We usually see spectacular dry fly conditions from October well into November but things were pretty well cut short this year. About two weeks ago we received an unusually early heavy snow in the Smokies and plenty of cold air to follow. The resulting cold water has kept the fish relatively sluggish and I started […]
Reelin’ In The Years
It’s been on my mind since spring and I’ve tried to avoid it, but lately a few things have been impossible to ignore. Running our own guide service and raising a couple of kids makes it tough to dwell on anything minor for very long, but when some seemingly random points come together to create […]
In The Thick of The Season
Well here we go! We’ve been guiding a pretty steady schedule for a little more than a month now, but the lingering cold weather put things off just a little bit. But that’s all about to change. We’re packing our last items for our long weekend camp on Hazel Creek while trying to remember to […]
Good Bye to an Old Friend
The phone rang about dinner time last night and it all became a little more real. It was a truck driver on the outskirts of St Louis heading this way with a load of Hyde drift boats. One of them is ours. “You’re the guy with the trade-in, right?” That was our cue to get […]
A Guide’s Life – A Chronic Case of the Willies
One of the great things about life in the mountains is that wildlife is all around you. Of course we’ve had neighbors who felt like that was a huge downside of life in the mountains and even moved back to more urban surroundings as a result. It’s not uncommon for us to see any number […]