Bass to Bay

Since I live near the Gulf of Mexico, I am obsessed with exploring the untapped inshore and nearshore waters of Florida’s Forgotten Coast. From St. Joe Bay to the remote Apalachicola River Delta to the Aucilla River’s mysterious “Rock Garden” lie more unique fishing adventures than one could experience in a lifetime. That magical stretch of coast also includes a couple dozen wild, spring fed freshwater rivers and creeks that harbor plenty of bass, including two rare bass species, the shoal bass and the Suwannee bass, which are a blast to catch.

One of the perks of my jobs is being around the best professional anglers in the world and learning firsthand from them. I enjoy taking the tactics and techniques I learn from the tours and applying them to coastal waters. Whether it’s catching redfish on bass lures like frogs and chatterbaits, dropshotting flounder off structure, using side imaging to find offshore rock piles for grouper or sight-fishing tripletail with artificials, I can use some part of everything I learn from freshwater in salt or brackish water. The fun part for me is seeing the similarities in fish behavior and how they react to lures no matter which environment they live in.