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Fat Dad Fishing Show
Join the Fat Dad Fishing Show on our quest to help the average saltwater angler to catch more fish and have a better on-the-water experience. Each week we will be covering topics to help anglers get the most out of their time targeting multiple species spanning the entire east coast of the USA. We will cover fishing for flounder ( fluke ), striped bass, weakfish, sheepshead, bluefish, tuna, and many more. On some episodes we talk in detail about how to catch flounder, while on others we will take a deep dive into saltwater fishing gear. While our home area ranges from DE to NY, we will speak with guests throughout the east coast. If you find value in the podcast, or are entertained please consider following the podcast, sharing with friends, and leaving a great review. All of these help us to reach more anglers and draw more guests! Tight lines!
Fat Dad Fishing Show
EP 58: Mastering Trout in Cold Weather with Chris Matuson
Cold winds, canceled boats, and cabin fever don’t have to end your season. We head upstream to chase winter trout in clear, moving water and break down a simple, reliable playbook: ultralight gear, two confidence lures, and the patience to fish slow and low. With Chris Matusin joining Rich, we dig into what holdover trout actually do when temperatures drop and why the best water isn’t the obvious stock truck pull-off, but the bends, seams, and plunge pools where oxygen and food collide.
We get specific about setups that matter in cold conditions: 4.5- to 5.5-foot ultralight rods, 2- to 4-pound mono, and compact jerkbaits that suspend naturally. Chris explains why a slim 2.5-inch minnow-pattern jerkbait is his first tie-on, how a size 4 Panther Martin with a smooth silver blade digs deeper without tail hair, and when to pivot to a subtle drift with trout magnets or natural-tone PowerBait on size 12–14 hooks. You’ll hear how to place split shot for different flows, watch the line for whisper-light takes, and use casting angles to pass through both primary current and the recirculating eddy where fish wait.
We also cover cold-weather strategy beyond the tackle: dressing to stay out longer, taking warm-up breaks, and timing trips for mid-morning sun when a tiny temperature bump can flip the switch. Expect a practical map for finding productive stretches—fast water pouring into deeper runs, eddies that feed back upstream, and long glides that stay open while others skim with ice. Whether you’re pivoting from saltwater or returning to roots on PA creeks, you’ll leave with a winter pattern you can trust and a short list of spots to build into your annual milk run.
Enjoyed this one? Follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a winter plan, and drop your best cold-water trout photo or tip in the comments. Your reviews help more anglers find the podcast—leave one and tell us your go-to winter lure.
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I'm looking for, you know, any type of sweeping water that goes into an eddy eventually dumps into a deep pocket. I'm not going to fish that deep pocket because they're probably not going to be there. And again, with gin clear water, you can see all the way down, so you can see whether there's fish there or not. But you know, I'm definitely looking for structure in those streams.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Hello and welcome back to the Fat Dad Fishing Show. My name's Rich Natoli, your regular host. And we're doing the show because it's too cold to go fishing for as long as you want to every day. So we may as well kick back on a Monday and talk about it. And uh tonight I'm going to be joined by Chris Matusin, and we're going to talk freshwater and trout fishing in the colder months. And this is a really good topic because look, if you're anything like me and you're almost totally dedicated to saltwater, it's really tough to get on the water right now. And what makes it tough is what you really have going, you know, not even for very long, because especially in New Jersey, you're going to lose the strike bay, uh the strike bass in the back bays. Uh, you really're going to be on a boat. You're going to be on a boat all day. And it's it's a tough time of year to do that. Uh trips are getting blown out left and right, they're getting canceled because it's too cold, so people aren't filling the boats. Uh, so one thing that you can do, and one thing that I look forward to doing is when things get oppressive around the holidays, and you need to get out, you need to just get some rest, some relaxation, just some time on the water, why not winter trout? Because this is the time to catch them. And Chris is going to go through with us exactly how to do that. Uh, so as we get ready for Chris to come on in just a moment, we're gonna talk about the sponsors. We have Great Bay Outfitters on Radio Road in Tuckerton, New Jersey. Paul and his team, man, if you're looking for anything kayak related, check out Great Bay Outfitters first, one of the largest dealers in the entire region. And you're gonna look at uh native Old Town. Those are the new kayaks Crescent, the new Crescent skiff. He's got it. He just got in, I think I saw today, he got 130 boats in today. So if you want stock over the holidays, get it ready, get it tricked out and prepared for the spring. You definitely want to check out Great Bay Outfitters. Quad State Tune, Kevin Driscoll is your guy if you have a Toyota truck. Tacoma Tundra 4Runner, the Lexus 460, 470, these tunes for the engines. Uh they're great engines in these trucks. They're great trucks, but they they can have some issues where you can you can lose a little bit of torque and everything. But if you get these tunes, you get more torque, you're getting more horsepower, better fuel efficiency, smoother shifting. If you're hauling a boat, if you're hauling a trailer for work, this is something that you should probably look into. Give Kevin a call, 44-633-5975. And then real estate, you have me with Weikert Realtors Cornerstone out of the office in Bluebell, also out of the office in Collegeville. As a matter of fact, if there's a cornerstone office, I'm probably working out of it. Uh southeastern Pennsylvania, any anything residential, real estate related, give me a call, give me a text, 267-270-1145. Happy to help you out, happy to take any referrals of people that you know. And one thing I'm gonna say, I am unlike most tenured realtors. I absolutely love working with first-time buyers. So if there's a first-time buyer, I just love working with them. I've got I've got a couple that are closing in about two weeks. And I'm it just it's just so much fun to get people into their first house and go through that whole process with them. So let me know. Last thing I want to say before we bring on Chris is this. We had last week, we had Steph from Sport Fishing Outlet on Germantown Pike in East Norton, Pennsylvania. Local shop you should be checking out. And if it's not your local shop, it's mine. It's literally right down the street from me. It's 10 minutes from my office. So I'm in there way too often. I was in there the other day, was talking to talking to some guys for way too long. But he has on SFO, so sport fishing outlet, SFOTackle.com. If you put in the code FATDAD15, you're going to get a 15% off. And for full disclosure, because I want you to know what I am making off of this and what I'm not, I'm getting zero for that. I am, as you know, if you're a returning viewer or listener, I really believe in supporting local businesses and it's the backbone of the sport. And Sport Fishing Outlet is one that you should be checking out for anything freshwater and salt water. I'm I'm gonna tell you that Chris, even though he does not live anywhere near here, he's a patron of Sport Fishing Outlet. I'm sure he'll confirm it. Let me bring him on right now. Chris, good to see you, man. My guy, how are you, Rich? Doing great. I'm looking forward to this. I'm I'm branching back out into the freshwater in a big way.
Speaker 3:You know, I don't even think about anything else this time of year, even though backorder strike bass hasn't closed yet. I can't do that until the end of the year, but come the middle of November, it's all it's all about trowel fishing the last couple years up in Pennsylvania.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So yeah, and and you've you've caught some really nice one. I'm gonna put some pictures up as we go into this. There, as a matter of fact, they they are uploading right now as as we talk. But one of the things that, you know, one of the things that I really want to stress is we all get this itch for fishing. And for a lot of the saltwater guys, it's like it's saltwater, it's saltwater, it's saltwater. I'm never going back to freshwater, or it's the opposite. It's only freshwater, never salt water. And this is really a great option for especially this time of year, because this is when, as far as I'm concerned, this is the best time for trout. And it's a quick trip.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's it's definitely not an all-day trip, especially with the temperatures that we had last winter. And obviously, we're on a trek this winter for it not to be too mild. So it's, you know, a couple hours and you get your fix and get some nice fish most of the time and and call it a day. But it's definitely better than what I used to do and and just sit around for the couple winter months and you know, go through tackle, look at photos, and you know, that just wasn't getting it. So I went back to my original passion, and that was trout fishing in PA.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Yeah, well, and you're you're from PA, so you're familiar with the streams, and and that I think is one of the biggest barriers to entry when you're talking about legit trout fishing, you know, because a lot of people, they're just out there as soon as the stocking trucks leave. And, you know, and then they're done. You know, once the stock trout are fished out or they think they're fished out and it's not shoulder to shoulder anymore, they just stop. I mean, they stop in the summer and they just don't start again until the opening of trout the next year. And I want to talk to you, I want to make sure that we talk about uh exactly what we need to look for when we're looking for a spot. But as but as we're going into this, let's let's put uh on here some of the pictures. So this is the cover picture. I mean, we're talking quality fish here, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, this is this is not yeah, these are all like you know, 15 to 17 inch fish, and and you could tell like they're they're they're thick. Um you know, one branch I fish, they do not get a winter stocking anymore. They the or fall stocking. They used to, but after COVID, that pretty much stopped. There's another branch, the the West branch that, I'm sorry, the east branch that they do stock in the fall, but that's catch and release only. But I like going to, but that's where most of the people go, right? It's kind of like striped ass fishermen. A lot of them, they go when the blitzes are happening, and then the rest of the time, you know, they'll kind of sit around when the migration in the spring or the fall isn't happening, and they'll sit around through those flow periods. But this is when I like to go, is when nobody's really around, and you get the the holdovers from the spring, and we can touch later on about brook trout. And, you know, I like targeting them, even though a lot of those are not as big. But in February, I get a lot of those that have you know spawned and whatnot. And you know, they again they may not be quite the size, but you know, they're a great fight and and they breed right in the stream.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So yeah, yeah. And here's here's some more. You know, Chris, it's funny. I was looking for a picture with you in it, the the old striper pick, but you don't need to do that with the trout.
Speaker 3:You know, you know, I I used to years ago, but by the time you get a camera set up, and I'm not as advanced as as you guys are with the uh, you know, and I don't do GoPros, I don't do you know stuff like that. You know, people talk about striped bass being out of the water too long. Trout are super, super sensitive. Yeah, you know, winter months, it's not as bad because the the water's cold. They love cold water, they're cold water fish, so they will, you know, survive pretty good. But again, you know, you they have very delicate mouse, and sometimes a spinner or jerk bait goes in there a little far. You know, even though the ones that are up on the rocks, the the water is literally, you know, inches away. Right. So I just take the quick pick and get them in. But no, from the last five or six years, maybe even deeper than that, I don't have any pictures of me with the trout, unfortunately.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So yeah, well, and that's okay. I mean, that's not why you're there, right?
Speaker 3:No, right, right, exactly. And and most of the trout I catch, I don't even take any photos, you know, just you know, one or two of the biggest ones of the day, I I I kind of just take pictures of and you know, put them with collages I have. But, you know, fall November through February is really my favorite time to fish, you know, for multiple reasons. It's it's really not stockfish that we're that we're catching, so they're not easier to target.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And you know, I'll run into maybe a few guys, but there's some days I go up and there's uh two miles of stream I fished, I I don't pass one person, so it's therapy, let alone catching fish.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So that that's my kind of fishing. I want to bring up this picture, and there's listening, uh you don't need to see it, but uh the one on the left and and the baits, you know. I I we're gonna talk about what you're tossing as well, but I thought it was interesting to see. Well, you can see it on the right too, what you're fishing now as compared to what you might be fishing in the spring and in the summer. So I want to get into that. But let's start at the very beginning because I I did get some feedback for some from some people who said never thought one of them said basically this, it's not a quote, but never thought I'd be excited for a freshwater freshwater stream, but after the last one, I'm now so looking forward to trout. I think I want to try it. So this is this is a guy who's never fished, uh actually is going to start. So he's going, he needs to buy everything, he needs to figure out where he's gonna go. So I want to kind of make this for those types of people. And in the chat, if people have anything that you want to add, please do that as well. So at least the you know, the the people watching it live or the replay can see what you're saying if you have anything to share. But uh let's start off with this. First of all, this weather right now, you know, it's 30 degrees outside, it's cold, it's cold weather. How are you dressing when you're going out and how long are you planning to be out for each trip on the water?
Speaker 3:So the the I I usually try to plan four hours.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:You know, spring, other times of the year, you know, I go up for six or seven hours, but usually uh four solid hours, but but that means, you know, that could also mean multiple trips back to the car, too, because I don't I I I've I've seen people, but I can't wear gloves when I do this type of fishing. You know, you're using two-pound line, four-pound line, four and a half to a five and a half foot ultra-light rod, and five and a half is really pushing it. I I'd like to go with the four and a half because with the jerkbaits and the spinners, you get you know a lot more sensitivity with that. And I think you can get them to go deeper with the lures when you use those those light rods. Um, sweat jackets, t-shirts, thick, thick stormer jacket, you know, like the thickest one they made is is the one I wear. I don't wear neoprene waiters, some guys do in the winter time. Yeah, but to be honest, the last couple years with how low the streams have been, I'm really not getting in the water too much. Early spring, early, I'm sorry, late winter, like last March, myself and my brother went up. Water was deeper because we did get a lot of rain in March up there, and there was a heavy flow, and and we froze. I mean, our uh from the waist down, we couldn't feel anything for probably almost three hours. We had uh the guys were freezing, the lion was freezing, and we caught one fish all day. But again, it was it was very, very satisfying because we're you're you're catching fish when really, unless you're a diehard child fisherman, you think that you can't catch fish, but you know, they're they're cold water fish anyway. So, but you're you're dressing very, very warm because it's gonna make a real crappy trip and it's gonna make a real short trip if you don't dress for it. But but I'm not beyond going back to the car, putting the heat on, putting the heated steering wheel on, you know, for 20 minutes and and and having something to drink and getting something to eat and going back out. I mean, you need to prepare to do that because like a day like today, I can't really stay out there for four hours without warming up. Again, if you have gloves on, sure, but I just can't I I I can't do two or four-pound line with gloves. But you you definitely have to dress for it and and and a mask on too. The the what are they called?
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:The uh gator.
Speaker 3:The gators, I gotta have a gator because I have to be able to cover my ears. Because for me, that's the first thing that goes is my ears and my fingers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:If I'm not in the water too much, even though I always have chest waiters on, because you know, again, you have accidents, you you know, you have a lot of leaves laying this time of year if you get rain. Or, you know, last winter, last couple years I've been up there with snow on the ground. It gets very slippery going down those embankments if I'm not walking the stream the whole way. So, you know, you have to you have to dress from the waist up or it's not gonna be fun.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:I I've got uh mine is neoprene stocking foot. And then I I wear corkers and when I now I haven't done it in years, but when I'm fishing the creeks in the cold weather, I'm wearing corkers because of those rocks and everything. So I have the I don't have the corkers that you put on the uh the you know the bootfoot waiters, I have the the actual boots. So that's what I have. And then the stormer, gosh, what is it? The the waterproof, whatever the waterproof I think it's the highest end one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mine's the heavy neoprene one. Yeah, that's what I again. It's not the most comfortable, especially when you're throwing jerk baits and you're throwing Panther Martins and whatnot for for long periods of time, right? Because you kind of lose range of motion, your shoulders start to hurt, you got a backpack on. It's like, but again, this type of fishing is not it's not for someone that thinks it's going to be easy. And you know, there's days where I've gone up and you know, I've gone solo and got eight or ten trout. I've gone with my brother and we've gotten, you know, 15 or 16 fish between the two of us. But then there's days where I've gotten nothing, or I've gotten two years ago, I got a 16-inch brook, which and that was the only fish of the day. And I was up there an hour, caught that fish, lost a couple others, but you know what? I had the biggest smile on my face going home that day. But again, that was a day where I had to go back to the car twice because it was just so cold, it never got above 33. There was a wind chill, and you know, I felt like it was low 20s all day. So not for the fan.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:If you were up here today, you'd have the wind and you'd have the high water. And yeah, you'd you'd be battling it. All right, so you're wearing just the standard stuff, think surf gear basically. Correct. Uh just for the fresh water. Now, let me let me ask you this. Let's talk somebody they again, they don't have anything. Are there any, I don't know if you use entry, what rods you use, what what type of rod? You you'd mentioned a four and a half, maybe five foot, but the shorter the better. And I'm assuming that's because you're in under branches and and all that, so you need to be able to swing it. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Correct. There's definitely, you know, the the the one branch I fish there is not, it's definitely not a fly rod fly rod fisherman branch, so you don't see many fly rod guys unless they, you know, have corkers on and and and a walking cane and walk out to the middle and do that. But you know, most sections, to be honest, they're if I if I flick underhand real hard, I'm hitting the other bank. It's not like a lot of those streams down by Philly that are really, really wide in certain sections. You know, I don't fish many sections where I can't get to the other side basically by doing an underhand cast. So yeah, I that's why I go with the the the shorter rod with a real a real light tip on it. I do have ones that are stiffer, but again, this time of year, you really have to go by feel and watch the line because they're not super aggressive at times.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But the most sensitive, you know, I do have an IM6 one piece, five and a half, that that I will use, but again, it depends on what I'm throwing. Yeah, I I'm not against throwing power bait either, because to be honest, there's certain periods in the winter where if the water's low and the there's just not enough flowing water for me to get the movement on a jerk bait or on a spinner, and you just there's a slight drift, and I will go to power bait. I I hate going to power bait because I do not like fishing that way. But again, it's really no different than fishing a trout magnet, you know, drifting it down. Because again, I'm not fishing holes, I'm fishing moving water that has eddies off to the side, or then kind of just, you know, slows down and goes into some deeper pockets. But so I kind of fish that the way I do a trout magnet and just kind of bounce it on the bottom, not really let it sit. But those are, you know, that that's really my go-to is a four and a half to five and a half foot rod, a micro-size reel, two to four-pound test line. Some guys will say, uh, you know, they they still use braid and put a four-pound leader on. I have no time for that because a lot of times you're getting caught up in the rocks. And again, you need to be prepared. If it's a stream you don't know, you're gonna get hung up, you're gonna get hung up in trees, you're gonna cast onto the other side, get into the bank. Boulders that usually you're not gonna get hung up on if the creeks are higher. Right now, they are not. So even me, where I know these streams like the back of my the back of my head, the first 45 minutes is usually a learning curve of where am I getting stuck, where am I not, what type of drift? If I have to go to power bait, what size split shot am I using? If I'm using a a jerk bait, do I have to weigh that down? Inner size, am I using a size two? Am I using a size four? Sometimes guys use smaller, but again, I'm not looking for small fish this time of year. And and to be honest, there's not really small fish left. The only fish left have have been in there maybe for a few years, and they've really they really chunked up over uh the last couple months. They've eaten everything that's been thrown into the stream. They're eating everything that's come down in the heavy storms over the summer, and they're just sitting there in the current, just waiting for another meal. And those fish are from last month and and they are not stock fish in the fall again because they don't they don't stock this branch in the fall. The last stocking was end of April, beginning of May. And you know, they've they they've evaded people and and they're pretty smart by now. They know what to bite, what not to bite, and they know there's not a lot of stuff being thrown out there now. So it's a lot of casting angles and you know just knowing the proper spots in the current.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Yeah, I mean that's the thing. The dumbfish have been caught. And the dumbfish are the small fish. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You know, and even the bigger ones they put in the spring, you know, you can see them because they've been in there for weeks, and and usually where they put them in, they're still setting if you don't get any big storms that wash them downstream. And you know, that's another thing this time of year is a lot of people target those those spots where they stock.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:There are at least where I go and my experience, though that's just a waste of time. I go downstream as far as I can go where I can find some nice waterfalls that go into nice deep holes, some nice rapids there. And it's not out of the question to go two or three miles down in areas where they don't stock because you have everything as washed. So even though a lot of guys that do go out this time of the year, they stick to the areas that are stocked, but that's really not where you're going to catch anything.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Right. Okay. So let's before we get into the specific spots, let's talk a little bit. Okay, let's let's just talk the power bait because this will be a quick one. Are you what what specific power bait are you using? Are you using like the little power bait mealworms? Are you using just the power bait, you know, whatever the putty stuff? What are you what are you using?
Speaker 3:Yeah, form in my hand. And and colors depend on water clarity. I mean, I've never been a I've never liked chartreuse. I've never liked, you know, pink or you know, mine is my go-to is always the natural off yellow cheese color. As natural as you can get, because again, I I think with freshwater trout, it's about the natural environment. It's not about, you know, again, some people will differ, but my experience is I go with something as natural that would really belong in the stream. Now, if it's muddied up, right, and it's difficult seeing, you know, maybe chartreuse or a hot pink or something like that. But but usually uh I catch 90% of my fish if I have to go to that on just a natural, natural color.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay. And okay, so you're using you're forming it on the hook. What size hook are you using?
Speaker 3:As probably like a 12. A 12 or a 14, like like micro, micro size hooks. Again, they will try to get the power bait off. You have to make sure that you know, you're again, it's a whole science, right? It depends on if it's fast water, if it's slow water, how how hungry they are, how aggressive they are. Sometimes you won't even feel it. You won't feel the line move, you won't see the line move. You know, you'll just think, well, I've been out there for you know four or five minutes, and I don't let it sit out there for 10 minutes either. Some people will let it sit. Me, three, three minutes is my max. And then I'll go for another drift. But you know, many a times you pick it up and there's a 15-inch trout on the other end, and he has given zero signs.
Speaker 1:Right. Just pick fit and stat.
Speaker 3:Right. That's where this time of year is different from spring and and early fall, is you're still kind of aggressive. So you will, you know, get the the bing on the end of the rod, or or you'll see that, you know, all of a sudden it's it's tout and then it goes slack, or vice versa. But, you know, again, and that's why when you pick up, you just don't pick up like there's nothing on there. You're just gonna, you know, you gotta just pick up, and if it's tight on the other end, assume it's a fish and not a snag, and you know, just not a real hard aggressive motion, and just start re-on and a lot of times you'll be surprised that they're there.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So okay. All right, and you're just split shotting above it based on the the flow.
Speaker 3:Right. And the type of flow depends on where the split shot goes.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:If if if the flow is not good at all, then the split shot is gonna go like basically maybe this high above. Because I don't tie my hooks directly. I still use hooks with a leader on it, and then I tie that to my line. So right above where I tie that, maybe this high is where I'm putting that split shot. But if I have a heavy flow, then you know I'm gonna go higher because the I want the weight to go down and set. I don't want it just to get swept. I want it to go down faster, but I want my bait to still kind of stay up. But if I really need to get it down quick, because there's gonna be no current later on, you know, 15 or 20 feet, and I want to get it down fast, I'll put that split shot literally right on top.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay, very good. And question from my buddy Tim Murray. Do you ever use live bait?
Speaker 3:So minnows. I love using minnows. I've caught my biggest brown trout to date on a nightcrawler, just free lining it. No weight, no nothing, hooking it just in the end and letting, and it was literally a nightcrawler this long. Uh at least, I mean, it won't fit on the screen, but but probably almost a foot long. And he was just drifting in the current. But again, it was it was a section of that same creek where it comes down the rapids, right? Drops into a real, real deep hole, and then gradually, you know, it's still fast current, but then gradually it goes into shallower water. And I was just, you know, hitting it in there, and I found an area where I could kind of get it swept under boulders before it would really get caught up in that shallow water and and caught my biggest fish on that. But you know, we've used nightcrawlers, we use me worms, yeah, things like that, you know. But but again, I've gotten away from that because I just love the same way with me in Saltwood. I just love the artificials. There's nothing like, especially with the jerkbaits and and Stefanos and Yanni, those guys from SFO, they are the ones that turned me on to the jerkbaits a couple years ago, where I would see guys that would go into their shop and they would post photos with the jerkbaits, and I'm like, man, I'm jerkbaits in the wintertime. Like, how is that? And you know what, they're they've been a game changer for me. But, you know, again, the the minnows are great. Trout minnows, you tend to get a lot more bites on those because they are smaller size, but they're very, very fragile. I, to be honest, and again, I guess I'm giving out too many secrets, but again, there's not a whole lot of guys from down here that are going up the fissure streams that I go to. And and people that live where I grew up at, they're not coming down here to get saltwater minnows and then going back up. But I I take up saltwater minnows, and those minnows are game changers. You know, I'm not using the real, real big ones that that I'll, you know, I'll go to Chris Balaban's place in Summers Point and and I'll siphon through and and take the smaller ones up. And they stay alive a lot longer, uh, they're a lot more active in the water. And they uh I catch a uh a boatload of freshwater trout on saltwater minnows.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:That's great. So let me ask you this. So you're making a it it's a pretty long trip for you to get. I know where you go.
Speaker 3:Hour 45 minutes.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Yep. Hour 45. So you're bringing minnows up, let's say. Are you doing the old put them in a cooler on the cooler packs with the saltwater rag, and then you put the you lay them on top of that, and then you fold the rag over top so they're they're on basically the cooler blocks in the cooler, or are you just keeping them in like a live well with a with the aerator?
Speaker 3:So I have an aerator on it. Yep. I have uh, you know, a plug-in one in my garage, like you know, an aerator you'd put in your fish tank, and then I have a portable one too. So yeah, I use a portable, I I've gone up before without it, yeah, but they tend to not be quite as active from the lack of oxygen from the almost two-hour ride.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I definitely keep them aerated the entire way up. But then obviously when I get to the creek, I'm leaving the aerator in the car and just you know taking them streamside with me. But you know, it's a little bit of a chore because again, you know, you're you're bringing the minnow bucket with you. I'm climbing down hills that are uh very, very steep, where if you have both hands tied up, it can really lead to bad things.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So I'm very cautious when I bring them up. If I can walk the entire creek, it's easier for me to bring those up. But again, you get storms that you guys have gotten in PA the last couple years, and I can go next week, and it looks totally different from what it was two years ago because a lot of those trees that have been there hundreds of years now are laying across the stream or across the bank, and you know, it's very difficult the the contour, but there's some spots that always I can I can climb down. But it it's tough if I have minnows, so I I try to avoid it. Yeah, but you know, I I do bring those if I can. But you know, nightcrawlers and and mealworms, again, I I don't fish them as much as I did when I was younger. I always used to bring them up, always would stop at the Turkey Hill close by, and you know, they have a bait section there and buy them, and and to always have a diverse selection, but I really feel that now without going that route, the jerk baits, the spinners, the the trout magnets, and again, I know we talked about power bait, and there's a lot of haters out there that you know, guys that use power bait, that's really not true trout fishing. Well, we could say that about guys that that bunker fish, right? Or use that. Yeah, I don't I don't see an issue. Yeah, that you're really not catching fish either. So let's not hate on the power bait. But you know, in the wintertime in the dead of winter, you may not have a choice. So I'd rather go to the power bait if I have to, but again, I'm not starting with that. Right. Doing due diligence for the first hour or two in multiple spots with different types of lures, different casting angles, different depths. But if they are glued to the bottom, I'm switching over instead of going home and not catching anything because that's really not an option.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Right, right. Now, I I'm right there with you. I mean, I'll toss whatever I need to toss, and I I don't feel bad about it. I mean, it is what it is. If you want to catch fish, sometimes you got to do what the fish want and not what you want. That's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 3:And the and the minnows, when you get to really not early spring, late winter, because remember, up there, same way in in in New Jersey, I guess, but I don't try fish down here, is you know, you get that it closes the second week of February on stock branches. So it's really a race against the clock after the first of the year that you know you get some at least somewhat bearable weather. Like last winter, there really wasn't any bearable weather. I I did go up, but it was very, very difficult. The year prior, I had a lot of windows, the end of January, beginning of February. And actually, the first two weeks of February is my favorite time to go. Yeah, that is the best time because you've really haven't seen any pressure at all, not even from local diehards that want to get out there in the winter. And, you know, I find a lot of brook trout the beginning of February, too. And and pound for pound for pound, even even beyond Brown's brooks fight a lot better.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:A lot better. Well, I'm down for some brook trout. I I'm I'm blessed to be around some good trout streams, some stocked, some not. And there are some spots that I want to check out. But before that, let's before we get into the the choosing of the spots and the type of waters that you're looking for, let's talk about. We talked about the the bait. All right. So the bait's covered, but really what I want to dive into is what are the artificials that you're using? And let's focus first, not just trout, but you know, this time of year, the cold weather. What's the first thing that you're tying on when you're gonna go and hit one of these streams?
Speaker 3:Like a two and a half inch dirt bait.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay. Um is there a brand that you like? So two and a half inch, is there a brand in color?
Speaker 3:So trout magnet, whatever that company is. I guess it's trout magnet, right? Is that who makes those? I don't know. It's I don't know.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:I can look it up as you're talking.
Speaker 3:So it's the same section that you buy trout magnets because trout magnets, you know, now they have now they have worms, they have all different, you know, it's it's not just the the historic, you know, the the little trout magnets. They they make all different ranges now. So whether it's Mr. Trout, trout magnet, whatever, but it's usually in the same section, same maker. And but you know, Rappola, you know, they all make those tiny, slim jerk baits. You even have a lot of independent companies that make just you know, trout lures are like trip magnet, but they're individual guys, a lot of guys that make trappijs, right? They make they make hard baits. So I'm not really stuck on a brand. I really don't like endorse any type of those uh brands because if I find one that works, that's what I'm using. And again, I have multiple colors, but I'm going on a minnow type pattern, maybe some flash on the bottom, right? I don't care whether it's pink or you know, a little bit of green on the bottom, but the the top of the minnow, you know, I want it to look natural in the stream because usually you're getting crystal, crystal, crystal clear water.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:In the wintertime, I mean, like that big brook trout I got two years ago, I saw him coming from 15 feet away where any other time of the year, you just it's like when you first go to the surf in the spring and it's just gin gin clear. It's the same way the streams are. So to me, I want my presentation to be as natural as possible. But the last couple years, I've tied that tiny jerkbait on. Now, I used to use ones with a fatter profile, wasn't getting anything, but I went when I went to the slim ones that are just very, very, you know, there's just very slim.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the first thing I'm tying on.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:All right, so trout magnet jerk bait, two and a half inch. Natural colors if you can get them.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:And what's your number two that you're going to use?
Speaker 3:A number four Panther Martin with a I knew that was coming in. Yeah, yeah, again, I don't change I don't change the the blade size, really, to be honest, based on water depth. I I've been doing it so long I can throw a four blade across shallow water and not get it stuck. So I just think it it gives more vibration in the water, and it'll you can also get it down deeper, where now they're really not setting higher in the water column, either in even in the running water, they're not, you know, they're not really, they're not moving, they're not chasing. So you need to kind of get it down in front of their face, and the number four blade does it for me. I used to really be hooked on a bronze blade with the black and yellow polka dot on the on the on the shaft of it. But you know, my brother really outfished me the last two years with the silver blade. And so really just you know, silver blade, but I do not fish ones with hair on the tail, and I'll tell you why. They look good, right? And you would think that that would be okay, and it does if the fish are shallow, but no matter what size blade you have on there, that hair is gonna make it stay higher in the water column.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:I want to get it deeper, so I just put that big blade one on there, and as soon as it hits the water, I have my rod down toward the water, and I'm cranking it and getting it down there as quick as I can.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay. So, all right, so that the number four Panther Martin, no hair on it, silver. Yep. Are you using do you care if the blade is hammered or if it's smooth? Does that matter to you?
Speaker 3:No, it doesn't really matter. I mean, you know, most of the time the ones I fish they're smooth. There's on one branch I fished, like I can, it's tough for me on the one branch to use inline spinners, right? Because I think you have to have more distance to really get that going through the water.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Uh where a Panther Martin, it's like instantly, as soon as it hits the water, you flip the bell. The first crank, you're already creating vibration. Right. Uh so inline spinners, I find more of those with the you know, the hammered blades on them.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:But you know, rooster tails, same thing. If I have more distance where I can fish, I think you have an easier time getting them down into the water column with the hair than you do the Panther Martin, just because it's like a longer profile, the the lure itself.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:My brother, he got his biggest brown ever this this spring on a rooster tail. I'm like, what are you doing using a rooster tail? We don't use rooster tails. And he tied a rooster tail on. Is it a rooster tail or it was like a blue Eure or one of those type of things? But it looked just like a rooster tail. And you know, what do I know? He he he pulled out you know his biggest roosters. He's caught in years, so but you know, the the the the the Panther Martin, the uh the the the jerkbait, two and a half inch trout magnets, you know what? I really don't use a lot of those. I don't some guys just have a lot of luck. I I don't, but other than those two lures, I I really don't go to a lot of other stuff. I have a ton of stuff in my bag, but I find a lot of success with those. And again, if I'm not catching it on those two lures, I'm probably going over and and unfortunately using some paste. Because if I'm not getting it on those two, then they're usually not biting anything else.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:All right, fair enough. I mean, we don't we don't have to add more. If there aren't more to add, let's not add them.
Speaker 3:No, but you know what, you have to adapt it to the stream that you're on. You know, I don't want people to think that, well, you know, I go to the stream that that that I'm on and I've used this and I don't catch anything and then like this guy's full of ship. There's got to be other options, right? That's not you you I fish these streams since I was, you know, my father was taking me when I was 10, 11 years old, trout fishman. So I understand the streams, I know it works, even the colors, right? The natural habit, right? A stream that has a lot of crawdads in it, right? Usually it's a good smallmouth population. Um, but trout will go after those crawdads too. Maybe they won't eat the crawdads, right? But they're gonna chase them. They're gonna, and you need to resemble what's in that stream.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So I've caught trout on on little crayfish.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know, my brother has these little and and they're like they're little plastic and they're they're real tiny uh crawl dads. They're and he, I'm like, ah, they you know, they look like they would really work and whatever. And he the first cast last year, and he pulled out a 16-inch rainbow. So you know, uh again, I have options in the bag, but this time of year I have to try to keep busy because if I'm just like slow drifting, my hands are gonna go fast. I have to be so I don't I don't mind throwing and throwing and throwing. But again, if just because you throw five or six times in the same spot and they don't bite, right? That's what you do in the sprint. If they're not there, they're not aggressive. Let's move down a little bit. Here, I know where I'm going. I'm 100% sure that there is fish there. There is, I, there's zero chance that those fish are not there. Right. We haven't gotten any rain. We haven't gotten any rain to wash them. The water is not deep enough for them to move downstream. I know where they're at. And the ones I've caught, the big ones the last month and a half, I've put them back. So they're not, you know, and the people that do, I do, I know that do go, they're not harvesting this time of year. They're they're usually putting back too. So those fish are there, and there's a lot more in there than what I've even caught. So it's just a lot of patience, a lot of casting, changing the angle, right? Because again, they're sitting facing current. So just coming across current may not be doing it. Sometimes, you know, you're casting downstream and back up because even though the current's going, you know, to the right, you have the eddy that comes back up towards you. So now they're sitting in the opposite direction. So it's just a lot of patience, but you really have to know the stream that you're going on to understand what's going to work and what's not. But even a stream that I haven't been on before, I'm going with that Panther Martin regardless.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay. So let's talk about the spots now as we come to, we're at almost 45 minutes. So let's let's talk about the specific spots. So we're we're geared up. We got we're dress warm. We got the rod, the reel, the light line. We've got a Panther Martin on there or a trout magnet or something like that. Now we're hitting the water. What are you specifically looking for? Let's start at the macro level. Like what type of stream are you looking for? Let's say you're going to an area you've never been to before, but you can ask any questions. What's the type of stream that you're going to want to look for?
Speaker 3:Uh if it's got some some deep uh running water pockets. I mean, that's the biggest thing for me is you know, a shallow stream or even like a stretch that's just shallow, shallow, shallow, shallow, where I can just see bottom. Not saying again that there's nothing there, but that's not what I'm going to target this time of year because they're they're sitting there in their winter holes where they're really not going to move too much, but they want that oxygen oxygenated water that even when other parts of the creek are going to freeze, this isn't going to freeze over, and that's where they're going to be. So, you know, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for bends. I'm looking for, you know, any type of sweeping water that goes into an eddy, eventually dumps into a deep pocket. I'm not going to fish that deep pocket because they're probably not going to be there. And again, with Jim Clear water, you can see all the way down. So you can see whether there's fish there or not. But, you know, I'm definitely looking for a structure in those streams.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay. And and when you're looking at these, you know, as far as the you're saying shallow water, deep water, what what are you considering deep water pockets? Like what depth?
Speaker 3:Uh uh again, it depends on the stream. Absolutely. But even these deep water pockets, you know, on on this stream I'm talking about, even at at max flow, it's probably probably four and a half feet at its deepest. But if I were to go up there last week, it it may be two and a half feet. But but then it also dumps into water that is barely going over some rocks. So anything that's moving and deeper than what is an eighth of a mile in front of it. That's the area I want to target.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Do you fish anywhere near the old most of the dams have been ripped out by now, but do you fish anywhere near dams when you're up in PA?
Speaker 3:No. Okay. No. You know, Morse Creek in in Downingtown, right? That's got a spillway that dumps into the East Brandywine there. Yeah. Um, there was a couple dams along that. Not really dams.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:They're like spillway.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, but some of those have been even on the the branch itself, the fish ladders, they've broken down because of water heights. They just want to keep it flowing, right? Because the water just doesn't stay high enough to go over and it creates droughts downstream. So they've knocked a lot of those away. So no, I really don't. The ones I fish really don't, they don't really have dams. They don't have fish ladders. It's just, you know, the natural contour of the stream where, you know, now it's going to hit this mini cliff and just drop over. And right below that is usually where I go.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Yeah. So I was thinking, you know, there are some near here. I mean, I could walk to a couple where old dams that are either totally removed or partially, but they don't really remove the bottom. So you get a nice drop-off there, you know, where where it was dug out over the past, you know, 30 years of having a dam there, it's it's a little bit deeper. So it's maybe three and a half to four feet.
unknown:Yeah.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:And then it comes up into a you might know exactly the spot that I'm thinking of right now, but it then comes up into huge boulders, like size of a car boulders. Sure. And then it and then it gets really shallow, but then you get this deeper area where it gets down to about three and a half feet again. So I'm I'm wondering, should I be looking further down near those boulders, or should I be up to where that old dam was?
Speaker 3:So again, I think it depends on the I think it depends on the current and and the and the water height. Sometimes, you know, if if if the water's flowing fast, I'm going a little past.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm going a little bit further where because once it slows down, right, then you're gonna start that's where you're gonna get that eddy that comes back.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:But if it's real, if it's real slow and the water's shallow, that eddy is gonna hit faster. So then I'm gonna kinda go closer to you know, the you know, where the and I guess you know what, maybe 50, 60 years ago they were dams because you know it's it's high on the sides, right? It runs over in the center. But again, 54, as long as I've been fishing those dreams, there's there's never been dams there. Maybe again, 100 years ago there was, but how close I fish to the actual drop depends on the water height and how fast the water is moving. Yeah, but it's still the same general area, it's still the same, it's still the same stretch of water.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:It just depends how far down that stretch I go. Depends on the water height and movement.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Gotcha. So yeah, so there's there's a spot. There were actually there are several near me that are they look pretty interesting. Now I've never fished them for trout. I fish them for everything from muskie to I mean smallmouth. It's that's the the fish of choice in in the it's the Perkyoman Creek. Yeah. This this section that I'm talking about, one of the branches. But it it it is very interesting because it it get it does get super shallow. Sure. I mean, you can walk across and flip-flops in the summer and barely get wet. Yeah, but but it does run a couple feet deep further up, you know, where it's a lot more narrow.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:And I'm thinking that might be my first spot.
Speaker 3:100%. I wouldn't focus on, you know, you get heavy rains after, you know, do they stock that that that creek with trout or no? Do they stock that?
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:No, not that branch, no.
Speaker 3:But it but again, you know, I don't know what feeds into that, but you'd be surprised how many branches of creek that don't get stocked wind up having trout there.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Absolutely. Yeah. You know, my largest trout I caught in an unstocked my lar I should say this. Let me qualify this. My largest trout in this area, which is stocked, right, was on an unstocked tributary that was maybe a mile and a half off of, I mean, it was connected to stocked areas, but it was about a mile and a half off of it. And it was the largest one that I caught. The largest one I ever caught was a native in the middle of the Pennsylvania wilds, like seven or eight miles in the middle of nowhere. I mean, that that was the biggest one, but you know, that's not the type of fishing that I'm doing now. Uh I'm not sure.
Speaker 3:I mean, like, if you're just starting, if for someone that's just starting out, it's better to go on a branch that they do stock.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Again, a lot of branches they stock, they stock late fall for their winter stock. You know, they'll do a November stocking and then they'll do again in February if it's a catch and release, you know, artificial lures only year-round, the late harvest area. But, you know, go on a stock branch that, and you'd be surprised. Just because you can't see fish, if you say, oh no, it's fished out, you know, there's a ton of holdovers in these streams. But again, you have to know spots to target. And usually when you find those spots, there's more than one fish there. There's multiple, multiple, multiples. Because there's really no other place, right?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Especially in the middle of the drought like you guys have up there, that that there's no other place for them to go. They can't really expand. They they they can't kind of wander around. But that's why I like these areas where you you get the the rapids and the waterfalls that go into a nice long stretch, because again, they may not be right at the base of that. They may not be at the end, but there's a lot of water there that's still moving before it hits that shallow water where they can still, you know, go out and swim around, investigate, you know, go out for a meal, whatever. They're just not sitting packed like in a two-foot section. There's area for them to go and come back in those eddies. So right.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Unless you have a nice overhang or something. There, yeah, they're not gonna be necessarily stacking up on top of each other. Right, correct, correct. Man, I am I am looking forward to getting out there. I I have my my trout, I actually took it out of the car last week, but I have my trout rod all re-spoled, ready to go. I gotta get down to SFO though, because I gotta get some of the I I I gotta switch up what I'm using. I'm gonna I'm gonna copy your approach and see how I can do. But I'm definitely gonna be on the water in the next week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I as as soon as the new year gets past, I mean, you know, hopefully I'll get up a couple times. You know, I have a target temperature though. Like, I don't care how cold the water is, I'm I'm okay with that. Because it really, I mean, I've caught them with uh, you know, ice stool on the creek in certain spots. Like it doesn't, it doesn't matter, right? They're just they're cold water fish. But if it's not gonna reach above freezing outside during the day, yeah, I'm not going. It's it's kind of tough. I mean, I like it when I get there and it's and it's 32, anywhere between 28 and 32, and it's gonna, you know, be at least 45. I mean, 50 would be ideal, but a lot of days it doesn't get there, and you know, you just got to be prepared for the long haul. But you know, once you put, you know, I spent one winter three years ago, and had I I it's best to go with zero expectations.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:You go with zero expectations because then anything is a win-win. And you gotta be prepared. If you get a bump, that fish probably is not coming back. They're not aggressive, they're not chasing, they're very smart this time of year because they've been in that water, they know what a hook feels like. So if you don't, you know, they're not like they just got dumped in the stream, right? And they're just hitting everything that comes in where you can cast three or four times and they're coming back, coming back, coming back. Here, if you don't get that hook set, you know, it's okay. Don't be frustrated. Hey, it's it's it didn't happen, but now I know where to go. Once you get that first bump or you get that first fish, that should be the areas you target every single winner. Spend one winner, find two or three good spots on two or three different branches. It saves time, it saves, it saves headaches. And when you get up there, right, you're not wasting an hour waiting in areas you shouldn't be. That's just dead water, especially if you're freezing. You can just get out of the car, walk to your spot, get right into it immediately. If that doesn't work, hey, I know this spot I could go to. The one branch I go to now, it's two spots. That's it. And when I'm done, I go to the other branch. I don't waste time in between, you know. Well, here's a little pocket here. No, they're not there. They're in these two or three spots, and that's it.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So let me let me ask you this before we we wrap this up. Is there any other species that you're running into in the winter when you're fishing for trout? Are you picking up smallies or anything?
Speaker 3:So believe it or not, no. Those same branches, I will get more small mouth than trout if I go in June, July, August, September. But and and and solid trout. I mean, I'm talking, these are very, very shallow streams. So if you get a 14 or 15-inch smallmouth, right? It's that's like a banner trout in those type of streams. It's not, you know, where you're fishing the scuka or whatever, and you're getting, you know, four, you know, three or four pound smallmouth. They're not that size. Um I don't I don't know where they go in the winter. I don't know where they move to, but it's like there's a there's a window where they show up in the spring and then they disappear in the fall. So on this branch at least, these two branches, when I get a strike, 100% equivocally, it's a trout. Because I just don't catch those in the winter. But most creeks, you know, that do hold abundant smallmouth, you know, a lot of the bigger ones, you know, they're sitting in the same spots because where else are they gonna be in the wintertime? They're gonna be in the same, those same holes. So but uh with the jerk baits, you know, if there are smallmouth there, you'll you'll catch those too. So again, if the the trout I think are a little more difficult than the smallmouth, they're gonna take a little more coaxing. But again, if you're fishing in a section that has a lot of smallmouth and trout in it, you're gonna have to weed through the smallmouth to get to the trout because the smallmouth tends to be more aggressive. That's the problem, you know. Not to harp on this point, but you the gentleman asked about about live bait. So you have to weed through the smallmouth with the live minnows to get to the trout.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So I mean, so so a lot of times it's it's not worth for me to do that. I'll get more trout on the jerk bait and the spinner than I will because smallmouth just love minnows. Trout do too, but you gotta weed through them.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:That's why I don't like using shrimp for sheep's head or tog, because you you end up getting all the sea bass and everything else are gonna jump right on the shrimp. So it's not worth it to me. You you know, even if that's what they want, yeah. I just don't want to do it. I just don't want to go through all that.
Speaker 3:And and this branch doesn't hold, like the one branch doesn't hold anything other, you know, it holds panfish, but other than smallmouth and trout, those are the two main species that holds. But then if I go over to the the the other branch, same name creep, but other branch, you know, you get muskie that'll show up in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:The largemouth bass, because you know, once they once they open the the gates up to the reservoir that dumps in, you know, those will come over the spillwood. So, you know, you have shots at other ones on that branch, but on the other branch I fish, it's really just trout and smallmouth. And in the winter time, it's just more or less just trout.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:So gotcha. Another question in the chat have you ever caught rock bass? We caught plenty of rock bass. When you're winter fishing?
Speaker 3:So late, late winter and early fall, but in the in the depth of winter, no. But also again, I'm not using nightcrawlers.
Speaker 1:Right, right.
Speaker 3:Night crawlers, you can catch a lot more on those. But you know, all these branches I go to, they all hold rock baths, and and one of them holds a lot more than the other. But again, if you use them live bait, tend to catch a lot more. So I imagine you will catch them in the winter. But you know, go out there with night crawlers and even, you know, just you know, dig up some worms, even though the ground's froze now. But you know, we've gotten those heavy rains the last couple years and the grounds has kind of stayed moist. So yeah, but yeah, if there's rock bass, you'll definitely catch those in the winter too with live bait.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:There you go. All right, is there anything that we didn't cover that we should cover?
Speaker 3:Again, go with no expectations in the beginning, because if you go up with high expectations and you get disappointed, right, and you don't catch anything, to some people it's going to stop them from going back again. So even though I fished these branches for for 40 years, when I started doing it in the dead of winter, I started doing it with zero expectations. Then when I caught fish, it's like, hey, you know, this is great. When I didn't catch fish, it's not a letdown because I know I'm going to the right spots. I know I'm using the right lures. Something's like striped bass. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's in the cards, it's not in the cards, but have go with zero expectations. And, you know, fish slow and low. They're not sitting at the top of the water column. They're not sitting, you know, halfway up the water column. They're sitting kind of dead to the bottom. So just get those lures down deep and don't be afraid to switch over to the paste.
Speaker 1:Very good.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you you have to do that. There's no I won't do that in season. I used to when I was younger. I refuse to do that now. But in the wintertime, if you got to do it, you got to do it. But and and you've got to watch your line. You have to watch your line. Slightest, maybe you won't even feel a tap, but just any change in that line, you you just, you know, you have to. Because the fish could be on the other end and it could be, you know, 15, 16, 17-inch holdover that's been sitting there and is just playing coy with everything else. And he's sitting there within his mouth facing the current.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:And until you come tight.
Speaker 3:And this time of year, honestly, you know, people run after the palominos and golden trout that they stock, you know, 25, 26 inches. And hey, it's my biggest fish to date. I I'm going after my biggest trout in the middle of winter. And you'd be surprised how big some of the fish are that you can get in the dead of winter that aren't freshly stocked fish. There are big fish in shallow streams that are holdovers that are still there. And they make it year after year.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:I I think we need to do some kind of a competition for the winter, you know, now through the the second week of February, let's say, let's have people posting on the the Facebook page there, the pictures of the trout that they're catching at this time of the year. I think what people can do and just kind of I I I hope to be out there catching some. I'm gonna, you know, I there are some spots that I'm pretty sure we'll produce, but they're not where I want to find some different ones. I want to find some that are more convenient to me because what I would love to be able to do is what I used to do when I worked in Balakinwood, there was a spot on the school that I had found, and the guy let me fish the the two guys let me fish between their house. And there was one little tiny spot. So at lunch, I would here I am dressed up for work. I would just go and just put on sneakers, walk down to the edge and just fish, and then you know, I could I could stop at quarter, let's what say quarter of one or whatever, right? And I could be in my meeting at one o'clock, you know. So I need something convenient. It would be great if I had something that I could find that's really convenient. So I'm gonna be I'm gonna be doing that, but I'm gonna start, you know, if I get some, I'm gonna try to get some photos and and start posting them. I'm I'm excited to I'm excited to to jump into it. So I'm gonna be down at sport fishing outlet probably tomorrow, buying some stuff. Yeah, gonna have to.
Speaker 3:And you know, also in the wintertime, not like spring, like like I get up real early in the spring, get up, you know, and and I'm there an hour before the sun rises. And that's usually my target window, just about like everything I fish is that that golden. But this time of year, I I I I I I want the light to be hitting and any type of sun to be warming that water up just a a little little bit because there's some spots, right? If I get up there at 7 30, 8 o'clock, I don't get anything. I go back to that spot after the sun is hit for two hours. So don't be afraid to let the sun hit the water. It's not like summertime or or late spring where it's heating it up, right? And now they're gonna be dormant until dusk. Or not it's the opposite. You know, you want to go in the middle of the day this time of the year, so you don't have to get up and I get up early still because I want to beat the traffic going up over 322 and come over a very bridge, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Certain times of the day. Now it's gonna make a two-hour ride, a three-hour ride. But you know, if you don't mind that, or it's it's more adjacent to where you are, ten, eleven, twelve o'clock is perfectly fine. Let that light shine on the water, let the sun be full blast, because it it definitely will help.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:See, I I love this because for me it's always get up at three a.m. so I can get that first bite.
Speaker 3:Not this time.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:Get up at normal time.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, no. Not now. And that's and that's a mistake I made, right? I have caught them at eight o'clock in the morning, but most of the fish I catch, again, you know, if it's if it's late at 6 30, really 8 30, 9 o'clock. Because the first hour it's light, right? A lot of the streams where you go down the bank, there's the sun's up, but it's not hitting the water till right, you know, 8 30, 9 o'clock this time of year, where in the spring it's different. The sun's a different angle this time of year, and you know, you don't have as much daylight. So um, you know, go in the warmest part of the day this time of year, as long as you can avoid the traffic.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:All right. Well, I'm going this week. I'm going this week. I know you probably won't with the holidays, but uh I am.
Speaker 3:No, this, and and and again, it's very rewarding. There's nobody out there, and there's just something more natural to me fishing and being in the stream. If somebody hasn't done it and they think that, you know, well, freshwater fishing isn't my game. If if you get on a stream and you catch a nice solid brown or brook trout in fast running water that hits the other end of a uh a jerk bait, you'll never go back. You'll never go back. It's highly addictive.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:All right. I'm I'm I'm in. I'm in. I'm gonna be hitting them. Chris, thank you very much for coming on.
Speaker 3:Before the spring, we're gonna go together. I'm gonna pick you up on my way up and and and we're gonna go and we're gonna get in the fish before everybody else gets out there. So we got six weeks to do it before the middle of February when it closes.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:And and I'm gonna, if I can find something around here, it'll actually even cut some time off for you. So if I find a couple of good spots, then maybe you have a new spot and you can shave a half an hour off.
Speaker 3:So you put the legwork in though, because I don't want to spend another winter finding finding a spot. So if you find a spot, you let me know. We'll go. If not, we'll go to my spots and and we'll uh yeah, we'll get some nice solid fish. So it'll be a pleasure.
Rich Natoli - Fat Dad Fishing:I'm in. I'm in. It'll it'll be fun. Chris, thank you very much for coming on. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. We're not gonna be on next Monday, it's just not gonna happen. Um, too much with the holidays, and uh yeah, we're gonna I'm gonna play an old episode that's probably not online anymore. Uh, so everyone, thanks for tuning in. Everyone, have a great Christmas. Uh, enjoy the time with the family. And then when you get sick of them instead of going to movies, hit a trout stream and post those pictures up so that we can see them. We've got some great guests planned for January. So I'm looking forward to that. Not going to announce them because we don't have the order of people yet, but uh we've got some we've got some some cool shows coming up, so I'm looking forward to that. Chris, thanks again, everyone. Make sure despite this weather being cold, it's still fishable. So get out there, get on the water, and get some tight lines.
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