S5, Ep 126: Jake Darling of Unicoi Outfitters

**Marvin Cash (00:04):** Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. On this episode, I'm joined by Jake Darling, manager of Unicoi Outfitters. Jake shares his fly fishing journey, and we take a deep dive into North Georgia fishing and shoal bass. I think you're really going to enjoy this one.

But before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items. If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating and review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out.

And I'm excited to bring the business and consulting skills I've developed off the water to The Articulate Fly community. If you're in the industry and feel like you're leaving money on the table or the day-to-day grind of running your business is killing you, let me help you find a more profitable and enjoyable path in the sport. Head over to www.thearticulatefly.com/consulting and let's start our conversation today.

Now, on to our interview. Well, Jake, welcome to The Articulate Fly.

**Jake Darling (01:18):** Thank you, Marvin. Excited to be here.

**Marvin Cash (01:18):** Yeah, you bet. I'm excited to have you. We have a tradition on The Articulate Fly. We like to ask all of our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.

**Jake Darling (01:18):** So my earliest fishing memory — I don't remember exactly how old I was, but what I do remember is that my dad and I were at a local pay-to-play trout pond. I had a little bitty Snoopy rod. The rod couldn't have been any more than two feet long. And when you came up to this trout pond, they fished with the cheese that you get in the cracker sticks at the gas station that's in between liquefied and solid. That is what they used as bait. And you would ball it up and you'd put it on a hook and throw it out into this trout pond.

I was hooking these huge rainbows that were well over 20 inches, and they were literally just screaming the guts out of this little Snoopy rod that I had. I remember my dad having to hold me by my belt loop to keep from getting drug into the pond. And I thought it was the best thing ever because we filled up our bucket. I remember my dad saying, "We got to get out of here because you're going to break me." And so that would be my first fishing memory ever.

**Marvin Cash (02:41):** It's funny. I had a trout pond experience — it wasn't my first fishing trip — but I remember the whole discussion about do you pay by time or do you pay by the pound.

**Jake Darling (02:54):** You got to take all of them home with you, and it gets pretty expensive pretty quick.

**Marvin Cash (02:59):** So, Jake, when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?

**Jake Darling (03:05):** So my first fly fishing experience — my dad was a really big angler in general. He was a member of the bass club way back in the day. He conventional tackle fished, he fly fished. Everything about him was fishing. And when I was in elementary school, we had a little john boat and my dad would come pick me up from school. We'd go to a local lake and we would brim and bass fish.

The first memory I have of fly fishing was when I buried a Betts popper in his back right between his shoulder blades. I don't remember many details about that day other than him getting very frustrated because he had this big number four popper stuck right in the middle of his back that he couldn't reach and I couldn't get out.

I'll tell you my first trout fly fishing experience. My dad was on a fishing trip in Michigan and I was pretty young into the fly game — I'd only been a couple of times — and my mom, I was pestering her to take me fishing, so my mom took me to the Tallulah River in northeast Georgia. It wasn't far from the house. I had an old fiberglass rod and a Martin reel. And this was back in the day — you remember the little plastic pieces that you used to use on the end of your fly line to connect your leader, where you would slide your fly line through it and tie an overhand knot, and then you'd slide your leader through it and tie an overhand knot?

I had that on my rig. I thought we were big timing with the equipment that we had. And so I made a cast underneath this tree with a white brim popper because I didn't know any better. The stock trout came up and ate it, and I set the hook on it, and I literally like froze. I didn't know what to do. So I chunked the rod onto the sandbar that I was standing on and I ran out to the tip of the rod and I grabbed the line and I literally started hand lining the trout in to me. I landed him and I was so proud of him that I put him on a stringer and I literally walked him up and down the dirt road there at the Tallulah River like a dog, to the point that I wore the skin completely off of the fish. That would be my first fly fishing experience that I really remember.

**Marvin Cash (05:53):** Yeah, that's very neat. And as we like to say, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then. Who are some of the folks that have mentored you on your fly fishing journey and what have they taught you?

**Jake Darling (06:04):** I mean, how much time do we have?

**Marvin Cash (06:04):** All the time you need.

**Jake Darling (06:04):** There's so many people. A lot of people don't know this side of kind of my story and where I come from. But growing up, my dad knew all the guys at the store. Every weekend we went to the shop. Every weekend we were fishing. My dad was friends with the guys that worked at the shop. He never worked in the industry, but we were constantly fishing. And so I grew up fishing around and with the guys who were making a living doing it — way back, this would have been mid-90s, mid to late 90s. And so I grew up fishing with them.

When I was young, my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he ended up passing away when I was 14. So in that time, there were a lot of guys from the shop who were friends with my dad that literally stepped in almost as a father figure to me. A couple of guys — and I'm sure I'm going to miss a few or leave a few out — but some of them that jump out to me the most would be a guy named Doug Westmoreland, which happened to be a really good friend of my dad's. My dad worked, during the last part of his life, at a car store in Commerce. And Doug had an automotive shop there. So Doug and my dad would fish together and we would all go on camping trips. And Doug — he was a man of integrity. He knew a lot about fishing. But the biggest attribute to Doug was he was always the one that was willing to lend a helping hand.

When my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, my dad told Doug, "I would like to go fishing with Jake one last time." And so Doug and my mom arranged for me and my dad to go fish on the same river where I caught my first trout ever on fly. And that was the last time that I fished with my father before he passed. I still talk to Doug to this day, off and on. We don't get to fish much together anymore, but he's still an important part of my life.

When my dad passed away, I remember they had the funeral service here at Clarksville Baptist Church right down the street. And we were sitting there having the service, and I look across the back room. There's probably 15 or 20 guys standing back there that are all in blue jeans and fishing shirts. It was all the guys from the shop. All the guys from Unicoi had come to my dad's funeral. I remember Jimmy walking up to my mom after it was over and he said, "Don't worry, we're going to take care of him." And that's exactly what they did.

To name a few guys that were important to me when I was young and in that time of need — number one, first and foremost, would be Jimmy. He's always been like a father figure to me. He's always been influential in my career. And you won't find a guy that is any better than him. I mean, he is as good as they come, no question.

There was also a couple of guys — Julian Burr and John Browning. Those guys were guiding back then. They took me fishing, taught me about fishing. But I think more importantly, more than anything, we were fishing because that's what brought us together, but there was a lot more to it. They were teaching me more about life and what it meant to be a man. These guys invited me into their hunting club. They invited me to hang out with their families. That meant a whole lot to me — having somebody that was willing to put their arm around me and say, "Come on."

Some others that come to mind — Jeff Derniak. Right after my dad had passed, Jimmy and Jeff would take me and another young gentleman fishing. Henry Cowan — I didn't know Henry, Henry didn't know me, but the first time I met Henry, he has a very strong draw toward people. They want to be around him. He's a lot of fun. He's a good guy. I just remember him taking me fishing when I was younger and we just kind of hit it off from there. He was calling the store, we were chatting. I talk to Henry, probably two or three times a week now still in my life. He's always kind of giving me advice or helping me connect with people. He's always willing to go out of his way to help me better my career.

A few other guys at the shop — Dale Waters fished with my dad. John Cross was the manager at Unicoi. He's the one who gave me my start at a young age. A few other guys in there that were guiding just kind of took time out of their life to take me fishing and shaped me and molded me into what I became.

**Marvin Cash (12:58):** Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic. I always say the fly fishing community is probably one of the most generous communities of people I think I know on the planet.

**Jake Darling (13:09):** There's no question. Everybody that you meet are down-to-earth, humble people that are more than willing to help somebody out. Yeah, I'll give you a funny Henry story.

**Marvin Cash (13:23):** Henry called me on my birthday and said happy birthday to me.

**Jake Darling (13:32):** He did? He just did the same thing to me a couple weeks ago.

**Marvin Cash (13:38):** Yeah, it's all good stuff. And so you're starting your fly fishing journey — I think I was telling you before we started recording, I think the last time I saw you was probably, gosh, probably 10-plus years ago in the shop. And I think probably around that time you were doing the Team Stonefly thing, and I was kind of curious about what the competitive fishing experience was like and how it impacted your future fishing.

**Jake Darling (13:59):** I enjoyed the competitive fishing. I come from — I played soccer growing up and I actually had a scholarship to play in college. And so I always had that competitive side. I was a lot younger and so I probably was more competitive than I am now.

I got a call from Gordon Vanderpool one evening and he invited me to come and try out for the team, so to speak. They were just forming the team up. And so I came in and fished with them and ended up joining the team. When I first got into it — I don't know if you remember or not — but they used to have a casting competition to get into the fishing aspect. Do you remember that?

**Marvin Cash (14:56):** That I don't remember.

**Jake Darling (14:58):** Yeah, so way back when, you would show up and cast, and say there were 30 anglers — they would take the top 20, and they had accuracy and distance. In the first tournament I showed up at, I didn't make the casting cut. I didn't get to fish. It was on the Broad River there that feeds into Lake Lure, and it was a really humbling moment because, here I was, surrounded by all these great anglers and I thought that I was really good. And I didn't even get to fish because I didn't make the cut.

But I liked that format. I went home and started practicing casting. And what the way it was formatted was: however you placed in the casting competition was who got to pick what beat of water they wanted to fish. I think to be a good angler there is definitely some element of casting involved in it.

Anyhow, later on they kind of switched how it was formatted. And the biggest thing that it taught me was how to best use your time on the water, because you're on limited time and you're trying to score the highest points that you can. It also taught me how to fish water that is in front of you effectively, even though it may not be the best water on the stream. This is the hand you're dealt right now — so how do you approach this water and how do you fish this water to get the most out of it?

**Marvin Cash (16:48):** Yeah, it's interesting. I know some people don't like comp fishing, but I always kind of equate it to like the Formula One team for the automobile manufacturers. I always think of those guys as kind of being on the front line of solving fishing problems.

**Jake Darling (17:03):** Yeah. I mean, there were some really solid sticks that were fishing back then. Guys that were really talented.

**Marvin Cash (17:14):** I'm just trying to think — who were some of those folks? Michael Yelton was probably one of them, right?

**Jake Darling (17:21):** Michael Yelton. Josh — gosh, what is Josh's last name? It's not Josh Graflin. Gosh, it'll probably come to me a little bit. Gordon Vanderpool, the guy — I fished a fair amount of team tournaments and I fished with a guy named Chris Smith. That's been a long time ago. That's probably the first names that come to mind — just the guys that I was closest to.

**Marvin Cash (17:58):** Yeah, it's funny. I've gotten a chance to fish with Gordon over the years and I mean, it's a pretty amazing thing to be on the water with him.

**Jake Darling (18:03):** Yeah, he is a very talented fisherman. And he can always wade to where you can't because he's like six foot seven.

**Marvin Cash (18:14):** Yeah, and he's a big dude, so he can go fish the other side of the ripping current too, right?

**Jake Darling (18:14):** Yes, yes, yes.

**Marvin Cash (18:14):** So at what point of your fly fishing journey did you get the guide bug?

**Jake Darling (18:28):** So when I decided it was what I wanted to do, I had a scholarship to play college soccer at Emmanuel College. My freshman year — the high school team I came from was a pretty good team — so my freshman year, I showed up and it had become more like a job. We kind of split the season; I think we were like 10 and 10. And I'm sitting there and there wasn't really anything that I wanted to study.

So I walked into my coach's office and I said, "Hey, you don't have to worry about working up my scholarship for next year. I'm not going to be here." And he said, "Okay, so what are you going to do?" And I said, "I'm going to go back home, and I'm going to get in the fishing industry, and I'm going to go to school at night, and I'm going to study business." And he literally laughed at me. And when I came home, it was full bore guiding from that point on.

**Marvin Cash (19:33):** Yeah, and so did you kind of break into that part of the game through Unicoi, or did you kind of start doing something else and then migrate to the shop later?

**Jake Darling (19:43):** No, everything I've ever done has all been through Unicoi. I mean, I guess it was kind of destined to happen. I had grown up around those guys. I fished with them as a young teenager all the way up. And so when it came time that I decided that's what I wanted to do, that's who I went to.

**Marvin Cash (20:08):** Yeah, got it. And so, I know you mentioned a bunch of folks earlier in terms of fly fishing mentors — any new guide mentors you want to give a shout-out to, like in today's world?

**Jake Darling (20:18):** Yeah, so I'm still gravitated toward what I call the OGs — the guys that kind of paved the way for everybody else to have an opportunity. The guys that were doing it before it was cool. I kind of put myself in that group of guys with the older guys. I think they have a lot of wisdom. They're all very honest, hardworking guys that have always done everything ethically, and I respect that.

**Marvin Cash (21:00):** Yeah, I think the other thing too is the older guys didn't have the internet, so they really had to figure stuff out. And you couldn't buy everything you needed to be successful.

**Jake Darling (21:11):** I mean, I remember when we started fishing — we had glacier glove waders where the feet were made of nylon and they were pointy like Tinker Bell shoes. They didn't have Simms Gore-Tex waders back then.

**Marvin Cash (21:32):** Yeah, it's interesting. I interviewed Kevin Howell and he was telling me that his dad and uncle used to buy Vietnam era surplus combat boots and they would grind the soles off of them and glue felt to them. And that's how they made the first wading boots.

**Jake Darling (21:49):** It was a lot different back then.

**Marvin Cash (21:51):** Yeah. And he said the waders were so bad that you started wet wading in March — just a different, kind of a different game. But everybody figured it out, right?

**Jake Darling (22:00):** Yeah, no doubt.

**Marvin Cash (22:02):** Yeah. So, Jake, what do you think is the secret to being a good guide?

**Jake Darling (22:09):** Yeah, so I kind of got four main things that I think are the secret to being a good guide. I think if you look at all the successful guides in the industry, they all have the same characteristics.

First one for me is just having the ability to formulate a day that's going to cater to your client's needs or wants. And a lot of times that's on somewhat short notice. Somebody walks in for a trip and you meet them and they may be like, "Hey, I want to really work on my streamer fishing today," or "I would like to learn how to dry-dropper fish," or "If you have some time, can you teach me how to double haul?" — just whatever they want. Being flexible and being able to tailor a day to them and what is going to be a success to them, I think is the most important thing.

Secondly, being able to offer a memorable experience. They're there for an experience. Yes, the fishing is something they're interested in, but overall they want to have a good experience. And I think that's through entertainment and through conversations with your customers and kind of getting to know them — more so than just fishing together and watching your watch and waiting for four hours or eight hours to be over so that you can be on to the next one. Some of my best friends, that I almost treat like family, are some of my clients. We met through fishing, but now we talk to each other a whole lot more than we fish. And we care about what's going on in each other's lives. So just building that relationship with them.

Another thing that comes to mind would be patience. As a guide, you have to be very patient and understand that we all started in the same place. Even though you're a guide now and you're very knowledgeable about what you do, there was a time that you didn't know anything. I didn't know anything about fishing. I didn't know which end of the rod to hold, where to start. I was overwhelmed. And somebody went to help me kind of gain a knowledge of what was going on.

And then the last thing I would say is you've got to be really good at what you do. You've got to be good at teaching. You've got to be good at catching fish, but you've got to be able to make that not be the focal point of the day.

**Marvin Cash (24:57):** Got it. And Jake, what do you think is the biggest misconception people have about the life of a fishing guide?

**Jake Darling (25:05):** The thing we hear often is, "You got it made. You get to go fishing every day." And it's not like that. Yes, we get to spend a lot of time on the water. We get to fish through other people. We get to enjoy those experiences with them. But there's a lot of prep work that goes into the trip. The only side that the customer may see is the eight hours that you spend in the boat while you're all together. But an eight-hour day is really more like a 12-hour day because you've got to get up, you have to prep the equipment, you have to prep the lunches, you have to wash the boat, you have to travel to the river, you've got to put it in the water, you've got to run the shuttle. And then when you get home, you've got to clean it all up and you've got to get going for the next day. So there's a lot of work that goes into it.

And even preparation — when you're not working, when you're not on the water, you're always out, always keeping track of what's going on with the fish. You're always exploring new places, something that may be a new offering for your clients. So there's always something going on in building your brand.

**Marvin Cash (26:35):** Yeah, absolutely. And then you've got the multi-day guys — you're probably going to end up having dinner with them at least once, right?

**Jake Darling (26:35):** Yeah, definitely.

**Marvin Cash (26:35):** Yeah. And so, I understand that now you primarily guide for bass, and I was kind of curious what drew you to bass over trout?

**Jake Darling (26:52):** Yeah, so my guiding career — I did my first guide trip by accident. Then when I came back from college, I got into it and I was wade fishing for trout. Then I migrated to where I was float fishing on the Toccoa River and the Tuckasegee River for trout. Then I met my girlfriend at the time, which is now my wife — she was from over in that area, so I was still spending a lot of time guiding over on the Toccoa.

Then when we were going to get married and she moved here, I was looking for something more localized. I was driving like 140 miles round trip each day to go fish. I was literally getting up and leaving the house at 5:30 and getting home at 7:30, and it was just a lot going on. I wanted to do something different to kind of differentiate myself from other guides and landed on the shoal bass thing. I grew up in the area, fished the river a little bit when I was younger but not a ton, started fishing it more and more, and then when I made the transition back here to guiding locally, that's kind of when I gravitated more toward the shoal bass.

**Marvin Cash (28:22):** Yeah, got it. And so what makes them such an attractive species to chase on the fly?

**Jake Darling (28:29):** The shoal bass tells a cool story. You're talking about a fish that has a very limited range — it's not like you can go anywhere in the world and do it. They live in a really pretty environment. There's nothing better than late spring, dropping in and having the rhododendron and mountain laurel blooming all on the banks. The habitat that they live in, the arena just feels right. It's what I like.

And the way they eat a fly — they're an ambush fish. They're going to get on a rock or something and wait for something to come by and run out and grab it. So most of the time the eats are visual. I like that. And they're very migratory fish. They're constantly moving for seasonal changes. And I like that factor where when I slide the boat in the water every day, I've got to go hunt them. It's not going to be like it was yesterday. It's not going to be like it was this time last year. I like that factor of having to put the pieces of the puzzle together every day.

**Marvin Cash (29:44):** Yeah, pretty neat. How do they compare to smallmouth?

**Jake Darling (29:51):** I would say a shoal bass is everything that a smallmouth is — they just don't jump. Pound for pound, they pull just as hard as a smallmouth; they're just not an aerial fish. They're going to pull their sleeves up and they're going to come to the boat and they're going to fight you at the boat. But they dig really hard. They're visual feeders, so it's typically a clear water deal — you get to see it all happen.

**Marvin Cash (30:17):** Yeah. I always think it's fun — in my part of the world — to fish for smallmouth with like a white Game Changer, and like one minute you see it and then the next minute it's gone.

**Jake Darling (30:26):** That's the best bite — when you see your fly coming in and it goes like four feet to the left or the right, or it just completely blacks out.

**Marvin Cash (30:39):** Yeah, I mean, it never gets old.

**Jake Darling (30:39):** No. I do it every day.

**Marvin Cash (30:39):** Yeah. And so, Jake, what's the typical shoal bass season look like?

**Jake Darling (30:46):** Yeah, so we start fishing — they're warm-blooded fish, they like warm weather. We start fishing late spring when the fish are pre-spawn, and usually that time of year we've got pretty good flows. A lot of streamer fishing, intermediate lines, sink tips, 8-weight, 7- to 8-weight — a lot of Game Changers, any kind of swim fly stuff. Then post-spawn — I usually won't fish a whole lot during the spawn. I kind of leave them alone just because it's such a fragile resource. I kind of let them do their thing.

And then in the summer we start fishing topwater bugs, and that's usually a 6-weight on floating line. It can be a lot of different types of surface bugs. And then we slide into fall and things start cooling down. Fish start feeding back up for the winter and start, kind of transition back to streamer fishing again.

**Marvin Cash (31:46):** Yeah. So it does sound a lot like a kind of a smallmouth bite. I would imagine, right? You probably get to fish for them a little earlier than some folks do and probably get to fish pretty late because you're in a pretty mild climate, right?

**Jake Darling (31:46):** Mm-hmm.

**Marvin Cash (31:46):** Yeah, and so, Jake, in terms of tackle, what would be a typical rod, reel, fly line combo if people wanted to chase shoal bass?

**Jake Darling (32:12):** Yeah, so really I say you have to have two combos if you want to fish the whole season. You should fish a 6-weight with a floating line a lot — use that with some kind of topwater bug. And then we'll fish 7- and 8-weights with intermediate and sink-tip lines, and that's what we're streamer fishing with.

**Marvin Cash (32:33):** Yeah, and on the bug presentation, do they like animation, or is it kind of like what we do up here in the summertime where we plop that cicada down and just let it drift until somebody eats it?

**Jake Darling (32:44):** Yeah, I think it depends on what time of year you're topwater bugging. Early season, there's more water, they like it to move a lot more and you get a lot splashier bite — I think that's more of a reactionary deal. And then later, as the water gets low, it becomes more of a subtle twitching bite, and that's by far my favorite because it's more like hunting at that point. You're looking for a certain fish.

**Marvin Cash (33:13):** Yeah, it's pretty cool too when you get to see them — and you're watching — when they're kind of backpedaling, backpedaling, backpedaling, and then they eat.

**Jake Darling (33:25):** That's the best part. I jokingly say that you've got to have ice running in your veins because they will come out and they will headstand on the fly. And I've seen them headstand up to 20 seconds before they ever take it.

A few years back, I remember I found this fish that was pretty large. And these big fish, the 18- to 20-inch fish, they're really old. They grow pretty slow, so they're fairly old. They've been in the system for a while and they get pretty knowledgeable as to what's going on. I found this fish and I wanted to go back and catch it. We set the boat up upriver of it and made a 45-degree shot down to it so that it had no idea that we were there. The fish comes up and it headstands on the fly, and it literally pushed it with its nose twice. And the third time, it ate it.

**Marvin Cash (34:20):** Yeah, doesn't get much better than that, does it?

**Jake Darling (34:23):** No, no. That's the most addictive part of it to me.

**Marvin Cash (34:28):** Yeah. So to back up just a little bit, how old were you when you started working in the shop?

**Jake Darling (34:35):** My first job at Unicoi, my mom would drive me to the shop and I would pick up the trash on the river and clean the troughs. I probably was 15.

**Marvin Cash (34:44):** Yeah, very cool. And so how has your career at Unicoi kind of evolved over the years?

**Jake Darling (34:52):** Yeah, so started out with just guiding and mostly wade fishing for trout. And then I did that for a few years. Then I got an opportunity to move into the retail side and come on as the assistant manager. During that time I was still guiding and working retail, and got to dabble a little bit into the purchasing side of the business. And did that for a while. And then John, who was the manager for a long time, he retired and I took over his position as manager.

**Marvin Cash (35:30):** Super cool. And I always like to ask this question of fly shop folks because I always believe every shop kind of has its own personality. I was kind of curious how you would describe Unicoi Outfitters' shop personality and kind of what makes it unique.

**Jake Darling (35:46):** Yeah, so kind of our tagline would be that we're friendly local experts. So many times I've been in stores — not here in this area but traveling — and you walk in and people acknowledge that you walk in the door, but they don't show as much interest. You don't start small talk of, "Hey, you going fishing, where have you been fishing?" and maybe lend a little bit of advice. The one thing that we always try to do is to be approachable to people and also go out of our way to help them — whether that be through knowledge or product or whatever it may be — but just to help them have a better day on the water.

**Marvin Cash (36:35):** Yeah, absolutely. A little southern hospitality goes a long way, right?

**Jake Darling (36:43):** Yeah, it does. And honestly, for the guys working behind the counter, it helps the day pass a lot quicker because you're engaged with the customer, and it makes everything go by a lot quicker. I like that part. People ask me all the time, "Do you like to guide anymore, do you like retail more?" And honestly, I like the mix of the two. I did the guiding thing full-time and there's a busy season where you make all of your money in a few short months, and during those months you're really grinding. And then I've been on the retail side too, and I like the mix. I like for people to come in the store and get to interact with them and engage with them — talk to them about whether they're going fishing, whether they've been fishing. And then I like to be able to take people fishing too as well. I jokingly say that's kind of like a day off when I get to lace up the boots and go fishing.

**Marvin Cash (37:46):** Yeah, it's kind of neat too — I mean, at least from the other side — I really enjoy building those relationships over time with people in shops. And to your point, you now have friends that started out as guide clients. And I think that's the thing too in kind of this day of e-commerce — that's what makes a shop sticky for people.

**Jake Darling (38:09):** Yeah, I mean, honestly, for us as brick and mortar, that's all we have is the experience that we offer when customers come through the door. In this market, everybody who sells product signs an agreement to sell it at the same price. So really all you have that differentiates you is your service.

**Marvin Cash (38:30):** Yeah, absolutely. And you're close to Atlanta, so that makes it even more challenging because you've got so many more people and more shops and all that kind of stuff too. But, Jake, one of the great things about the Southeast and North Georgia in particular is you have such an incredibly diverse fishery. You've got so many other angling opportunities in addition to trout and shoal bass. I was wondering if you could share those with our listeners in case they don't know about all of them. And then I'm pretty sure you guys guide for all of them too, right?

**Jake Darling (39:01):** We guide for most of them, and if we don't, then we know somebody who does. That's the good thing about everybody here in the industry — everybody gets along really well and everybody helps each other out. So even if we don't specialize in something, we know somebody who does.

But to get back to your question — we've got stripers, landlocked stripers. There are guys who target them on the lakes. We do some striper trips in the spring on the river, fishing out of a jet boat — that would probably be my second favorite thing to do. We have really good spotted bass fisheries around the area, in both lakes and rivers. We've got some highland herring fisheries. We have pretty decent carp fisheries for sight-fishing for carp. We have some pretty cool black bass around the area — we have sub-strains of redeye bass right here in our general area: Bartram's bass and Chattahoochee bass, which would be a sub-strain of a redeye. And then we also have — I guess you could classify them as all the trash fish — the gar and the pickerel and all those critters too as well.

**Marvin Cash (40:36):** Got to get those big nylon braided flies for those guys, right?

**Jake Darling (40:44):** Yeah, the guys at the store have kind of figured out a way to hook them on a hook, so it's a pretty neat deal the way they're doing it. I know for the longest time the rope fly works well, but it's really hard to get it out of their mouth. So the way they're doing it with the hook is pretty unique.

**Marvin Cash (40:44):** Yeah, and they've got pretty hard mouths too, don't they?

**Jake Darling (40:44):** Oh, it's solid bone.

**Marvin Cash (41:16):** Yeah, solid bone. And so if none of that stuff floats your boat, I know you guys have kind of recently added destination travel to your program. You want to let us know a little bit about that?

**Jake Darling (41:21):** Yeah, so we've done some destination travel. We've been to Brazil and a few other places in South America. And Jimmy's got a Dorado trip next April. That'd kind of be our biggest thing coming up for destination, which is something that I've always wanted to do. I haven't been able to do it yet, but hope to one day.

**Marvin Cash (41:51):** Yeah, it's pretty neat. I know that's with the Set guys, and I had Gustavo on. I think I was telling you before we started recording that I probably fished with him — I hate to even say it — almost 20 years ago. But brought him on to talk about Dorado stuff. And I mean, they've got it pretty dialed in down there. I would imagine it's going to be a pretty awesome opportunity.

**Jake Darling (42:13):** Oh, I'm sure it's going to be an incredible trip.

**Marvin Cash (42:15):** Yeah, it's kind of interesting. They kind of rotate you through, so you get to fish the big river and you get the air conditioning. And then you're going to get to go kind of back in the woods and do — almost like where you get to go to the nurseries and catch those baby tarpon. And I know those guys, their hospitality is awesome. So I would imagine it's a horrible way to spend seven to ten days.

**Jake Darling (42:38):** No, I think it's a lot of flavors of ice cream and it's just a matter of which one you want. It's always incredible to travel to these other places and just see how they operate and how great their hospitality is and how they do things.

**Marvin Cash (42:59):** Yeah, absolutely. And I know we're kind of marching into the middle of October, so it's kind of that kickoff for Southern trout season. Do you have any upcoming events in the shop or kind of in the area you want to share with our listeners?

**Jake Darling (43:13):** Yeah, so the next big thing for us would be the Atlanta Fly Fishing Show coming up the 1st of February. That's the next big event for us. We just had a fall kickoff a couple weeks ago. And then we'll be having a spring kickoff too as well, where we kind of have a gathering at the shop and have some demo days and some on-the-water instruction and whatnot. It just gets people kind of fired up for fishing season as we transition into that.

**Marvin Cash (43:42):** Yeah. I tell you, that Atlanta Fly Fishing Show has really, really taken off. I would say it's probably after Edison in Denver, probably the largest show that Ben and Chuck put on.

**Jake Darling (43:57):** Yeah, last year — everybody was kind of scared after COVID, what was going to happen as far as how people were going to turn out. And we had great attendance last year. I imagine this year it'll be pretty close.

**Marvin Cash (44:14):** Yeah, pretty funny having to fight all those little kids at the Lego thing that was next door.

**Jake Darling (44:19):** I didn't get to experience that, but I did hear about it.

**Marvin Cash (44:22):** Yeah, just made it hard to get lunch, that's all.

**Jake Darling (44:25):** Yeah.

**Marvin Cash (44:26):** But it was good. And watching little kids have meltdowns and you're like, "Dude, I'm going back in the fly fishing show."

**Jake Darling (44:34):** Yeah, I get to watch that every day. I know how it is.

**Marvin Cash (44:38):** It's all good stuff. Well, Jake, before I let you go this evening, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?

**Jake Darling (44:44):** Yeah, so just to point a few things out — some people may not be aware, but we actually recently picked up two pieces of private water back in the spring. And they've both been fishing really well. So we've got a little bit different experience to offer our clientele.

And I think early on, people are always looking for knowledge about what may be going on in the area. One of our staff members, Jeff Derniak, puts out a weekly fishing report on our social media and on our blog every week that's full of intel from that week. So it's a really fresh report. Wes puts in a hot fly list there for the week. All of our guides are reporting in. It's got fishing intel from all across the state. So it's really a good place, if you're thinking about going fishing that weekend or you just want to know what's going on in the area, to gain some knowledge and have a better grasp on what's happening once you get out on the water.

**Marvin Cash (45:52):** Yeah, I tell you too — because I do fishing reports with various guides and shops — I think if you go back and listen for an entire year, you'll learn a ton about the fishery too.

**Jake Darling (46:02):** Oh, no question. And that was one thing that we wanted to do when we built the blog — we have archives over on one side of the webpage, which gives you the ability to go back and look year after year at what's happening.

**Marvin Cash (46:17):** Yeah, I've learned a ton just recording them. And you want to let folks know — you've got the shop in Helen and then you've got the country store. You want to let folks know where they're located, hours and all that kind of good stuff?

**Jake Darling (46:29):** Yeah. So the shop in Helen is right just south of town on Main Street. 7280 South Main Street is the address. That store is open seven days a week from 8 to 5. And then the Unicoi Outfitters General Store in Clarksville is right in downtown in the square. The address there is 1420 Washington Street. And that store is open Monday through Saturday, 8 to 5.

**Marvin Cash (46:53):** Got it. And if folks wanted to find the website and social media and follow the shop and all the fishing adventures, where should they go?

**Jake Darling (47:01):** Yes, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook — those are our two biggest social platforms where we put out intel. And then also on our website, which also has a link to our blog too as well.

**Marvin Cash (47:14):** Awesome. And I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes for everybody.

**Jake Darling (47:14):** Perfect.

**Marvin Cash (47:14):** Awesome. Well, Jake, I appreciate you not going home to two little kids and sitting in the shop and recording with me this evening. And look forward to crossing paths with you soon.

**Jake Darling (47:31):** You bet. I had a great time. Thank you.

**Marvin Cash (47:37):** You bet. Take care, folks. I hope you enjoyed that as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Tight lines, everybody.