Fish Thumb Has No Boundaries
New Experiences, New Species, New Traditions, New Techniques, & New Friendships
A Dream Come True in Miami
One sentence: tarpon fishing in Miami. Okay, it’s not even a sentence. It’s like a crazed half-thought running through my mind. You’ll know from my last Miami adventure how desperately I wanted to win a battle with one of these beauties. When I booked a return trip to Miami for business, my mind immediately leapt […]
Canyon Lake, CA
Rejuvenation & Bass Fishing at Canyon Lake Humans can go days without water. Weeks without food. But months without fishing out on the open waters? After my knee surgery, with two months of crutches and some mobility rehab, to say I was stir crazy is an understatement. I was insane. And I was plotting. We […]
Return to Milwaukee, WI
A Triumphant(?) Return to Ice Fishing and Big Brown Trout Okay, I have to say it right up front: this was a fun one. But not necessarily for the reasons you’d expect. Of course ice fishing for massive brown trout is a guaranteed great time, but I get even more joy when I’m able to […]
Yellowstone River, MT
You probably know the name Yellowstone for its natural beauty as a national park, and its infamous geyser, Old Faithful. For me, Yellowstone calls to mind a river in Montana, one which gave me one of the best fishing days of my life.
Whitehouse Drive, KY
Whitehouse Drive is a street you’d never know held magical secrets, at least not for fishing. Well, not for anything else really, either. But it is the home to an incredibly small pond behind my uncle’s house in northern Kentucky, and I knew from my childhood on Swan Lake and my adventures on Doris Court […]
Staniel Cay, Bahamas
The Bahamas may just be the quintessential paradise we all dream of, and not just because of that famous song by the Beach Boys. A few years ago, I was working on a big project in Nassau. I’d flown down there several times, and on this particular trip I asked some of my colleagues for […]
Shaver Lake, CA
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. In some ways, the sentiment behind this saying is the same impulse that drives me to share my stories. You can make a memory somewhere and be done, or you can share that and […]
San Jose Del Cabo, MX
I think no matter how old you get, you probably groan just a little when your dad winds up to tell one of his stories you’ve heard countless hundreds of times. Or when you can just feel a classic “dad joke” coming on. Especially as we get older and grow in our own wisdom and […]
San Clemente Island, CA
For most people outside of California, very few know Catalina. It’s a tourist spot 20 miles or so off the coast. If you’ve heard of it you either read my write-up of it here, or maybe you heard the name in the movie Step Brothers where they infamously make it to the “Catalina Wine Mixer.” […]
Sacramento Delta, CA
Have you ever heard the expression “Run amuck”? If you haven’t, now you have. If you have heard it before, did you ever think about what it means? I learned about it first hand at the ripe age of 12, out on the Sacramento Delta. When I lived in the Granite Bay area of […]
Pyramid Lake, NV
The Native American people are some of the greatest storytellers. Their spirits are tied to the land, the plants, and the animals in a communal harmony. Some say this is how they pass on stories so well. In Native American lore, spirits live on in many ways, and I know this to be true from […]
Puerto Vallarta, MX
Years ago, there was a city in Mexico known only as La ciudad más amigable del mundo. It was written on the signs on every road entering the city, from Nayarit through Mexico City. The name translates to The Friendliest City in the World, but nowadays it’s called Puerto Vallarta. And it’s a […]
Perry Park, KY
One of the special qualities about fisherman like me is the very same quality that makes our wives or friends call us crazy. And it’s not crazy. It’s the simple hope that no matter what kind of luck you’ve had, the very next cast might be the one that hooks your biggest dreams. I […]
Oso Lake, CA
Oso reservoir is somewhere I spent a lot of time when I was an aspiring angler in high school. It’s right off the 241, not far from where I lived, but it was a private lake at the time. Which means that for a yearly fee of $1,000 or so, you could have the privilege […]
Newport Beach Harbor, CA
Try something. Pull up Yelp and search restaurants in Newport Beach, California. Or google top seafood restaurants in Los Angeles. However you choose, try searching the menu and prices for quality fish, like a nice halibut. $35? $48? Don’t say $75! Or don’t do the search; you can just trust me that some of […]
Meet Chris Isley
Not everyone is lucky enough to find their passion. Blessed to have found mine. I love fishing, my girls, and God. But I really really love fishing…
WHY I DO WHAT I DO
Fishing has always been a big part of my life. As a kid, my grandparents use to say it was the only thing that could get me to sit still. As my wife can now attest, that fact still remains true today. Being born in the state of Kentucky, I soon found myself moving around the country. In fact, I had moved 11 times by my 13th birthday. Through this travel, my passion for fishing expanded. I was no longer limited to the farm ponds of the Bluegrass State. Moving allowed me to target species I had only dreamed about while reading In-Fisherman magazines as a kid. As I grew older, I found myself jigging for crappie on the rocky banks of Lake of the Ozarks, fighting King Salmon on the Kenai, targeting sturgeon on the Sacramento Delta and working long-range tuna boats in Southern California. By the time I finished high school, I had fished more water than I once thought existed, met countless new friends and figured out a way to monetize my passion. The experiences I had in my younger years laid the path for the addiction that still fuels me today.