MEET JAY TALBOT
Jay grew up in Columbia, SC where he would spend time drawing with his grandfather. His love for
fishing was ignited at 5 years old when he went fishing with his dad and sister for the first time.
As a
child he would wake up at 5am on the weekends to start watching the fishing shows. When he was
finally old enough to drive he spent every moment he could fishing for largemouth bass, and even hired
a guide at the age of 16 to go catch tarpon where he and his bud jumped 2.
During college was when fly
fishing and art collided. Going into his last semester of college, he had to minor in art studio in order to
graduate in time. He had just caught his first redfish on the fly a couple weeks before the semester
started, so all he wanted to draw in class was anything related to fish. He started posting his work to
instagram and companies started wanting to work with him.
6 months after college he jumped in full
time as an artist and was committed to making it work no matter what. Fast forward 9 years later he is
now a successful artist and lives in Columbia, SC with his wife and 2 dogs. They enjoy
renovating/working on their home together and hanging out with friends.
When and how did you get started creating art?
I always really enjoyed drawing ever since I could remember. My mom was an art teacher and
my grandfather always had paintings in the state fair every year, so I naturally picked up the
pencil being around them at a very young age.
I started posting my class projects to my Instagram and next thing I knew,
companies were contacting me to create art for them.
(Other than Lost) Who is your favorite person or company you’ve worked with?
I did a little campaign design with Captains For Clean Water that said “Kill the Bill.” It was a cool project because it felt like it accomplished a lot for the sport of saltwater fly fishing in the everglades.
How has your Creative process changed over the years?
My creative process has not changed very much. The inspiration is still the same, which is drawing what I am missing based off of memories from fishing.The only difference now is that I use an apple pencil and an ipad mainly now instead of a pen and piece of paper.
Favorite Design?
The “Get off my flat” crab design because it just makes so much sense, especially if you’ve fished a flat before. There seems to always be one blue crab that is so angry that you’re on its flat that it’s almost comical, much like a someone fishing a flat. Sometimes if you look at someone poling a flat the wrong way, you can set them off.
Who has influenced you the most?
That’s a really difficult question, but it probably is someone I knew from my hometown who went to New York City and made it as a successful painter. His name is Tripp Derrick Barnes. I remember being influenced by him to take the leap of being an artist because I saw how he used social media to make it as an artist. I thought if he could do it then so could I.
Why team up with Lost?
Lost Hat Co was the perfect fit for a collab because I used their blank hats in the past and they were a hit. Everyday I was getting asked who made those blanks, and when are you getting more in with your designs. I had trouble doing the patches myself and keeping inventory in stock, so when Lost Hat approached me to do a collab it was a no brainer.
Most important question: What is your fly fishing setup? Gear, rods, reel, flies, boat, etc.
I am by no means a gear junkie at all. I keep it as simple as possible.
I bought a nice fly reel once and sold it a couple months later. Give me the cheaper stuff that I can beat up without a second thought. Let my guide buddies spend the big money on fly gear and skiffs.
Whenever I get to the point of convincing my wife that we need a skiff, I’ll probably buy an older Mitzi skiff and have TFO rods with hand me down fly reels. I guess I would want one nice setup for tarpon, when drag really starts to matter.
