Wet A Line

It has been often said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Well, I’ll bend it a little to make sure that we include our moms, sisters and daughters. That’s a great lead into this month’s topic. Our state is blessed with a tremendous amount of fishing opportunities for us to choose from.

According to the DNR, about “1.29 million resident anglers fish Georgia’s diverse freshwater resources that include more than 4,000 miles of trout streams, 12,000 miles of warm-water streams wider than 10 feet and 500,000 acres of impoundments.” As many of us are concluding our turkey season by taking a gobbler or two, or maybe just making some great memories, lots of us now turn to these waterways to try and hook some lips. Fish lips, that is.

One of my fondest memories was several years ago on a quest for a mountain gobbler with my good friend from Kevin Lowery. We headed up to Warwoman WMA in the north Georgia mountains for a chance at what we named a “Spring Triple-header.” For the coals, we were hoping for a wild pig, a gobbler and some freshly caught trout. As it turned out, we had some great hunts and covered a lot of ground in those mountains but without a distinctive report from our shotguns. We were, however, much better on the water, landing  several trout in those cool streams. After cleaning, they were covered in salt, pepper and butter and wrapped in foil to meet up with some of the previous deer season’s backstraps. That venison was marinated in a combination of blackstrap molasses, balsamic vinaigrette and fresh garlic and joined the fresh trout over the red-hot coals. Oh my gosh, what a treat after all that mountain hiking! 

That weekend also reminded me that you don’t have to shoot game in order to have a successful hunt. We had a blast that weekend and chowed down on some restaurant quality food. The time spent in the woods was a bonus. 

So, where will you go this spring? Will you follow us to a mountain stream or find a nice lake or pond to toss a lure or a cricket? I could tell by seeing some of the pictures in last month’s issue of GON that some of you have had some nice successes already. There were some massive catfish in that issue! It’s amazing the line didn’t snap on  that 70-pounder from Clarks Hill caught on 6-lb. test. Check it out on GON.com.

Although I have not been saltwater fishing in quite some time, some of you might find yourselves casting from our coastal shores or maybe even taking a day trip for some deep-sea fishing. Whatever your pick is, be safe and feel blessed that we have such bountiful fishing opportunities in our great state. Enjoy, and celebrate your success with us at [email protected].