Antsy to Find Fish

 

Weather app shows flurries at the moment. Snow will be gone by mid-morning, and with temps just above freezing, none is likely to stick around. Still, the day’s high is forecast to remain in the 30s, and the 10-day holds much of the same.

Nothing in the outlook is too dreadful. No ice storms or hard fronts. Thats said, overnight lows appear just low enough to negatively impact fish activity in most local waters, and precipitation in the forecast seems just enough to keep stream conditions a little off following major rainfall a week or so ago.

Add the shortness of January days, and prospects for productive local fishing trips don’t look too promising for the next week or so. It might be a good time to sneak South to Florida and pretend it isn’t winter or pack the ice gear and go north. Neither plan works for me right now, though, so I either need to work on my patience or accept subpar conditions and keep my expectations in check if I go..

In truth, it probably would be a great time to try to gain order in a messy fishing gear basement and do other tackle work that would make me more productive when fishing conditions are better. Maybe I will?

But, hey, trout are cold water fish. They should want to bite. Right? Only one way to find out!

A Few More Fish Species Tallied

 

I mentioned over the weekend that I was Alabama bound to do some fishing and photo work from my job. I also mentioned hope that something worth reporting would come from the trip. From my perspective, it did.

Fishing was challenging overall. No doubt. A hard cold front had the water temperature at Lake Guntersville down 5 degrees from a few days prior, and extensive rain from the same weather system muddied up Weiss Lake and pretty much knocked out the crappie fishing. 

At Guntersville we didn’t catch many bass, but the fish we caught were good ones, and we caught just enough to make for a great photo shoot, which was the main objective. In the process I tallied my first largemouth bass of 2026. Weiss was even tougher. We accomplished what we needed to from a content standpoint, but black and white crappie both remain uncaught by me this year.

Along the way to Alabama I bank fished a bit near Chattanooga and discovered some excellent fishing access that I’m eager to explore more. For details on that, check out my latest post at fishingonfoot.com.

I also caught my first spotted bass and smallmouth bass of the year while bank fishing, so the species tally is now at five. It could be considered six, because I snagged two small threadfin shad while bank fishing with a jerkbait at Guntersville. I’m not convinced I want to count those, though!

Alabama Fishing Travel

Lake Guntersville is an iconic bass fishing destination, and the same is true about Weiss Lake for crappie. Fortunate for me, my first fishing travels of 2026 will include time on both lakes, fishing with longtime guides and friends Jimmy Mason and Lee Pitts.

Photos and blog material for Lurenet.com are the primary goal of both outings. Jimmy and I will focus on photos for  YUM, BOOYAH and other bass-heavy brands owned by PRADCO-Fishing and sold on Lurenet. Lee and I will focus on photos for Bobby Garland Crappie Baits.

The lore of both lakes, the lake quality of the fishing and the knowledge that any bite could be a truly memorable catch make them really fun places to fish. Guntersville will also be just ahead of the MLF season opener, so there should be extra buzz with many top pros around the area.

I’ll most likely do some “Fishing on Foot” along the way. There are docks and causeways I really like to fish at Guntersville, but there are also potentially productive stops along the way in Georgia and in Tennessee. I probably won’t settle on my first stop until I’m on my way, and then I’ll continue to play it by ear.

I don’t know what the days will bring but it’s hard to imagine me not tallying a fish species or two for 2026 and having stories to share. Stay tuned!

First Fish of 2026

 

Something just doesn’t seem right when we get well into January and I realize that I have not yet caught a fish in the new year. Not wanting to risk that and having no other plans on New Year’s morning, I decided to make a river run.

Temps were in the 20s, and the river was extremely low and clear — not ideal catching conditions — but it’s a heavily stocked section with a catch and release requirement this time of year, so I knew there would be plenty of fish available.

Interestingly, despite ice forming on my line guides every few casts, I found a few fish rising on something too small to see in one of the first pools I fished. Trout were swiping at my lures but wouldn’t quite commit, despite me changing my offering a couple of times. 

I decided to move along to see what else I could find. A couple hours later, having found nothing else, I began wondering if I’d moved from that spot too quickly. And with more anglers arriving, I was even questioning whether I would end up getting my first fish of the year.

Thankfully, my concerns were overplayed. I eventually found the right cast and presentation and caught a couple of brown trout with essentially the same cast. Landing - Lindy Quiver Spoon in a current line across the river, letting tumble in the current, and the snapping it upward, near the bottom was the ticket.

A little farther upstream, I found a rainbow that took a Bobby Garland Mayfly. Then, on the way out, I stopped back by the pool where I saw morning activity and was able to coax one of those fish — a pretty rainbow— into grabbing my Mayfly. 

I only fished the morning, and can’t claim I just tore ‘em up. However, it was a fun New Year’s morning, and I was happy to tally my first two species of 2025: brown trout and rainbow trout.

Fishing on Foot Footprint Expanded

A while back I mentioned that I had created a YouTube channel, Fishing on Foot, which focuses exclusively on fishing that can be done without a boat. From wading trout streams to casting from the surf to walking pond banks, I cover all kinds of Fishing on Foot in video form.

I grew up fishing from piers and bridges and from the banks of ponds and creeks, and while I’ve enjoyed opportunities to experience so many types of fishing over the years, the stuff I can do on my own two feet has remained my passion. I think anglers tend to overlook the quality and variety of fishing that can be found without aid of a boat, and I like the opportunity to share that message.

The channel has grown gradually since I created it and now has a little more than 500 subscribers. Meanwhile, I’m even more gradually learning about video production and channel management.

Recently I decided to deepen the footprint of the Fishing on Foot message by creating a new blog, which you can find at fishingonfoot.com. Blogging is a format that’s more familiar to me and that is easier for me to feed regularly, even when I haven’t had opportunity to get out and gather fresh video content.

Like the YouTube channel, the new blog will focus on angling opportunities that do not require a boat, with a mix of destinations, how-to articles, gear discussions, tales of Fishing on Foot outings and more. It’s simply in a blog format for folks who still enjoy reading stories and seeing photos instead of only watching videos.

Of course, I hope you’ll check out the blog and the channel and that you’ll find things you enjoy and learn from in both places!

Fishing on Foot YouTube

Fishing on Foot Blog

2025 Fishing Adventures

 

Angling adventures during 2025 generally kept me closer to home than normal, with no fishing trips outside the Southeast. Typically I find my way to some other region a time or two, at least, but this year, the farthest I traveled was to Arkansas for a fall bass trip on Lake Ouachita.

Pursuit of the Georgia Bass Slam gave me reason to explore a bunch of Georgia areas, including some spots not too far from home that I had never fished before. The slam was central to several outings this year and turned out to be a lot of fun. 

I achieved the Slam and ended up catching seven different black bass species from Georgia waters this year. Meeting an added challenge I’d set for myself, I caught them all “Fishing on Foot,” either bank fishing or wading.

The below video explains more about the Georgia Bass Slam and my pursuit of it this year.

As always, I also spent time in trout streams in North Georgia and Western North Carolina and did my share of pond hopping for bluegill, bass or whatever bit. 

I also made a few trips to Lake Guntersville to fish for bass and get photos for work with guide Jimmy Mason. Jimmy is a great friend, and we spend a few days fishing together every year.

One of my favorite fishing days this year was spent with Daniel Griffee of On Deck Fishing Charters, casting topwater lures for aggressive, hard-fighting bluefish over the shoals at Cape Lookout in Eastern North Carolina. Except a bit of casting from a pier near Charleston, SC during a mostly non-fishing trip early in the year, that was it for saltwater pursuits for me in 2025.

I don’t know what kind of fishing opportunities the new year will bring (although I certainly have some ideas), but I look forward every adventure!

 

YouTube Channel about Fishing Without a Boat

A fairly new venture for me has been the establishment of my Fishing on Foot YouTube channel. As the name suggests, this channel is all about fishing that can be done on without aid of a boat, whether that means walking a lake's bank, wading a creek or river, walking out onto the ice, fishing from a pier or wading a saltwater flat. 

It's a work in progress, and I'm still in the process of figuring out the tone and types of videos that will be the most prevalent, but I feel like it will lean heavily on how-to and destination content, where I can share some of my experience and hopefully make on-foot fishing experiences more fun and productive for anyone who chooses to tune in. It's also a learning project. I admittedly don't have much video production experience, so I'm figuring stuff out as I go. I hope you'll consider following the channel and joining me as I step farther into this venture. I've inserted a few videos from the channel.