Jimmy Jacobs was born in Atlanta, Georgia and lives in Marietta, Georgia. He is a member of the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association Hall of Fame and recipient of numerous state and regional awards for his writing and photography. Jimmy got his first exposure to fly fishing for trout in the mountains of North Georgia and on the Chattahoochee River tail-water in his native Atlanta. That came during and just after his college years. Over four-plus decades he has traveled widely across the Southeast in pursuit of trout, embracing tiny headwater streams, famed tail-water fisheries, delayed harvest streams, commercial operations, and indeed most anywhere in the region a trout might rise to a fly. During that time, he pursued a career as an editor and journalist. For a full quarter of a century he served as an editor with Game and Fish Publications out of Marietta, Georgia, where he handled magazines dealing with the Southeastern states. He has also held multiple newspaper gigs including a nine-year stint as outdoor columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since 2012 he has been the Georgia Editor for the on-line publication, “Southern Trout,” and the additional duties of editing a new on-line Southern Saltwater Fly Fishing publication. Most of those activities are low profile compared with the reason he is best known to avid anglers and the reason he will long be cherished by those addicted to whistling lines, murmuring streams, and the magic of rising trout – books. Jimmy is the author of many books on trout fishing in the Southern Appalachian region, and all but the most recent of these, the just published Brook Trout in Dixie: Jewels of the Southern Appalachians, have gone through multiple editions. These include Trout Streams of Southern Appalachia: Fly-Casting in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee (2001, 2009), Tailwater Trout in the South: A Guide to Finding and Fishing the Region’s Man-Made Trout Fisheries (2003) and, Trout Fishing in North Georgia: A Comprehensive Guide to Public Lakes, Reservoirs, and Rivers (2006). He has authored a number of other books including: Bass Fishing in Georgia: A Comprehensive Guide to Public Lakes, Reservoirs, and Rivers (1998), Fly-Fishing the South Atlantic Coast: Where to Find Game Fish from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to the Florida (2000), a meditative work of nostalgia Moonlight Through the Pines: Tales from Georgia Evenings (2000), and an adventure novel The Cerdo Grande Conspiracy: A Tale of Pig-Nappers in Paradise (2015). Jimmy has put untold back country miles behind him as he hiked to and waded remote streams, wherever he has journeyed. His photography is as skilled as his literary productions. Over the years, Jimmy has won multiple awards from the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association for both his writing and his photography. In 2015 the latter organization, Georgia Outdoor Writers Association, inducted him into its Hunting and Fishing Hall of Fame in
recognition of a lifetime of achievements as an outdoor communicator.
Jimmy Jacobs — Inducted in 2017 in the Communications category as the author of numerous fly fishing publications sharing his knowledge and for his photography work.
