterday and my dad was niceenough to let us take his boat
and we were talking about thatand I was like Eddie, you know
what do you think our first trip?
Because the first people on myboat will be my brother and my
dad, without a doubt they are mytwo, they are my best friends,
(10:49):
they are the two people I willfish with every single day of my
life if I could.
But we were talking about.
I was like what should ourfirst trip be?
And I'm like, well, it's gonnabe october.
I'm hoping that you, we getsome kind of rain or a hurricane
would be awesome.
But honestly, just taking itright outside of where the boat
(11:15):
is being built, like the shop isright in Harrisburg, near
there's a statue of Liberty onthe Susquehanna river right
there it's called fort hunter.
Honestly, just taking it outright there and catching some
smallmouth would be epic.
I mean that would be superspecial, like that's where I
(11:38):
learned a lot about thesusquehanna river, just right in
that stretch.
But also part of me wouldn'tmind doing that in the morning
and then heading back downcloser to my home in baltimore
and going out and trying tocatch striped bass so that's the
trailer.
As soon as you get the, thesmall mouth as soon as the small
(11:58):
mouth hits the deck, I'll belike all right time to go, let's
go get, let's go get a striperthat's awesome because both of
both of those fish are probablymy top two favorite species to
target.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (12:09):
Yeah , I was going to say so, those
that you know for the livestream, the and I actually I'm
going to put this on the podcastart too that I mean you've got.
You've caught some really nicestriped bass.
You know the one, look it's.
It looks like it's just as bigas you.
It looks like you're.
I mean, I don't think you canstretch your hands any further
apart to hold that thing up.
It's a great picture.
(12:30):
You sent me a lot of goodpictures and I was like, no,
it's got to be this Like you canbarely see, but this smile is
the smile that we all have whenwe catch a big one.
I do want to bring this onecomment up first.
So Casey is the one that boughtthe boat, right?
Yes, so Casey is there's.
Capt. Kayla Haile (12:49):
Casey Already learned so many lessons.
Yeah, I'm so excited for himand we keep in touch quite often
and he's always sending mepictures of all the fish he's
catching and you know I'm sohappy that he came across my my
Facebook marketplace postsbecause you know there's nobody
(13:12):
else I think I would pick againto have that boat.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (13:16):
So that's great.
And you'll you'll get to.
To wave to Casey, as you'reflying to the next spot in the
uh, in the fall in a few weeks,we'll be out there, all right.
So you're flying to the nextspot in the fall in a few weeks
to be out there, all right.
So you're going to hit somesmallmouth.
Let's talk about the stripedbass, because the striped bass,
I mean, that's going to be thefall fishery.
So it's going to sound like aweird question Are you fishing
(13:37):
Pennsylvania or are you fishingMaryland?
Which regs are you worriedabout?
Capt. Kayla Haile (13:44):
So right now I'm fishing strictly in Maryland
for striped bass.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (13:48):
Okay .
Capt. Kayla Haile (13:49):
The, the schoolie fish right now are in
in the Chesapeake Bay, prettygood.
So right, yeah, right now is ismainly the upper Chesapeake Bay
, and when it starts cooling off, a lot of fish will start
moving into the tributaries ofthe Bay.
So I'll start hitting somerivers and stuff like that.
(14:10):
But yeah, right now it's mainlythe upper Chesapeake Bay for
stripers and then, once it,cools off.
you know I love going with oneof my best friends.
We love going to New Jersey andhitting the Jersey run off the
beaches there.
Last fall was like somethingout of National Geographic.
(14:31):
I had never seen so much bunkerand and stripers busting on the
surface and then a random whalewould show up like and the tuna
fishery up there.
That was one of the first timesI did that.
I just I didn't actually likefish because I was too scared to
hook into a tuna, but myfriends that I was with they
(14:54):
hooked into one and it was oneof the coolest things I've ever
seen.
So once like late November hitsthat's you know I'll I'll go to
New Jersey and start fishingthere and then, once winter time
hits the, the migrating cowsstart to move into the lower
Chesapeake Bay.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (15:15):
Right .
Capt. Kayla Haile (15:15):
Um, and then I'll start targeting them too.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (15:20):
But you so clear this up for me.
You have the canal, it's theDNC canal.
That really is the feeder outof the Delaware right.
Do you see now that the largersize fish coming through there
that we used to God 15 years ago, or is that?
Or is it mainly that they'repushing in from south at this
(15:42):
point?
Capt. Kayla Haile (15:43):
Mainly that they're pushing in from south at
this point.
See, that's something, you know, I think about often.
I'm like, because I do fish theupper bay, you know, we do see
those big breeding stock of fishup here too.
It's like, are they traveling?
I don't know if they'retraveling through the C&D or if
they're moving up through thebay, or if they're moving up
through the bay.
You know, like last year Itried to keep more of an intel
(16:06):
on like.
When I heard the first batch oflike big stripers were moving
into the bay, I'm like okay,well, how many weeks or even
days later until I catch one up?
You know, up my way.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (16:23):
Right .
Capt. Kayla Haile (16:24):
And it's hard to pinpoint, like I don't know
if they utilize the C&D.
I would be very surprised if acouple of them you know do go
through there.
I mean, it's easy access andthey always say you know where a
striper is born.
They return to that spot everyyear.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (16:46):
So I know that fish in the
Delaware there it's, it's goingto be packed with fish, Right,
so you'd think that some have tohead down through there.
But you've also seen theSusquehanna flats take a real
turn to the the negative.
You know it, a real turn to thenegative.
It's nowhere near what it was.
So I've always wondered is itthat the fish are not coming in
(17:11):
the canal like they used to?
Because, look, we know, theentire striped bass behavior and
migration is different today.
Well, I'm going to say we know,because this is what I believe
in what a lot of people believe.
It's not that there's less fish, necessarily.
It's that they're in differentplaces.
I mean, they're catching them ahundred miles offshores,
(17:32):
offshore in the canyons, youknow, and and they used to be
inside the three mile line,which is why it's so great when
they actually push into NewJersey.
Where are you going in NewJersey?
Are you going North Jersey?
You have to be going NorthJersey.
Capt. Kayla Haile (17:45):
Yeah, so I mean, I've gone to North Jersey,
I've spent some time near, like, atlantic city, yeah, so a lot
of it too is just like I don'twant to say I followed the fleet
, but you know just scouring thebeaches.
I mean we've, we've gone allthe way up to almost the New
York border, you know, fromlaunching out of Atlantic city
(18:09):
you know just driving all theway up there and then all the
way back down.
So it's a lot of running, butyou know, once you find them
it's game on.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (18:19):
So it's absolute, mayhem, absolute
mayhem oh yeah, and and, and.
If you go at the right time,you're hitting the 50 pounders.
You know the 40 to 50 poundersin that yeah, on top water, on
spooks and it's just like I said, it's stuff out of national
geographic and stuff I losesleep over yeah, I, I haven't
(18:41):
gone gone striped bass fishingin a very long time and while I
like it, I don't put it as oneof my top pieces to target.
I just don't, for some reason.
But I am going like I have thisfeeling like right here in my
neck, like in my throat, likejust thinking about getting on
(19:03):
some big striped bass again,because it's been way too long
and I remember the pictures ofeverybody last year when I was,
you know, laid up and I can'twait to get out there and
whether it's surf, it's, it'sthe backwaters.
I was asking where?
In New Jersey, mainly because ifyou're really going to go, you
have to go North of AC unlessyou have the exact right
(19:25):
conditions, because it seemslike the state kind of curves in
and it's like they go straightsouth and then they get out
beyond that three mile line andthen you can't catch them again.
Well, maybe I'll see you on abeach or maybe you'll be pulling
up on a jetty and I'll betelling you to back up and give
me some room.
Maybe which happens a lot butI'll tell you what the, the if
(19:49):
you head all the way up towardsraritan bay, when, when you have
a raritan bay bite.
I would say it is literally thebest striped bass bite in the
world when it's going.
I mean, it is absolute insanity.
Absolute insanity, and whatinsanity.
And what's even moreentertaining is you have the New
York boaters versus the Jerseyboaters and they hate each other
, but they're all fromPennsylvania so they act like
(20:13):
they're so different.
But yeah, you get the battleson the water All right.
So you're heading out, you'regoing to head out for when
you're heading out for stripedbass in the fall, let's start
with the Chesapeake.
Let's talk there.
We don't have to talk about theNew Jersey.
I want to try to get to thisAre you approaching them
differently in the Chesapeakethan we're approaching them as
(20:34):
far as tactics or baits oranything like that?
So what are you using as yourfirst?
You don't know anything that'sgoing on.
You just know you're going outfor the first time in the fall
for striped bass.
What are you tying on andwhat's your tactic?
Capt. Kayla Haile (20:48):
so my go-to in the fall is like a minnow
plug.
So like a five, four or fiveinch minnow plug, like a yosuri,
like a.
An sp minnow might be a littletoo big, but something of that
style.
That is my go-to.
I always look for kind of likerocky edges and I'm a shallow
(21:11):
water girl so I'm not fishing inanything more than like 10 feet
, so anything like that.
Or you know, at sunset a goodtop water can't go wrong with a
spook, you can't go wrong withwith a popper, anything like
that.
Or I'm starting well, I don'twant to say I'm starting.
(21:34):
I've always thrown glide baitsyeah but glide baits is becoming
a very popular lure forstripers.
You know, my my brother got mehooked on glide bait fishing
years ago.
He's been fishing glide baitsgosh.
He was still in, I feel, likemiddle school, but he was
(21:57):
throwing them for a largeamountmouth bass in some local
reservoirs and lakes and doingan absolute reckoning on them
and I was like, well, why can'tyou throw these for stripers or
even smallmouth, like I throwthem for smallmouth bass on the
Susquehanna River?
And yeah, glide baits are ahuge, huge game changer, an
(22:21):
expensive one.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (22:22):
But it can be worth it.
Capt. Kayla Haile (22:24):
They are expensive yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (22:27):
And glide baits I think are
underutilized all over.
I mean, you hear that they'repopular in Texas but they're not
as popular as they should beand all it takes is go out and
use one.
But what size are you usingwhen you're going for stripe
bass?
Capt. Kayla Haile (22:44):
so it all depends, like right now, or like
in the fall, I would bethrowing kind of a smaller glide
bait just because your bunkeris not fully grown yet.
So like a five or six inch orseven inch glide bait would be
perfect, you know.
But then when spring hits, and,and you know, later, spring is
(23:07):
when I throw the bigger glidebaits, at least for smallmouth.
You know, I've noticed that iswhen they like the big ones you
know it's.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (23:17):
It's funny that you're talking about
a seven-inch glide bait as asmall glide bait.
Capt. Kayla Haile (23:25):
Well, I have a couple of glide baits that are
pushing a foot long.
My brother, he's got some thatI was like dude, that is
ridiculous, you are not going tocatch anything.
They're 14, 15-inch glide baitsand they hit the water.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (23:41):
It's like throwing a two-by-four in
the water and they hit the water, and it's like throwing a 2x4
in the water.
Capt. Kayla Haile (23:44):
But they work .
Look, when I saw him catch a 7pound largemouth on like a 15
inch glide bait, I was like,okay, where do I buy one?
Where do I sign up?
But yeah, the thing with glidebaits, though, is you definitely
don't catch the numbers of fishas you would on other
artificial lures, but thequality it'll get you hooked.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (24:10):
Yeah , I had one glide bait that I
bought a couple years ago totest out for striped bass and I
lost it.
On the first one it was like a$27.
It was cheap.
But on the first one that Ididn't even land, I was like,
come on, man, and it was all myfault.
(24:32):
It was totally my fault, I.
I didn't tie it right and andit was one of the few times that
I had a knot part, few timesthat I had a knot part, I looked
at it.
I was like, oh my God, it wasthe knot.
So yeah, but that is, that isnot a an expensive one.
It wasn't a great one but itworked.
(24:52):
And I did hook one.
I guess it's two and a halfyears ago and the fish it was,
it was a schoolie size, maybe 25, 27 inches max.
And yeah, it hit it.
I set the hook and it was onfor about three seconds and swam
away with my $30.
But there I, I, I do like theglide baits, I do like them.
So okay, so you're going to goout with the glide bait.
Do you use soft plastics at all?
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:15):
I do, I do.
So I'm a big, I love paddletails.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (25:19):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:19):
You know, I know, everybody throws those
NLBN.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (25:24):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:24):
No Live Bait Needed.
There's a local company here inMaryland Invincible Jigs.
They're phenomenal.
I'm a big local supporter.
I was going to say highlightall the locals.
Yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad (25:39):
Highlight local over anything else Is no
Live Bait Need needed, evenconsidered local at this point
um, I mean, they're based out offlorida, so you know, I know
they're.
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:48):
They're selling in stores basically up
and down the east coast, I thinkyeah so.
But yeah, there's the localcompany that just started
invincible jigs here in maryland.
They're a great group of guystoo.
Same style paddle tail qualityis they don't rip as hard as
(26:10):
nlbns, you know, and I think forthe, for the price that we're
paying for some of these softplastics, you know, you catch
two fish and it's trashed rightat least with invincible.
It's kind of it's the stretchymaterial like z-man yep you know
, and being able to catch adozen fish on a paddle tail is a
(26:31):
little.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (26:32):
That's I mean that's big when you're
spending ten dollars a bag forsure for sure yeah, so I I find
when, when I'm using the softplastics, I tend to go small and
that's where I get the numbersand some quality, but it's the
bigger baits you know, evenlet's say a spook, I'll use a
(26:53):
spook junior.
But, again, it's the same thing.
I just find like you'll get theoccasional big fish on those,
but I found that you will getalmost as many fish, but bigger
fish on the bigger baits and itseems to make sense.
But look, we've all caughtstriped bass that are 10 inches
(27:13):
on a nine inch lure.
I mean they'll all go after thebigger ones, but I think that's
an important thing.
But one thing I did want tomention, and it's something I do
I want to see if you do this.
When you had the bunker schoolsin and you're fishing around
these schools and they'regetting blown up so let's say
it's peanut bunkers you got thelittle small ones.
Maybe they're five inches.
(27:33):
Are you matching that hatch?
Or are you doing what I do andyou're switching out to a
different size of the sameprofile?
So are you tossing out maybe aneight or nine inch to make it
stand out from that school?
Capt. Kayla Haile (27:47):
I would probably throw something bigger
and like another thing I'venoticed, especially with
stripers when they're busting onthe surface, a lot of what
you're seeing are like thesmaller fish, with like an
occasional big blow up here andthere, but a lot of your bigger
fish are below that.
You know initial fish poppingon the surface.
(28:10):
So I'll throw something alittle bigger and instead of you
know cranking it real hardacross the surface and catching
your smaller fish, let it sinkdown.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (28:20):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (28:20):
And slow reel it.
I mean, you know, work it likea normal paddle tail.
But yeah, that's where yourbigger fish typically tend to
hang, it's like below thesmaller ones.
Everybody gets all excitedseeing fish breaking on the
surface and you know they wantto catch them, which is great.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (28:36):
But yeah, a lot of your bigger fish
just kind of hang out below allthat and yeah, so here's the
question If you're going to headout for a day and it's just you
, you and one friend if you'regoing to head out for a day and
at the end of the day you'regoing to say it was an awesome
day, is it because you caught alot of decent fish, or is it
(29:00):
that you caught a few, but youcaught one trophy?
Capt. Kayla Haile (29:07):
I would be happy with catching a few, and
my friend catches the trophy,not me uh, you're one of those
yeah, so I get down inside.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (29:17):
You know that you want that one of
course, of course.
Capt. Kayla Haile (29:20):
But I, the older I've gotten, the more I
appreciate seeing other peoplecatch the trophy fish.
I mean that's why I startedguiding like yeah you know I I
don't want to sound cocky when Isay it, but like I've caught a
lot of big fish in my lifegranted, I'm always wanting to
(29:42):
get that satisfaction and catchanother one.
But I've just noticed I getmore thrill and more joy and
more satisfaction from fishingwhen I see somebody who doesn't
do this every day, like yeah I,I have the.
I can go do it all the time,whereas somebody who books me,
(30:03):
or my friend who might not havea boat, or even just like my
brother and my dad, likewatching them to hook into two
big fish is just I just sit backand I'm just like this is great
.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (30:20):
This is what it's all about step
back and I'm just like this isgreat, this is what it's all
about.
I I'm kind of there with you.
There are days like I don'treally care because I don't
really keep fish Would.
I want to get a world record,Absolutely.
But how cool is it to be thereand see your buddy catch one?
Capt. Kayla Haile (30:36):
Oh yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (30:37):
You know, I mean that would be,
that would be amazing.
You know, just to be presentand see that and see that memory
and be part of it, I guess, isthe other thing.
Then you have Elle here withher comments She'd rather catch
a bunch.
She's all about the volume offish, Understandable.
I'm weird.
(30:57):
I want to hook them, I want tofight them.
I want to fight them.
I don't even care if I land themmost of the time, you know,
unless I think it's a truetrophy or a personal best Like.
If I lose it it's like oh okay,I caught a striped bass.
It was my second biggest one,it was approaching 50 inches and
I didn't even try to land it, Ijust brought it next to the
(31:19):
boat and just kind of like letit head, shake off.
I just letting it sit there nextto me.
I'm in the kayak and I was likethat's awesome.
And I was like, oh, I got it onvideo.
I got it.
Of course I didn't have it onvideo, I thought I did, but my
camera was aimed up too high andit's sitting next to me but.
But it didn't matter, becauseit was.
I got everything I wanted toout of the fish, but it's.
(31:40):
I think it says a lot about youwhen you want other people to
catch them, when you're on apersonal trip too.
Capt. Kayla Haile (31:46):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and that's like um.
So next, next week, I'm fishinga tournament with five of my
very, very best girlfriends andwe're an all ladies fishing team
and I'm super, super excited.
We did it last year and it wasa.
(32:07):
It was a blast.
But I am just so excited to getout with them for two days and
fish a tournament and just havea good time watch them catch
fish.
Like I already told them, I waslike I'll drive the boat, I'll
get all you know, rig up all therods and everything, just being
able to watch them hook fishand land fish and hopefully be
(32:31):
in the running for some, forsome money yeah, what?
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (32:35):
what tournament is it?
Capt. Kayla Haile (32:36):
um, it's the tiki lees, rockfish open or
rockfish tournament it's.
It's one of the biggertournaments on the upper
chesapeake bay I mean you canfish the whole day, but it's.
It's based out of tiki lee'sall right, I gotta put this,
this comment up it's in abrackish babes yeah, that's our
(32:58):
team name that's your name, okayyeah, that's one of the girls
on the team, melody.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (33:03):
All right, melody.
So anyone, anyone fishing thattournament?
Look for the brackish babes onthe leaderboard.
How did you do last year?
Capt. Kayla Haile (33:12):
I can't remember where we placed last
year, but it was.
It wasn't in the top 10,unfortunately, but but we did so
we missed the.
They have a catfish calcuttaand we missed winning the
catfish calcutta by by like apound.
It was something so silly.
But the girl that caught itrachel, watching her she's like
(33:35):
a five foot two, about as big asmy left leg carry this giant
blue catfish across the the dockto the scales was.
That was the highlight for me.
This thing was huge it was.
I can't remember how big it was, it was like 30 some pounds.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (33:54):
It was giant well, those are those
things are.
Capt. Kayla Haile (33:57):
They get huge , and we talked a couple years
ago about the blue catfish andyou weren't quite sure what to
think about them at the time,except that they were fun to
target yeah, I mean they're funto target, but nowadays and I
might get some some hate forthis, but kill them all- yeah
there are.
(34:17):
Yeah, it's gotten to that pointand you know, you know people
have been saying you know, allof the snake heads are are
destroying the bay and the bluecats are doing more damage than
I can imagine.
I mean, I've seen guys catchthem and cut their stomachs open
and have I mean four or fiveinch blue crabs in his stomach,
(34:41):
like up to 10 of them.
Yeah, I mean and these fish, youknow, I've seen them in the
lower Susquehanna River withfour or five pounds smallmouth
in its mouth, you know, and andthese things are eating stripers
.
They're cleaning everything out.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (35:00):
It's too bad.
They don't get the zebramuscles.
You know it's, it's, um, it's.
When we talked about it, youweren't quite sure which
direction it was going to go, soyou were, you were kind of
waiting to see, so you've gonetowards the yeah they.
They are everything that wefeared them to be snakeheads, on
the other hand, I think theyhave turned into be the biggest
non-issue I've ever seen, likethey don't, they don't do
(35:24):
anything and everyone's likekill them all, kill them all.
I'm like I don't think you needto kill them all.
Like just let them go, becausethey're not, they're not killing
things.
I see them swimming next tobass at this dam, right near my
house, in this little creek, andthe Creek is producing just as
many little.
You know, small mouth andeverything as it used to.
Capt. Kayla Haile (35:41):
Yeah, I definitely agree, and that's
another thing.
Yeah, the, the blue cats arejust detrimental.
It's it's becoming a seriousproblem, you know, and I think
too, with the snake heads.
You know, a lot of people weresaying how they think they're
going to destroy the bay andwhat.
I think, because there's somany people out there targeting
(36:04):
snakeheads now that people havecaught on to how fun they are to
catch good they are to eat.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (36:11):
That's the key.
Capt. Kayla Haile (36:12):
You know those two factors right there.
So many people and you knowbetween rod and reel fishermen
and bow fishermen too, like thatso many people want to either
catch them rod and reel or shootthem.
So I think, with the amount ofattraction that they've brought
to the fishing community, I'mkind of hoping that the blue cat
(36:37):
thing catches on board likethat.
I don't know, I personallyhaven't targeted blue cat, like
I have snakeheads, just becauseI'm like catfishing, like it can
be fun, like it's fun to catch.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad F (36:54):
They're not fun to fish for.
Capt. Kayla Haile (36:56):
Right, I'm not a bottom fisherman, I mean.
But blue cats.
We've caught them throwingpaddle tails and throwing lures
in the river and they hammer itlike stripers do.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (37:10):
So that tournament is $100,000
prize.
What James put in the chat.
Right, could you imagine$100,000 prize?
Just call it the Clean the Baytournament.
$100,000 for the chat.
Right, do you imagine a hundredthousand dollar prize?
Just call it the clean the baytournament.
A hundred thousand dollars forthe most blue cats, the most.
Capt. Kayla Haile (37:25):
That would be cool.
Or I mean why don't we do that,Like that would be great, but
people see, you know, becausethey're an invasive species like
yeah, but you, you gotta, yougotta harvest them all.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (37:39):
You got to weigh them all in.
Harvest you can have six peopleper boat.
Right, right, heaviest poundagewins.
Capt. Kayla Haile (37:47):
I think it's just getting the attraction to
it.
That would be great.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (37:54):
So I went out full disclosure.
I went out and I have a bowthat I'm getting set up for bow
fishing and I can't bring myselfto go for snakehead because I
don't know that I would want toharvest them, even though they
taste good.
So now I'm like well, now Ihave this bow that I have for
bow fishing, what am I going togo after?
But I don't really have a bluecat issue up here and it's going
(38:15):
to be tough to get a blue caton a bow.
But maybe I can try that.
And people keep telling me gofor carp.
Well, carp.
I don't think there are certaincarp that are bad, but the
common carp haven't doneanything to the environment
either, that I can tell.
Capt. Kayla Haile (38:28):
So I don't even want to go for them well,
another thing that's really funis you can shoot rays down here
oh really and a lot of guys willgo out during and you can do
that during the day too, whichalso is is a plus.
You're not up till two andthree in the morning shoot, yeah
, but uh, yeah, daytime rayshoots are a lot of fun and rays
(38:51):
are bad for the bay too,because they eat all the crabs
and strikers and anything else.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (38:56):
So all right, maybe I'll do that,
I'll finish getting it set upand maybe I'll do something like
that.
I just don't like the.
I don't know.
You only kill them to harvestthem, so you got.
I only want to kill somethingthat I'm going to eat or that's
invasive.
So it really narrows it down.
You know, when I was a teenagerwe used to go and shoot
anything with the bows and gobow fishing, and it didn't
(39:18):
matter what it was, we wouldshoot it or try to shoot it.
But I'm not like that anymore.
Capt. Kayla Haile (39:24):
I just I get it.
It's not for everybody.
I've done it.
I have a bow myself.
I enjoy it.
I don't do it all the time,Just for that same reason Like.
I just don't do it all the timejust for that same reason like
I just don't want to go out justto kill like right?
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (39:42):
well , there's at least more than
digging right that's why I won'tgo gigging.
They're like, oh, it's great,it's so much fun, but is it?
I mean you just kind of trollthe shallows and stab something
with a fork?
Yeah, it's like I don't knowabout that.
Like, oh well, you can get somegreat flounder.
I'm like understood, yes, ifyou're just going to harvest
dinner, I get.
Like I don't know about that.
I'm like, oh well, you can getsome great flounder.
I'm like understood, yes, ifyou're just going to harvest
(40:03):
dinner, I get it.
But I don't know.
I like do I need to spend allnight doing that?
I'd rather just sit somewhere,you know, and stalk a shoreline
or a bridge or something likethat and and actually fish for
them and try to catch them.
If I'm going to go for a limit.
Capt. Kayla Haile (40:17):
Like for me too, with bow fishing.
It's fun when I go bow fishingin areas where I also rod and
reel fish, because at night withthe lights, you know, it shows.
Like it shows where I'm fishingand like I can see the bottom
where I'll be like oh, I didn'tknow a log was there or I didn't
(40:38):
know.
Like I'll be like, oh, I didn'tknow a log was there or I
didn't know.
I like I knew it would drop off, but I'm like, oh, I didn't
know.
It was like Sandy to Rocky.
So it also it's like a learningcurve too.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (40:51):
Oh yeah, You're fine.
You're fine in spots at night.
So how, how deep, how?
What's the deepest water thatyou'll?
Capt. Kayla Haile (40:57):
you'll shoot something on the bottom I like
four foot and that's that's deep.
I was gonna say that.
That's beyond where I ever yeah, yeah, I was ever able to.
That's pretty deep, but, like Isaid, I'm not a pro bow
fisherman, so I just go out withsome, some friends that have
lights on their boats and that'smy fault for getting us on
(41:20):
there.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (41:20):
I was just all excited that I got
this bow, and I was, so I justgo out with some friends that
have lights on their boats.
That's my fault for getting uson there.
I was just all excited that Igot this bow and I was ready to
go, and then I realized that mytarget species is not the target
I want.
I had this bow sittingdownstairs.
I'm like what am I going to dowith it?
And maybe I'll go deer hunting.
I don't know.
I got to do something with it.
I can't just let it sit thereforever.
All right, so we talked alittle bit about the striped
(41:40):
bass, but what are you doing formore of the freshwater?
Is it all smallmouth, or isthere something else that you're
going to be targeting?
Capt. Kayla Haile (41:50):
Yes, it'll usually just be strictly
smallmouth.
I also enjoy doing some whiteperch fishing.
I really kind of got into thatthis summer with with my dad and
my brother, but we also do itin the spring on the susquehanna
when the when the big femalewhite perch move in.
I feel like that's such anunderrated species but, on on
(42:11):
ultralight tackle.
You know, catching 12, 13 inchwhite perch is pretty fun and
and yellow perch too, likeyellow perch in the winter.
Same thing on ultralight, youcan't beat it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (42:24):
I've never caught a yellow perch.
I, I, I've tried, and I'vealways caught white, white perch
.
When you're targeting the whiteperch, though, are you, what
are you using?
Are you using just, you know,trout gear, spinners and those
types of things?
Or are you throwing out the,the, what are the?
What are they called?
The bloodworm imitation things?
And just?
Capt. Kayla Haile (42:43):
kind of like.
So I'm throwing like a littlelike three inch or two and a
half inch little grub on like alittle tiny jig head, like a 16
ounce jig head okay and again,it's kind of just for the yellow
parts, just finding littleschools of them, because that's
a wintertime thing that we dohere and once you find them, but
(43:06):
they're, they're usually loadedup you know it here here's
something from paul at great bayoutfitters white perch from a
kayak gets in through the winter.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (43:16):
That's really how I found the white
perch and I knew about them.
I've caught them.
But in my mind white perch usedto just be what you went for,
what you said you were going forwhen you were trying to catch
striped bass out of season.
That's what it was and youstill see it today.
You go to Jersey and I'm surePaul, when he's out there
(43:36):
fishing, sees this all the time,know you go to Jersey and I'm
sure Paul, you know, when he'sout there fishing, sees this all
the time.
You see somebody out there witha seven foot six inch or seven
seven foot six rod medium heavy,15 pound braid and they have
this small, just all.
The only difference is theyhave a smaller hook on it, so
they can pretend that they'regoing for white perch in January
, but they're actually going forstriped bass, right?
(43:57):
So to me that's what it alwayswas.
And then I started catchingthem in the winter because I
needed something, I had to dosomething and I didn't want to
go ice fishing and I realizedthere's so much goddamn fun Like
I can sit there in thatfreezing cold and it's so much
fun to go for these littlethings and I used a little ultra
lights, the lightest rod thatyou can possibly get.
Capt. Kayla Haile (44:24):
And that's you know know, pan fishing in
the winter time definitely getsus through and and you know
crappy fishing chain pickerel.
You know we me and my, my dadand and my brother we love chain
pickle fishing and maybe it'sbecause my dad holds the state
record chain pickerel.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (44:40):
So oh does he yeah, we like
congrats, he's in the chat.
Congrats on that.
That's awesome yeah, yeah, yeah, he likes to defend his title
so well maybe he'll come on andhe'll talk to us about chain
pickerel sometime oh he I'm surehe would love to.
Capt. Kayla Haile (44:55):
We should.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (44:55):
We should do that next time yeah,
we're breaking into peppering insome freshwater stuff, but it's
mostly still going to be mostlybrackish and saltwater.
But that's again anotherspecies I've never I personally
can't talk about, I can't talkabout.
But back to the perch.
Let me ask you this I considermyself really new to perch.
(45:17):
Right, I don't have all thetechniques and everything.
I know where to find them, butman, for me it's a lot of those
fish bites and just kind ofthrowing it out and waiting for
the bite.
Have you found that in thewintertime, the colder you know
when it's really cold, you know,just pre-ice, how slow do you
(45:37):
have to move that?
Just pre ice, how slow do youhave to move that?
Or because, in my mind, thecolder it is, the more you need
bait and the less that you usesomething that you're tossing
and retrieving.
Do you find that?
Or am I just nuts?
Capt. Kayla Haile (45:49):
No, I definitely think that fish get
very lethargic when it gets cold, but they, they got to eat.
So I I honestly don't use bait.
A lot of guys will use littleshiners or minnows, which do
work, and they do help, but theslower the better.
You know you don't want to ripa, rip a jig across the surface
(46:13):
or anything like that but,definitely a slower, smoother
approach.
You know, and I do use fishattractant stuff like procure,
smelly jelly um and stuff likethat, but yeah, definitely just
a slower.
Definitely can be a littlemonotonous when it's super cold
(46:35):
but yeah, just a slower approachto to perch fishing helps but
it's so much better when you getone in that freezing cold
weather too oh yeah, you warm upreal quick yeah, yeah, all
right.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (46:48):
so we're getting close to the hour
.
We're at 50 minutes right nowand I was telling myself I
wasn't going to ask this becausepeople make fun of me for
asking about this species allthe time.
But I'm going to do it anyway.
So here's the question.
Oh, wrong, one came up.
Sorry, people are commenting,so it's kind of moving on me.
(47:09):
Ask her about redfish fishing.
All right, so we may be talkingabout a little extended range
for you while you can catchredfish in the Baltimore area,
but let's talk about it Inlaunching from Baltimore area.
(47:30):
What's the redfish fishing looklike for you?
If somebody came to you andsaid you know, guide for a day
and try to get me on one redfish.
Capt. Kayla Haile (47:40):
I would not launch out of Baltimore.
To be honest, when I go drumfishing is down in the mouth of
the Chesapeake Bay.
That is where, in my opinion,one of the world's best
fisheries I've ever experiencedis held.
One of the world's bestfisheries I've ever experienced
(48:00):
is held.
I don't go down there enough,in my opinion, just because it
is like a four and a half fivehour drive for me.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (48:06):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (48:07):
And when the usually when the bite is good is
also when beach traffic is justthe worst.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (48:14):
So I don't want to sit.
Capt. Kayla Haile (48:16):
You know, what is normally a four and a
half hour drive turns into a sixor seven hour drive, but the
mouth of the chesapeake bay isby far one of the.
I'm blessed to have it as closeas I do to my my home, but yeah
, that that is where I would go.
(48:36):
I don't know if I and I soundhorrible saying this.
I don't know if I soundhorrible saying this.
I don't know I wouldn't book mefor a trip just because I don't
go there enough to do it.
And I feel like every time I'vegone down I've I've just had a
horseshoe up my ass, findingthem and catching some of the
pictures.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (48:57):
I mean that's a hell of a
horseshoe that you got yeah,it's just.
Capt. Kayla Haile (49:00):
You know, it's something I'm still
learning to this day, but yeah,the the drum fishery down there
is just we're blessed, we'reblessed yeah, it's like raritan
bay for the striped bass whenthey're there, it's, it's
insanity.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (49:18):
I , I, I would love to go down
there again.
Great bay outfitters.
Paul is in cape charles, yeah,and if I recall correctly from
his posts earlier, he's he's notgoing to be fishing tomorrow
because of the weather, so he'sall the way down there he ain't
fishing tomorrow yeah, andthat's the other thing, like and
(49:38):
I know I'm not the only onesaying this the weather, the
wind, anymore is just it'sbrutal
choice words for for the oldwind, but I haven't gone fishing
in in weeks because the daysthat I could go are just all
blown out.
Capt. Kayla Haile (49:57):
Yeah I mean.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (49:57):
I mean it's like, oh, it's only
going to be 18 to 26.
I'm not going in 18 to 26.
It's just not going to happen.
I'm sure I could find a spot,but I don't want to do that.
I want to have it like a funday on the water, not just
battling and try not to capsizeand all that stuff.
Capt. Kayla Haile (50:14):
Right.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (50:20):
I and all that stuff.
Right, I got one more questionI want to throw in here before I
let you go.
This is from L.
Do you ever catch sturgeon as abycatch, or have you ever?
Capt. Kayla Haile (50:28):
I wish, but I have not.
The only time I actually caughta sturgeon was out in
Washington, or it was Oregon,but I went with my best friend
Carly.
We booked a vacation and bookeda trip out there sturgeon
fishing.
So that's the only sturgeonI've ever caught, but I know
they're out there.
You know, I've seen picturesand I've heard rumors of
(50:53):
sturgeon being in the Bay, butno, I personally have never
caught one one while, or atleast on this side of the the
country have you ever seen onejump?
not here.
I've seen them up on lake stclair yeah I've seen torpedo out
of the water up there, butnever, never.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (51:12):
That's a scary that's a scary sight so
I saw it in a.
I wasn't in a kayak, I was inin my boat not my boat, but the
what was the same model that Iowned at the time.
So it was a skiff.
So you're really low on thewater and this thing shot the
back.
You know, you know it's notcoming for you, but you know
(51:41):
you're looking at hundreds ofpounds flying through the air
out of nowhere.
It's scary.
I've never caught one, though.
Capt. Kayla Haile (51:48):
That's how I felt when I was up in Jersey
last fall with the whales.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (51:53):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (51:53):
Seeing the whales come up out of nowhere
over these pods of bunker, I'mlike Holy shit, it's crazy, it's
crazy.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (52:02):
I mean it's, it's amazing, it is,
it's.
It's a little scary because yousee people trying to get real
close to them too and you knowso they screw it.
Not only do they screw up thefishing, cause now they're
cutting across everything tryingto get their video on their
potato phone.
But I mean, I don't think theyrealize how dangerous it is for
(52:25):
them and the whales at the sametime, but they are scary when
they come up.
I had man this was a long time,just one real quick story.
It turned into not being thewhale that we thought.
So I was heading out fishingand we see a whale and it's
(52:45):
coming up and down regular.
So we get close, it's dead andI'll tell you what the sharks on
that thing were amazing comingoff of that thing.
That's my big whale experience.
The closest I got to a realwhale was when we pulled up
within about.
I think we didn't get anycloser than 50 yards because the
smell was so bad but there wereso many sharks.
It was insanity.
(53:07):
We were catching them onbucktails, naked bucktails, just
the bucktails all the way out,landing it on the back of the
carcass and pulling them off assoon as it would come off.
They get hit by these sharks.
It was so much, yeah, but I'llI'll stay away from the whales
when they're coming up on thosebunker things.
Cause we've all seen the kayakat Eaton.
Capt. Kayla Haile (53:27):
We've seen the boat upsized.
Yeah, no, thank you.
No no no, thank you.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (53:31):
Is there anything?
Do you want to give people anidea how to reach out to you,
Because I'm sure that somebody'sgoing to want to get on that
jet boat once it's open forbusiness.
Capt. Kayla Haile (53:39):
Yeah, so yeah , hopefully the jet boat will be
done in about a month or monthand a half.
Maybe I'll start booking tripsagain the first of the year,
just because I want to getcomfortable with it.
But anybody can reach out to meon all social media platforms
Facebook, instagram.
Mainly those two is what Ifocus on the most, and it's just
(54:03):
my name.
You can just search Kayla Hale,I believe it pops up under
River Queen Guide Service aswell.
Yeah, so either one of those,just shoot me a message or give
me a call, even if you just wantto talk fishing, I love talking
about it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (54:21):
I'm going to watch it.
I'll end up calling you.
Capt. Kayla Haile (54:23):
That's fine, we can chit chat about fishing.
I love it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (54:26):
I spend way too much time in my
day talking fishing, like I'msupposed to be working.
Sometimes I'm like why have Ibeen texting back and forth?
And some of you are in the chat?
You know who you are.
I'm like what am I doing?
Like it's been two hours andI'm talking about these fish and
neither of us are going fishing.
We're just coming up with ideas, ideas with each other.
Capt. Kayla Haile (54:47):
Like at my work.
You know I have a full time jobtoo.
I don't guide full time, but Ialways have like on my computer,
the weather channel tab openand you know somebody will walk
over and they're like are youchecking the weather again?
It hasn't changed and I'm like,uh, yes, it has.
You have to look at the windsyes you know, and they all make
(55:10):
fun of me and they're like kella, what's the wind gonna be today
?
Like it's gonna be blowing,don't worry about it makes all
the difference, though.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (55:17):
It makes all that.
That's.
That's what the weather is to afisherman.
It's the wind first, andeverything else Second.
Exactly, we can, we can alldeal with the rain, especially
as we get into the fall and westart targeting the striped bass
and rockfish whatever you wantto call them.
Uh, you know, those windy,rainy days are are the good days
, but it has to be coming fromthe right direction for the
right amount of time, and thenthey'll start moving in.
(55:37):
So, uh, thank you for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
It's good catching up with youagain.
Can't wait to see thosepictures of the uh, the first
small mouth to hit the the deck,and then the first striped bass
.
I'll be looking forward to thatI'm excited yeah, make sure you
share that everyone.
Reach out to kayla if you wantto book a trip, Uh, and before
(55:58):
we get going, just to leteverybody know, next week we are
going to be back.
We're going to have bearded dadfishing on.
So if you're a kayak fisherman,you've seen him online.
He's got one of the largestFacebook groups, uh, for kayak
fishing dads, uh, and kayakfishing people and just a really
good guy.
So Jay's going to be on nextweek.
(56:18):
Again, if you haven't alreadyfollowed this, share it.
Most importantly, share it outto somebody who might, might
enjoy the show.
That would be greatlyappreciated, Kayla.
Thank you again and everyoneuntil next week.
Even with this weather, Paul,you two down there in Cape
Charles, everyone get out there,get on the water, get some
tight lines.
Everybody gets all excited seeing fish
breaking on the surface and youknow they want to catch them,
which is great.
But yeah, a lot of your biggerfish just kind of hang out below
all that.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (00:15):
Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad
Fishing Show.
I'm your host, rich Natoli, andwe've got a show with a
returning guest but not from theFat Dad Fishing Show from when
I was on Salt Strong doing theSalt Strong podcast.
We have Captain Kayla Halecoming on.
She's got some news to share aswell and we're going to be
talking multi-species.
(00:36):
Now Kayla fishes the northernChesapeake, so you're talking
freshwater, brackish water,striped bass you know all of the
things that you're going towant to get up at.
Striped bass, I mean redfish.
She's got a ton of stuff in herfeed, so you should really
check it out if you haven'talready.
(00:56):
I want to let you know, if thisis your first time here
checking out this show, eitheron the podcast or live stream,
if you enjoy it, if you thinkit's halfway decent at all, it
would be great.
If you do a like, do somecomments, share it out to people
that you think might also wantto check out the show, leave a
review.
That's really going to help.
There are some guests not Kayla,but other guests that say well,
(01:17):
before I agree to come on, howmany people watch, how many
people listen?
I need to see your stats, sohelp us out with that?
That would be great.
I'm going to hit the sponsorsreal quick and then we're going
to bring Kayla on.
The first sponsor is Great BayOutfitters on Radio Road in
Tuckerton, new Jersey, myhometown kayak shop that I head
down to Paul and his group.
(01:38):
They got everything, whetheryou're looking for a new kayak,
whether you want a new, usedkayak, old town, native they've
got a whole bunch of differenttypes of kayaks in there.
So go in there.
And one of the coolest thingsis you can demo at the shop.
It's right on the water.
He'll throw it in the water.
You can go around the basinwith it, test it out, see how it
(02:00):
feels, and I'll tell you what.
That is the single mostimportant thing that you can do
when you're looking for a kayak.
Don't listen to people likedon't listen to me when I say
get an old town, big water.
I'm telling you that because Ilove it.
It doesn't mean that you'regoing to love it.
Um, also does have the Garminforce motor and that's a pretty
badass addition to a kayak.
(02:21):
So, uh, he's got that rigged onsome.
So if you want to test that outas well, you can do that.
Next one is quad state tuneKevin Driscoll, 484-633-5975.
Kevin has pretty much what youneed if you have a Toyota, a
Toyota truck, a 4Runner, tundra,tacoma, lexus, 460 or 470.
(02:41):
These tunes are for the engines.
It's going to get you more well, better gas mileage, more
torque, more horsepower.
And if you have one of thoseGen 3, I think it was the Gen 3
Toyota Tacoma, it's going tosolve the gear seeking where
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of place itself into the rightgear.
So it's pretty inefficient orit feels inefficient, feels a
(03:04):
little wonky.
It'll fix that for you.
Talk to Kevin if you're notsure if it's something that you
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If it's not, he will just tellyou no, don't get it.
And then the last one is me forreal estate, southeastern
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If you need anything, if youknow anyone that needs anything,
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My number is 267-270-1145.
(03:24):
Anything, reach out to me.
My number is 267-270-1145.
Be happy to help you out withanything that I can.
And with that said, we're goingto jump right in.
I'm going to bring Kayla Haleon screen now.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, it's good to see you again.
Capt. Kayla Haile (03:38):
Thanks, good to see you too.
Thanks for having me.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (03:42):
Yeah , I, I I getting the feedback.
When I have women anglers on, Ipick really good ones.
And you were on the live streamwith me and podcast, but it was
with Salt Strong and look, Idid Salt Strong for a while.
A lot of people listening andwatching.
But this is really what I likedoing over here with this group
(04:06):
of people and they haven't seenyou, so I was like I got to hail
it back on and you've got somestuff going on.
You've got fish that I'mjealous of.
You fish really close to mostof our viewers.
You know, most of our viewersare New York, new Jersey,
maryland, and almost all of themare willing to travel.
(04:27):
So, why not travel to see?
Capt. Kayla Haile (04:29):
you, you have to travel to find them.
So I go to Jersey, I've gone toNew York, I've gone to Rhode
Island, connecticut, maine,massachusetts.
Sometimes you got to go thedistance to get a bite used to
sometimes.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad (04:47):
Sometimes you got to go the distance to
get a bite.
So yeah and and but one thingthat I really like about you is
you're you're located in a greatspot for multiple species and
you hit multiple speciesthroughout the year.
So we're going to talk aboutsome of the different species
that you're targeting.
But before we do that, whydon't we just, why don't we
start by kind of jumping in,talk about your business, you
know where, know where are you,what do you do, what do you
(05:08):
typically target, and then we'llgo in and we'll start talking
about some of these species.
Capt. Kayla Haile (05:12):
Yeah, so I run River Queen Guide Service,
so 2026 will be my sixth yearguiding and I'm very, very
excited to share some news whichmany people probably already
know.
But I am currently in theprocess of getting a new rig
(05:35):
built, a new custom jet boat byRockproof Jet Boats.
They're located in Harrisburg,pennsylvania, so I'm sure some
of your listeners have seen someRockproof boats around,
especially in Pennsylvania.
So I'm sure some of yourlisteners have seen some
rock-proof boats around,especially in Pennsylvania.
You know they're all over theSusquehanna River, but I am very
, very excited to get this rigbuilt and get it done and get it
(05:56):
out on the water.
I actually just got back alittle while ago from seeing it
and I talked to andrew who's,who's been great with helping me
build it.
He's didn't give me an exactdate as to when it's going to be
done, but it's probably goingto be by the end of the month.
I mean, it's built, it just hasto go through the the painting
(06:17):
process all the fittings motoryeah, mounting the motor and I
picked out some pretty coolflooring for it.
I got some neat lights going onit and it's a custom, like it's
gonna be the first one, aone-of-one jet boat, and I'm
really, really, really excitedfor it, and that's awesome I'm
(06:38):
so excited to share it with you.
Know, future clients, pastclients, my family, my this has
been a dream of mine for areally long time, and just the
fact that it's now a reality andhappening, I'm just, I'm
itching so bad.
I want to share the news witheverybody, and I've been keeping
(06:59):
some pictures hidden, um, andto myself about it, and it's
just.
I can't wait to share it witheverybody.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (07:08):
I can't wait to see it.
You know it's.
It's funny we had I had a fewyears ago.
I had captain John Halkius on-and and he was talking about his
new boat, and it's almost liketalking to a parent who has a
new kid.
Oh my gosh, just the joy thatyou see in a captain's eyes when
(07:30):
they have a new rig coming.
That is one that they havedesigned and they have put
together with their business inmind.
You know, talk to ScottyStevens.
He's like you know, I have thisugly boat.
Other people would hate it, butit's perfect.
It's perfect for what he does.
It sounds like.
It sounds like that's whatyou're looking forward to.
Capt. Kayla Haile (07:49):
Yeah, I mean, like I, I just grew up running
jet boats.
You know, my, my dad was one ofthe first people on the lower
Susquehanna river, belowConowingo, to actually have a
jet boat lingo, to actually havea jet boat.
(08:09):
So you know, that's kind of howI just grew up.
Fishing was running shallow,skinny water, you know.
So, learning how to run a riverand read a river through him,
you know it.
Just it made me who I am today.
So you, you know, just havingthat that teacher show me how to
do it.
And then, you know, I bought myown jet boat from, actually,
(08:34):
another guide who guides up onthe Susquehanna river.
He was in the process ofgetting a custom jet boat built
for his business as well at thetime.
So I bought his old boat thathe guided out of for years and
it was a great stepping stone.
It was a perfect starter jetboat for me.
I ran trips out of it for years, you know, and I was more than
(08:59):
happy to then pass that boatalong to another young man who
bought it from me in July.
And I'm not gonna lie, I criedfor a couple days and when I saw
it leave, you know I shed acouple tears.
But I knew the young man thatbought it, I knew he was gonna
learn so much, take care of it,you know.
(09:22):
And I I told him I was like giveher hell, like yeah you know,
that's what I did and it taughtme so much and, yeah, I just
this process.
It's like my little.
I don't have children yet, butif, if, this is anything what
it's like to have a kid.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (09:41):
Well , look, it's, it's exciting
anytime that you know anyone,whether it's a boat, a kayak,
whatever it is, that you're atruck, if you're, if you're a
surf fisherman, you know all ofthese things there.
I mean, it's, it's yourplatform, it's it's exciting and
(10:01):
I can't wait to see you know,see some.
I can't wait to see thepictures from the first bloody
deck that you have on that thing.
And so, let's say, you get itat the end of this month.
So late September, earlyOctober, what's your first trip?
I know you're going to take itout yourself.
You're not doing a charter dayonce.
(10:21):
You're going to take it out forthe shakedown and all that
stuff.
What are you targeting to startoff with?
Capt. Kayla Haile (10:27):
So it's funny .
You ask that my brother and Iwe were actually out fishing
yesterday and my dad was niceenough to let us take his boat
and we were talking about thatand I was like Eddie, you know
what do you think our first trip?
Because the first people on myboat will be my brother and my
dad, without a doubt they are mytwo, they are my best friends,
(10:49):
they are the two people I willfish with every single day of my
life if I could.
But we were talking about.
I was like what should ourfirst trip be?
And I'm like, well, it's gonnabe october.
I'm hoping that you, we getsome kind of rain or a hurricane
would be awesome.
But honestly, just taking itright outside of where the boat
(11:15):
is being built, like the shop isright in Harrisburg, near
there's a statue of Liberty onthe Susquehanna river right
there it's called fort hunter.
Honestly, just taking it outright there and catching some
smallmouth would be epic.
I mean that would be superspecial, like that's where I
(11:38):
learned a lot about thesusquehanna river, just right in
that stretch.
But also part of me wouldn'tmind doing that in the morning
and then heading back downcloser to my home in baltimore
and going out and trying tocatch striped bass so that's the
trailer.
As soon as you get the, thesmall mouth as soon as the small
(11:58):
mouth hits the deck, I'll belike all right time to go, let's
go get, let's go get a striperthat's awesome because both of
both of those fish are probablymy top two favorite species to
target.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (12:09):
Yeah , I was going to say so, those
that you know for the livestream, the and I actually I'm
going to put this on the podcastart too that I mean you've got.
You've caught some really nicestriped bass.
You know the one, look it's.
It looks like it's just as bigas you.
It looks like you're.
I mean, I don't think you canstretch your hands any further
apart to hold that thing up.
It's a great picture.
(12:30):
You sent me a lot of goodpictures and I was like, no,
it's got to be this Like you canbarely see, but this smile is
the smile that we all have whenwe catch a big one.
I do want to bring this onecomment up first.
So Casey is the one that boughtthe boat, right?
Yes, so Casey is there's.
Capt. Kayla Haile (12:49):
Casey Already learned so many lessons.
Yeah, I'm so excited for himand we keep in touch quite often
and he's always sending mepictures of all the fish he's
catching and you know I'm sohappy that he came across my my
Facebook marketplace postsbecause you know there's nobody
(13:12):
else I think I would pick againto have that boat.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (13:16):
So that's great.
And you'll you'll get to.
To wave to Casey, as you'reflying to the next spot in the
uh, in the fall in a few weeks,we'll be out there, all right.
So you're flying to the nextspot in the fall in a few weeks
to be out there, all right.
So you're going to hit somesmallmouth.
Let's talk about the stripedbass, because the striped bass,
I mean, that's going to be thefall fishery.
So it's going to sound like aweird question Are you fishing
(13:37):
Pennsylvania or are you fishingMaryland?
Which regs are you worriedabout?
Capt. Kayla Haile (13:44):
So right now I'm fishing strictly in Maryland
for striped bass.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (13:48):
Okay .
Capt. Kayla Haile (13:49):
The, the schoolie fish right now are in
in the Chesapeake Bay, prettygood.
So right, yeah, right now is ismainly the upper Chesapeake Bay
, and when it starts cooling off, a lot of fish will start
moving into the tributaries ofthe Bay.
So I'll start hitting somerivers and stuff like that.
(14:10):
But yeah, right now it's mainlythe upper Chesapeake Bay for
stripers and then, once it,cools off.
you know I love going with oneof my best friends.
We love going to New Jersey andhitting the Jersey run off the
beaches there.
Last fall was like somethingout of National Geographic.
(14:31):
I had never seen so much bunkerand and stripers busting on the
surface and then a random whalewould show up like and the tuna
fishery up there.
That was one of the first timesI did that.
I just I didn't actually likefish because I was too scared to
hook into a tuna, but myfriends that I was with they
(14:54):
hooked into one and it was oneof the coolest things I've ever
seen.
So once like late November hitsthat's you know I'll I'll go to
New Jersey and start fishingthere and then, once winter time
hits the, the migrating cowsstart to move into the lower
Chesapeake Bay.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (15:15):
Right .
Capt. Kayla Haile (15:15):
Um, and then I'll start targeting them too.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (15:20):
But you so clear this up for me.
You have the canal, it's theDNC canal.
That really is the feeder outof the Delaware right.
Do you see now that the largersize fish coming through there
that we used to God 15 years ago, or is that?
Or is it mainly that they'repushing in from south at this
(15:42):
point?
Capt. Kayla Haile (15:43):
Mainly that they're pushing in from south at
this point.
See, that's something, you know, I think about often.
I'm like, because I do fish theupper bay, you know, we do see
those big breeding stock of fishup here too.
It's like, are they traveling?
I don't know if they'retraveling through the C&D or if
they're moving up through thebay, or if they're moving up
through the bay.
You know, like last year Itried to keep more of an intel
(16:06):
on like.
When I heard the first batch oflike big stripers were moving
into the bay, I'm like okay,well, how many weeks or even
days later until I catch one up?
You know, up my way.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fis (16:23):
Right .
Capt. Kayla Haile (16:24):
And it's hard to pinpoint, like I don't know
if they utilize the C&D.
I would be very surprised if acouple of them you know do go
through there.
I mean, it's easy access andthey always say you know where a
striper is born.
They return to that spot everyyear.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (16:46):
So I know that fish in the
Delaware there it's, it's goingto be packed with fish, Right,
so you'd think that some have tohead down through there.
But you've also seen theSusquehanna flats take a real
turn to the the negative.
You know it, a real turn to thenegative.
It's nowhere near what it was.
So I've always wondered is itthat the fish are not coming in
(17:11):
the canal like they used to?
Because, look, we know, theentire striped bass behavior and
migration is different today.
Well, I'm going to say we know,because this is what I believe
in what a lot of people believe.
It's not that there's less fish, necessarily.
It's that they're in differentplaces.
I mean, they're catching them ahundred miles offshores,
(17:32):
offshore in the canyons, youknow, and and they used to be
inside the three mile line,which is why it's so great when
they actually push into NewJersey.
Where are you going in NewJersey?
Are you going North Jersey?
You have to be going NorthJersey.
Capt. Kayla Haile (17:45):
Yeah, so I mean, I've gone to North Jersey,
I've spent some time near, like, atlantic city, yeah, so a lot
of it too is just like I don'twant to say I followed the fleet
, but you know just scouring thebeaches.
I mean we've, we've gone allthe way up to almost the New
York border, you know, fromlaunching out of Atlantic city
(18:09):
you know just driving all theway up there and then all the
way back down.
So it's a lot of running, butyou know, once you find them
it's game on.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (18:19):
So it's absolute, mayhem, absolute
mayhem oh yeah, and and, and.
If you go at the right time,you're hitting the 50 pounders.
You know the 40 to 50 poundersin that yeah, on top water, on
spooks and it's just like I said, it's stuff out of national
geographic and stuff I losesleep over yeah, I, I haven't
(18:41):
gone gone striped bass fishingin a very long time and while I
like it, I don't put it as oneof my top pieces to target.
I just don't, for some reason.
But I am going like I have thisfeeling like right here in my
neck, like in my throat, likejust thinking about getting on
(19:03):
some big striped bass again,because it's been way too long
and I remember the pictures ofeverybody last year when I was,
you know, laid up and I can'twait to get out there and
whether it's surf, it's, it'sthe backwaters.
I was asking where?
In New Jersey, mainly because ifyou're really going to go, you
have to go North of AC unlessyou have the exact right
(19:25):
conditions, because it seemslike the state kind of curves in
and it's like they go straightsouth and then they get out
beyond that three mile line andthen you can't catch them again.
Well, maybe I'll see you on abeach or maybe you'll be pulling
up on a jetty and I'll betelling you to back up and give
me some room.
Maybe which happens a lot butI'll tell you what the, the if
(19:49):
you head all the way up towardsraritan bay, when, when you have
a raritan bay bite.
I would say it is literally thebest striped bass bite in the
world when it's going.
I mean, it is absolute insanity.
Absolute insanity, and whatinsanity.
And what's even moreentertaining is you have the New
York boaters versus the Jerseyboaters and they hate each other
, but they're all fromPennsylvania so they act like
(20:13):
they're so different.
But yeah, you get the battleson the water All right.
So you're heading out, you'regoing to head out for when
you're heading out for stripedbass in the fall, let's start
with the Chesapeake.
Let's talk there.
We don't have to talk about theNew Jersey.
I want to try to get to thisAre you approaching them
differently in the Chesapeakethan we're approaching them as
(20:34):
far as tactics or baits oranything like that?
So what are you using as yourfirst?
You don't know anything that'sgoing on.
You just know you're going outfor the first time in the fall
for striped bass.
What are you tying on andwhat's your tactic?
Capt. Kayla Haile (20:48):
so my go-to in the fall is like a minnow
plug.
So like a five, four or fiveinch minnow plug, like a yosuri,
like a.
An sp minnow might be a littletoo big, but something of that
style.
That is my go-to.
I always look for kind of likerocky edges and I'm a shallow
(21:11):
water girl so I'm not fishing inanything more than like 10 feet
, so anything like that.
Or you know, at sunset a goodtop water can't go wrong with a
spook, you can't go wrong withwith a popper, anything like
that.
Or I'm starting well, I don'twant to say I'm starting.
(21:34):
I've always thrown glide baitsyeah but glide baits is becoming
a very popular lure forstripers.
You know, my my brother got mehooked on glide bait fishing
years ago.
He's been fishing glide baitsgosh.
He was still in, I feel, likemiddle school, but he was
(21:57):
throwing them for a largeamountmouth bass in some local
reservoirs and lakes and doingan absolute reckoning on them
and I was like, well, why can'tyou throw these for stripers or
even smallmouth, like I throwthem for smallmouth bass on the
Susquehanna River?
And yeah, glide baits are ahuge, huge game changer, an
(22:21):
expensive one.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (22:22):
But it can be worth it.
Capt. Kayla Haile (22:24):
They are expensive yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (22:27):
And glide baits I think are
underutilized all over.
I mean, you hear that they'repopular in Texas but they're not
as popular as they should beand all it takes is go out and
use one.
But what size are you usingwhen you're going for stripe
bass?
Capt. Kayla Haile (22:44):
so it all depends, like right now, or like
in the fall, I would bethrowing kind of a smaller glide
bait just because your bunkeris not fully grown yet.
So like a five or six inch orseven inch glide bait would be
perfect, you know.
But then when spring hits, and,and you know, later, spring is
(23:07):
when I throw the bigger glidebaits, at least for smallmouth.
You know, I've noticed that iswhen they like the big ones you
know it's.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (23:17):
It's funny that you're talking about
a seven-inch glide bait as asmall glide bait.
Capt. Kayla Haile (23:25):
Well, I have a couple of glide baits that are
pushing a foot long.
My brother, he's got some thatI was like dude, that is
ridiculous, you are not going tocatch anything.
They're 14, 15-inch glide baitsand they hit the water.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (23:41):
It's like throwing a two-by-four in
the water and they hit the water, and it's like throwing a 2x4
in the water.
Capt. Kayla Haile (23:44):
But they work .
Look, when I saw him catch a 7pound largemouth on like a 15
inch glide bait, I was like,okay, where do I buy one?
Where do I sign up?
But yeah, the thing with glidebaits, though, is you definitely
don't catch the numbers of fishas you would on other
artificial lures, but thequality it'll get you hooked.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (24:10):
Yeah , I had one glide bait that I
bought a couple years ago totest out for striped bass and I
lost it.
On the first one it was like a$27.
It was cheap.
But on the first one that Ididn't even land, I was like,
come on, man, and it was all myfault.
(24:32):
It was totally my fault, I.
I didn't tie it right and andit was one of the few times that
I had a knot part, few timesthat I had a knot part, I looked
at it.
I was like, oh my God, it wasthe knot.
So yeah, but that is, that isnot a an expensive one.
It wasn't a great one but itworked.
(24:52):
And I did hook one.
I guess it's two and a halfyears ago and the fish it was,
it was a schoolie size, maybe 25, 27 inches max.
And yeah, it hit it.
I set the hook and it was onfor about three seconds and swam
away with my $30.
But there I, I, I do like theglide baits, I do like them.
So okay, so you're going to goout with the glide bait.
Do you use soft plastics at all?
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:15):
I do, I do.
So I'm a big, I love paddletails.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (25:19):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:19):
You know, I know, everybody throws those
NLBN.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (25:24):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:24):
No Live Bait Needed.
There's a local company here inMaryland Invincible Jigs.
They're phenomenal.
I'm a big local supporter.
I was going to say highlightall the locals.
Yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad (25:39):
Highlight local over anything else Is no
Live Bait Need needed, evenconsidered local at this point
um, I mean, they're based out offlorida, so you know, I know
they're.
Capt. Kayla Haile (25:48):
They're selling in stores basically up
and down the east coast, I thinkyeah so.
But yeah, there's the localcompany that just started
invincible jigs here in maryland.
They're a great group of guystoo.
Same style paddle tail qualityis they don't rip as hard as
(26:10):
nlbns, you know, and I think forthe, for the price that we're
paying for some of these softplastics, you know, you catch
two fish and it's trashed rightat least with invincible.
It's kind of it's the stretchymaterial like z-man yep you know
, and being able to catch adozen fish on a paddle tail is a
(26:31):
little.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (26:32):
That's I mean that's big when you're
spending ten dollars a bag forsure for sure yeah, so I I find
when, when I'm using the softplastics, I tend to go small and
that's where I get the numbersand some quality, but it's the
bigger baits you know, evenlet's say a spook, I'll use a
(26:53):
spook junior.
But, again, it's the same thing.
I just find like you'll get theoccasional big fish on those,
but I found that you will getalmost as many fish, but bigger
fish on the bigger baits and itseems to make sense.
But look, we've all caughtstriped bass that are 10 inches
(27:13):
on a nine inch lure.
I mean they'll all go after thebigger ones, but I think that's
an important thing.
But one thing I did want tomention, and it's something I do
I want to see if you do this.
When you had the bunker schoolsin and you're fishing around
these schools and they'regetting blown up so let's say
it's peanut bunkers you got thelittle small ones.
Maybe they're five inches.
(27:33):
Are you matching that hatch?
Or are you doing what I do andyou're switching out to a
different size of the sameprofile?
So are you tossing out maybe aneight or nine inch to make it
stand out from that school?
Capt. Kayla Haile (27:47):
I would probably throw something bigger
and like another thing I'venoticed, especially with
stripers when they're busting onthe surface, a lot of what
you're seeing are like thesmaller fish, with like an
occasional big blow up here andthere, but a lot of your bigger
fish are below that.
You know initial fish poppingon the surface.
(28:10):
So I'll throw something alittle bigger and instead of you
know cranking it real hardacross the surface and catching
your smaller fish, let it sinkdown.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (28:20):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (28:20):
And slow reel it.
I mean, you know, work it likea normal paddle tail.
But yeah, that's where yourbigger fish typically tend to
hang, it's like below thesmaller ones.
Everybody gets all excitedseeing fish breaking on the
surface and you know they wantto catch them, which is great.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (28:36):
But yeah, a lot of your bigger fish
just kind of hang out below allthat and yeah, so here's the
question If you're going to headout for a day and it's just you
, you and one friend if you'regoing to head out for a day and
at the end of the day you'regoing to say it was an awesome
day, is it because you caught alot of decent fish, or is it
(29:00):
that you caught a few, but youcaught one trophy?
Capt. Kayla Haile (29:07):
I would be happy with catching a few, and
my friend catches the trophy,not me uh, you're one of those
yeah, so I get down inside.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (29:17):
You know that you want that one of
course, of course.
Capt. Kayla Haile (29:20):
But I, the older I've gotten, the more I
appreciate seeing other peoplecatch the trophy fish.
I mean that's why I startedguiding like yeah you know I I
don't want to sound cocky when Isay it, but like I've caught a
lot of big fish in my lifegranted, I'm always wanting to
(29:42):
get that satisfaction and catchanother one.
But I've just noticed I getmore thrill and more joy and
more satisfaction from fishingwhen I see somebody who doesn't
do this every day, like yeah I,I have the.
I can go do it all the time,whereas somebody who books me,
(30:03):
or my friend who might not havea boat, or even just like my
brother and my dad, likewatching them to hook into two
big fish is just I just sit backand I'm just like this is great
.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (30:20):
This is what it's all about step
back and I'm just like this isgreat, this is what it's all
about.
I I'm kind of there with you.
There are days like I don'treally care because I don't
really keep fish Would.
I want to get a world record,Absolutely.
But how cool is it to be thereand see your buddy catch one?
Capt. Kayla Haile (30:36):
Oh yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (30:37):
You know, I mean that would be,
that would be amazing.
You know, just to be presentand see that and see that memory
and be part of it, I guess, isthe other thing.
Then you have Elle here withher comments She'd rather catch
a bunch.
She's all about the volume offish, Understandable.
I'm weird.
(30:57):
I want to hook them, I want tofight them.
I want to fight them.
I don't even care if I land themmost of the time, you know,
unless I think it's a truetrophy or a personal best Like.
If I lose it it's like oh okay,I caught a striped bass.
It was my second biggest one,it was approaching 50 inches and
I didn't even try to land it, Ijust brought it next to the
(31:19):
boat and just kind of like letit head, shake off.
I just letting it sit there nextto me.
I'm in the kayak and I was likethat's awesome.
And I was like, oh, I got it onvideo.
I got it.
Of course I didn't have it onvideo, I thought I did, but my
camera was aimed up too high andit's sitting next to me but.
But it didn't matter, becauseit was.
I got everything I wanted toout of the fish, but it's.
(31:40):
I think it says a lot about youwhen you want other people to
catch them, when you're on apersonal trip too.
Capt. Kayla Haile (31:46):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and that's like um.
So next, next week, I'm fishinga tournament with five of my
very, very best girlfriends andwe're an all ladies fishing team
and I'm super, super excited.
We did it last year and it wasa.
(32:07):
It was a blast.
But I am just so excited to getout with them for two days and
fish a tournament and just havea good time watch them catch
fish.
Like I already told them, I waslike I'll drive the boat, I'll
get all you know, rig up all therods and everything, just being
able to watch them hook fishand land fish and hopefully be
(32:31):
in the running for some, forsome money yeah, what?
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (32:35):
what tournament is it?
Capt. Kayla Haile (32:36):
um, it's the tiki lees, rockfish open or
rockfish tournament it's.
It's one of the biggertournaments on the upper
chesapeake bay I mean you canfish the whole day, but it's.
It's based out of tiki lee'sall right, I gotta put this,
this comment up it's in abrackish babes yeah, that's our
(32:58):
team name that's your name, okayyeah, that's one of the girls
on the team, melody.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (33:03):
All right, melody.
So anyone, anyone fishing thattournament?
Look for the brackish babes onthe leaderboard.
How did you do last year?
Capt. Kayla Haile (33:12):
I can't remember where we placed last
year, but it was.
It wasn't in the top 10,unfortunately, but but we did so
we missed the.
They have a catfish calcuttaand we missed winning the
catfish calcutta by by like apound.
It was something so silly.
But the girl that caught itrachel, watching her she's like
(33:35):
a five foot two, about as big asmy left leg carry this giant
blue catfish across the the dockto the scales was.
That was the highlight for me.
This thing was huge it was.
I can't remember how big it was, it was like 30 some pounds.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (33:54):
It was giant well, those are those
things are.
Capt. Kayla Haile (33:57):
They get huge , and we talked a couple years
ago about the blue catfish andyou weren't quite sure what to
think about them at the time,except that they were fun to
target yeah, I mean they're funto target, but nowadays and I
might get some some hate forthis, but kill them all- yeah
there are.
(34:17):
Yeah, it's gotten to that pointand you know, you know people
have been saying you know, allof the snake heads are are
destroying the bay and the bluecats are doing more damage than
I can imagine.
I mean, I've seen guys catchthem and cut their stomachs open
and have I mean four or fiveinch blue crabs in his stomach,
(34:41):
like up to 10 of them.
Yeah, I mean and these fish, youknow, I've seen them in the
lower Susquehanna River withfour or five pounds smallmouth
in its mouth, you know, and andthese things are eating stripers
.
They're cleaning everything out.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (35:00):
It's too bad.
They don't get the zebramuscles.
You know it's, it's, um, it's.
When we talked about it, youweren't quite sure which
direction it was going to go, soyou were, you were kind of
waiting to see, so you've gonetowards the yeah they.
They are everything that wefeared them to be snakeheads, on
the other hand, I think theyhave turned into be the biggest
non-issue I've ever seen, likethey don't, they don't do
(35:24):
anything and everyone's likekill them all, kill them all.
I'm like I don't think you needto kill them all.
Like just let them go, becausethey're not, they're not killing
things.
I see them swimming next tobass at this dam, right near my
house, in this little creek, andthe Creek is producing just as
many little.
You know, small mouth andeverything as it used to.
Capt. Kayla Haile (35:41):
Yeah, I definitely agree, and that's
another thing.
Yeah, the, the blue cats arejust detrimental.
It's it's becoming a seriousproblem, you know, and I think
too, with the snake heads.
You know, a lot of people weresaying how they think they're
going to destroy the bay andwhat.
I think, because there's somany people out there targeting
(36:04):
snakeheads now that people havecaught on to how fun they are to
catch good they are to eat.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (36:11):
That's the key.
Capt. Kayla Haile (36:12):
You know those two factors right there.
So many people and you knowbetween rod and reel fishermen
and bow fishermen too, like thatso many people want to either
catch them rod and reel or shootthem.
So I think, with the amount ofattraction that they've brought
to the fishing community, I'mkind of hoping that the blue cat
(36:37):
thing catches on board likethat.
I don't know, I personallyhaven't targeted blue cat, like
I have snakeheads, just becauseI'm like catfishing, like it can
be fun, like it's fun to catch.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad F (36:54):
They're not fun to fish for.
Capt. Kayla Haile (36:56):
Right, I'm not a bottom fisherman, I mean.
But blue cats.
We've caught them throwingpaddle tails and throwing lures
in the river and they hammer itlike stripers do.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (37:10):
So that tournament is $100,000
prize.
What James put in the chat.
Right, could you imagine$100,000 prize?
Just call it the Clean the Baytournament.
$100,000 for the chat.
Right, do you imagine a hundredthousand dollar prize?
Just call it the clean the baytournament.
A hundred thousand dollars forthe most blue cats, the most.
Capt. Kayla Haile (37:25):
That would be cool.
Or I mean why don't we do that,Like that would be great, but
people see, you know, becausethey're an invasive species like
yeah, but you, you gotta, yougotta harvest them all.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (37:39):
You got to weigh them all in.
Harvest you can have six peopleper boat.
Right, right, heaviest poundagewins.
Capt. Kayla Haile (37:47):
I think it's just getting the attraction to
it.
That would be great.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (37:54):
So I went out full disclosure.
I went out and I have a bowthat I'm getting set up for bow
fishing and I can't bring myselfto go for snakehead because I
don't know that I would want toharvest them, even though they
taste good.
So now I'm like well, now Ihave this bow that I have for
bow fishing, what am I going togo after?
But I don't really have a bluecat issue up here and it's going
(38:15):
to be tough to get a blue caton a bow.
But maybe I can try that.
And people keep telling me gofor carp.
Well, carp.
I don't think there are certaincarp that are bad, but the
common carp haven't doneanything to the environment
either, that I can tell.
Capt. Kayla Haile (38:28):
So I don't even want to go for them well,
another thing that's really funis you can shoot rays down here
oh really and a lot of guys willgo out during and you can do
that during the day too, whichalso is is a plus.
You're not up till two andthree in the morning shoot, yeah
, but uh, yeah, daytime rayshoots are a lot of fun and rays
(38:51):
are bad for the bay too,because they eat all the crabs
and strikers and anything else.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (38:56):
So all right, maybe I'll do that,
I'll finish getting it set upand maybe I'll do something like
that.
I just don't like the.
I don't know.
You only kill them to harvestthem, so you got.
I only want to kill somethingthat I'm going to eat or that's
invasive.
So it really narrows it down.
You know, when I was a teenagerwe used to go and shoot
anything with the bows and gobow fishing, and it didn't
(39:18):
matter what it was, we wouldshoot it or try to shoot it.
But I'm not like that anymore.
Capt. Kayla Haile (39:24):
I just I get it.
It's not for everybody.
I've done it.
I have a bow myself.
I enjoy it.
I don't do it all the time,Just for that same reason Like.
I just don't do it all the timejust for that same reason like
I just don't want to go out justto kill like right?
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (39:42):
well , there's at least more than
digging right that's why I won'tgo gigging.
They're like, oh, it's great,it's so much fun, but is it?
I mean you just kind of trollthe shallows and stab something
with a fork?
Yeah, it's like I don't knowabout that.
Like, oh well, you can get somegreat flounder.
I'm like understood, yes, ifyou're just going to harvest
dinner, I get.
Like I don't know about that.
I'm like, oh well, you can getsome great flounder.
I'm like understood, yes, ifyou're just going to harvest
(40:03):
dinner, I get it.
But I don't know.
I like do I need to spend allnight doing that?
I'd rather just sit somewhere,you know, and stalk a shoreline
or a bridge or something likethat and and actually fish for
them and try to catch them.
If I'm going to go for a limit.
Capt. Kayla Haile (40:17):
Like for me too, with bow fishing.
It's fun when I go bow fishingin areas where I also rod and
reel fish, because at night withthe lights, you know, it shows.
Like it shows where I'm fishingand like I can see the bottom
where I'll be like oh, I didn'tknow a log was there or I didn't
(40:38):
know.
Like I'll be like, oh, I didn'tknow a log was there or I
didn't know.
I like I knew it would drop off, but I'm like, oh, I didn't
know.
It was like Sandy to Rocky.
So it also it's like a learningcurve too.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (40:51):
Oh yeah, You're fine.
You're fine in spots at night.
So how, how deep, how?
What's the deepest water thatyou'll?
Capt. Kayla Haile (40:57):
you'll shoot something on the bottom I like
four foot and that's that's deep.
I was gonna say that.
That's beyond where I ever yeah, yeah, I was ever able to.
That's pretty deep, but, like Isaid, I'm not a pro bow
fisherman, so I just go out withsome, some friends that have
lights on their boats and that'smy fault for getting us on
(41:20):
there.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (41:20):
I was just all excited that I got
this bow, and I was, so I justgo out with some friends that
have lights on their boats.
That's my fault for getting uson there.
I was just all excited that Igot this bow and I was ready to
go, and then I realized that mytarget species is not the target
I want.
I had this bow sittingdownstairs.
I'm like what am I going to dowith it?
And maybe I'll go deer hunting.
I don't know.
I got to do something with it.
I can't just let it sit thereforever.
All right, so we talked alittle bit about the striped
(41:40):
bass, but what are you doing formore of the freshwater?
Is it all smallmouth, or isthere something else that you're
going to be targeting?
Capt. Kayla Haile (41:50):
Yes, it'll usually just be strictly
smallmouth.
I also enjoy doing some whiteperch fishing.
I really kind of got into thatthis summer with with my dad and
my brother, but we also do itin the spring on the susquehanna
when the when the big femalewhite perch move in.
I feel like that's such anunderrated species but, on on
(42:11):
ultralight tackle.
You know, catching 12, 13 inchwhite perch is pretty fun and
and yellow perch too, likeyellow perch in the winter.
Same thing on ultralight, youcan't beat it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (42:24):
I've never caught a yellow perch.
I, I, I've tried, and I'vealways caught white, white perch
.
When you're targeting the whiteperch, though, are you, what
are you using?
Are you using just, you know,trout gear, spinners and those
types of things?
Or are you throwing out the,the, what are the?
What are they called?
The bloodworm imitation things?
And just?
Capt. Kayla Haile (42:43):
kind of like.
So I'm throwing like a littlelike three inch or two and a
half inch little grub on like alittle tiny jig head, like a 16
ounce jig head okay and again,it's kind of just for the yellow
parts, just finding littleschools of them, because that's
a wintertime thing that we dohere and once you find them, but
(43:06):
they're, they're usually loadedup you know it here here's
something from paul at great bayoutfitters white perch from a
kayak gets in through the winter.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (43:16):
That's really how I found the white
perch and I knew about them.
I've caught them.
But in my mind white perch usedto just be what you went for,
what you said you were going forwhen you were trying to catch
striped bass out of season.
That's what it was and youstill see it today.
You go to Jersey and I'm surePaul, when he's out there
(43:36):
fishing, sees this all the time,know you go to Jersey and I'm
sure Paul, you know, when he'sout there fishing, sees this all
the time.
You see somebody out there witha seven foot six inch or seven
seven foot six rod medium heavy,15 pound braid and they have
this small, just all.
The only difference is theyhave a smaller hook on it, so
they can pretend that they'regoing for white perch in January
, but they're actually going forstriped bass, right?
(43:57):
So to me that's what it alwayswas.
And then I started catchingthem in the winter because I
needed something, I had to dosomething and I didn't want to
go ice fishing and I realizedthere's so much goddamn fun Like
I can sit there in thatfreezing cold and it's so much
fun to go for these littlethings and I used a little ultra
lights, the lightest rod thatyou can possibly get.
Capt. Kayla Haile (44:24):
And that's you know know, pan fishing in
the winter time definitely getsus through and and you know
crappy fishing chain pickerel.
You know we me and my, my dadand and my brother we love chain
pickle fishing and maybe it'sbecause my dad holds the state
record chain pickerel.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (44:40):
So oh does he yeah, we like
congrats, he's in the chat.
Congrats on that.
That's awesome yeah, yeah, yeah, he likes to defend his title
so well maybe he'll come on andhe'll talk to us about chain
pickerel sometime oh he I'm surehe would love to.
Capt. Kayla Haile (44:55):
We should.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (44:55):
We should do that next time yeah,
we're breaking into peppering insome freshwater stuff, but it's
mostly still going to be mostlybrackish and saltwater.
But that's again anotherspecies I've never I personally
can't talk about, I can't talkabout.
But back to the perch.
Let me ask you this I considermyself really new to perch.
(45:17):
Right, I don't have all thetechniques and everything.
I know where to find them, butman, for me it's a lot of those
fish bites and just kind ofthrowing it out and waiting for
the bite.
Have you found that in thewintertime, the colder you know
when it's really cold, you know,just pre-ice, how slow do you
(45:37):
have to move that?
Just pre ice, how slow do youhave to move that?
Or because, in my mind, thecolder it is, the more you need
bait and the less that you usesomething that you're tossing
and retrieving.
Do you find that?
Or am I just nuts?
Capt. Kayla Haile (45:49):
No, I definitely think that fish get
very lethargic when it gets cold, but they, they got to eat.
So I I honestly don't use bait.
A lot of guys will use littleshiners or minnows, which do
work, and they do help, but theslower the better.
You know you don't want to ripa, rip a jig across the surface
(46:13):
or anything like that but,definitely a slower, smoother
approach.
You know, and I do use fishattractant stuff like procure,
smelly jelly um and stuff likethat, but yeah, definitely just
a slower.
Definitely can be a littlemonotonous when it's super cold
(46:35):
but yeah, just a slower approachto to perch fishing helps but
it's so much better when you getone in that freezing cold
weather too oh yeah, you warm upreal quick yeah, yeah, all
right.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (46:48):
so we're getting close to the hour
.
We're at 50 minutes right nowand I was telling myself I
wasn't going to ask this becausepeople make fun of me for
asking about this species allthe time.
But I'm going to do it anyway.
So here's the question.
Oh, wrong, one came up.
Sorry, people are commenting,so it's kind of moving on me.
(47:09):
Ask her about redfish fishing.
All right, so we may be talkingabout a little extended range
for you while you can catchredfish in the Baltimore area,
but let's talk about it Inlaunching from Baltimore area.
(47:30):
What's the redfish fishing looklike for you?
If somebody came to you andsaid you know, guide for a day
and try to get me on one redfish.
Capt. Kayla Haile (47:40):
I would not launch out of Baltimore.
To be honest, when I go drumfishing is down in the mouth of
the Chesapeake Bay.
That is where, in my opinion,one of the world's best
fisheries I've ever experiencedis held.
One of the world's bestfisheries I've ever experienced
(48:00):
is held.
I don't go down there enough,in my opinion, just because it
is like a four and a half fivehour drive for me.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (48:06):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (48:07):
And when the usually when the bite is good is
also when beach traffic is justthe worst.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (48:14):
So I don't want to sit.
Capt. Kayla Haile (48:16):
You know, what is normally a four and a
half hour drive turns into a sixor seven hour drive, but the
mouth of the chesapeake bay isby far one of the.
I'm blessed to have it as closeas I do to my my home, but yeah
, that that is where I would go.
(48:36):
I don't know if I and I soundhorrible saying this.
I don't know if I soundhorrible saying this.
I don't know I wouldn't book mefor a trip just because I don't
go there enough to do it.
And I feel like every time I'vegone down I've I've just had a
horseshoe up my ass, findingthem and catching some of the
pictures.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (48:57):
I mean that's a hell of a
horseshoe that you got yeah,it's just.
Capt. Kayla Haile (49:00):
You know, it's something I'm still
learning to this day, but yeah,the the drum fishery down there
is just we're blessed, we'reblessed yeah, it's like raritan
bay for the striped bass whenthey're there, it's, it's
insanity.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (49:18):
I , I, I would love to go down
there again.
Great bay outfitters.
Paul is in cape charles, yeah,and if I recall correctly from
his posts earlier, he's he's notgoing to be fishing tomorrow
because of the weather, so he'sall the way down there he ain't
fishing tomorrow yeah, andthat's the other thing, like and
(49:38):
I know I'm not the only onesaying this the weather, the
wind, anymore is just it'sbrutal
choice words for for the oldwind, but I haven't gone fishing
in in weeks because the daysthat I could go are just all
blown out.
Capt. Kayla Haile (49:57):
Yeah I mean.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (49:57):
I mean it's like, oh, it's only
going to be 18 to 26.
I'm not going in 18 to 26.
It's just not going to happen.
I'm sure I could find a spot,but I don't want to do that.
I want to have it like a funday on the water, not just
battling and try not to capsizeand all that stuff.
Capt. Kayla Haile (50:14):
Right.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (50:20):
I and all that stuff.
Right, I got one more questionI want to throw in here before I
let you go.
This is from L.
Do you ever catch sturgeon as abycatch, or have you ever?
Capt. Kayla Haile (50:28):
I wish, but I have not.
The only time I actually caughta sturgeon was out in
Washington, or it was Oregon,but I went with my best friend
Carly.
We booked a vacation and bookeda trip out there sturgeon
fishing.
So that's the only sturgeonI've ever caught, but I know
they're out there.
You know, I've seen picturesand I've heard rumors of
(50:53):
sturgeon being in the Bay, butno, I personally have never
caught one one while, or atleast on this side of the the
country have you ever seen onejump?
not here.
I've seen them up on lake stclair yeah I've seen torpedo out
of the water up there, butnever, never.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fi (51:12):
That's a scary that's a scary sight so
I saw it in a.
I wasn't in a kayak, I was inin my boat not my boat, but the
what was the same model that Iowned at the time.
So it was a skiff.
So you're really low on thewater and this thing shot the
back.
You know, you know it's notcoming for you, but you know
(51:41):
you're looking at hundreds ofpounds flying through the air
out of nowhere.
It's scary.
I've never caught one, though.
Capt. Kayla Haile (51:48):
That's how I felt when I was up in Jersey
last fall with the whales.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fish (51:53):
Yeah .
Capt. Kayla Haile (51:53):
Seeing the whales come up out of nowhere
over these pods of bunker, I'mlike Holy shit, it's crazy, it's
crazy.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (52:02):
I mean it's, it's amazing, it is,
it's.
It's a little scary because yousee people trying to get real
close to them too and you knowso they screw it.
Not only do they screw up thefishing, cause now they're
cutting across everything tryingto get their video on their
potato phone.
But I mean, I don't think theyrealize how dangerous it is for
(52:25):
them and the whales at the sametime, but they are scary when
they come up.
I had man this was a long time,just one real quick story.
It turned into not being thewhale that we thought.
So I was heading out fishingand we see a whale and it's
(52:45):
coming up and down regular.
So we get close, it's dead andI'll tell you what the sharks on
that thing were amazing comingoff of that thing.
That's my big whale experience.
The closest I got to a realwhale was when we pulled up
within about.
I think we didn't get anycloser than 50 yards because the
smell was so bad but there wereso many sharks.
It was insanity.
(53:07):
We were catching them onbucktails, naked bucktails, just
the bucktails all the way out,landing it on the back of the
carcass and pulling them off assoon as it would come off.
They get hit by these sharks.
It was so much, yeah, but I'llI'll stay away from the whales
when they're coming up on thosebunker things.
Cause we've all seen the kayakat Eaton.
Capt. Kayla Haile (53:27):
We've seen the boat upsized.
Yeah, no, thank you.
No no no, thank you.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (53:31):
Is there anything?
Do you want to give people anidea how to reach out to you,
Because I'm sure that somebody'sgoing to want to get on that
jet boat once it's open forbusiness.
Capt. Kayla Haile (53:39):
Yeah, so yeah , hopefully the jet boat will be
done in about a month or monthand a half.
Maybe I'll start booking tripsagain the first of the year,
just because I want to getcomfortable with it.
But anybody can reach out to meon all social media platforms
Facebook, instagram.
Mainly those two is what Ifocus on the most, and it's just
(54:03):
my name.
You can just search Kayla Hale,I believe it pops up under
River Queen Guide Service aswell.
Yeah, so either one of those,just shoot me a message or give
me a call, even if you just wantto talk fishing, I love talking
about it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishi (54:21):
I'm going to watch it.
I'll end up calling you.
Capt. Kayla Haile (54:23):
That's fine, we can chit chat about fishing.
I love it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing (54:26):
I spend way too much time in my
day talking fishing, like I'msupposed to be working.
Sometimes I'm like why have Ibeen texting back and forth?
And some of you are in the chat?
You know who you are.
I'm like what am I doing?
Like it's been two hours andI'm talking about these fish and
neither of us are going fishing.
We're just coming up with ideas, ideas with each other.
Capt. Kayla Haile (54:47):
Like at my work.
You know I have a full time jobtoo.
I don't guide full time, but Ialways have like on my computer,
the weather channel tab openand you know somebody will walk
over and they're like are youchecking the weather again?
It hasn't changed and I'm like,uh, yes, it has.
You have to look at the windsyes you know, and they all make
(55:10):
fun of me and they're like kella, what's the wind gonna be today
?
Like it's gonna be blowing,don't worry about it makes all
the difference, though.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishin (55:17):
It makes all that.
That's.
That's what the weather is to afisherman.
It's the wind first, andeverything else Second.
Exactly, we can, we can alldeal with the rain, especially
as we get into the fall and westart targeting the striped bass
and rockfish whatever you wantto call them.
Uh, you know, those windy,rainy days are are the good days
, but it has to be coming fromthe right direction for the
right amount of time, and thenthey'll start moving in.
(55:37):
So, uh, thank you for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
It's good catching up with youagain.
Can't wait to see thosepictures of the uh, the first
small mouth to hit the the deck,and then the first striped bass
.
I'll be looking forward to thatI'm excited yeah, make sure you
share that everyone.
Reach out to kayla if you wantto book a trip, Uh, and before
(55:58):
we get going, just to leteverybody know, next week we are
going to be back.
We're going to have bearded dadfishing on.
So if you're a kayak fisherman,you've seen him online.
He's got one of the largestFacebook groups, uh, for kayak
fishing dads, uh, and kayakfishing people and just a really
good guy.
So Jay's going to be on nextweek.
(56:18):
Again, if you haven't alreadyfollowed this, share it.
Most importantly, share it outto somebody who might, might
enjoy the show.
That would be greatlyappreciated, Kayla.
Thank you again and everyoneuntil next week.
Even with this weather, Paul,you two down there in Cape
Charles, everyone get out there,get on the water, get some
tight lines.
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