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Performance Anglers’ head guide and manager Joe Contaldi began his life-long angling addiction at the ripe age of four. Fishing the streams of the New Jersey countryside as a young lad, Joe lived “tight lines” and “bent rods” even before entering into kindergarten. When asked in his first math class what the sum of ten plus twelve is, he offered the response, "About the number of fish that I caught yesterday!"

Relocating to Southern California during his high school years, Joe began to explore all of the Southern California waters, and all they have to offer. Joe's history of angling in So Cal is exceptionally respectable. "Matuka Joe" has twenty years of fishing and guiding experience in the Eastern Sierra. He understands all of the fish species, and the vast majority of fishable waters in Mono and Inyo Counties. Likewise, Joe has a history of hanging out with salty dawgs, bringing to the decks of countless ocean charter boats plenty of Bluefin, Yellowfin, Albacore, Dorado, and almost every other saltwater species one can find off of the coast of Southern California. Ask him about it next time you are in the shop. The fifteen years that Joe committed to running saltwater spinning and fly fishing charters is evident, in his love of being out on the boat on Convict Lake or Crowley Lake.

When Joe is not fishing or guiding on the bountiful creeks, streams, and rivers in the Eastern Sierra, he likely has the boat anchored on a very productive corner of Crowley Lake. The P.A. Midge and P.A. Perch patterns envisioned and developed by Joe do land lots of very big trout throughout the region, each and every summer.

“Matuka Joe” has spearheaded the world of video fly fishing and video spin and bait reports for the Eastern Sierra. They are really cool, extremely informative, and on his website. Joe really enjoys spending quality time fishing with his family: his lovely wife Julia and two sons Quinn and Logan. Youth development goes further than Joe's family, as he is deeply and selflessly committed to wards bringing young anglers into the world of fishing through his involvement with the annual Kids Fishing Festival in Mammoth Lakes.