Each Winter the Fly Fishing industry is typically busy trying to get ready for their upcoming seasons. Be that tying flies, repairs to gear and boats, or hatching out new game plans to one up their competition. Lots of guides and shops also travel to trade shows in far flung reaches of the country in hopes of attracting new customers. While we have our fair share in all of those activities, we are still pretty busy guiding too. Winter is the perfect time to catch big fish in our region. But when it gets brutally cold and the rivers run too high for safely fishing, we find other things to do. So what are we up to this Winter?

Best of the Blue Ridge

So far 2018 has started out awesome for us! Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine awarded us as the Best Fly Fishing Outfitter in the Blue Ridge Mountains for 2018! And our Lead Guide Eugene Shuler was awarded as the Best Fly Fishing Guide in the Blue Ridge Mountains for 2018. We were very surprised and humbled being given this distinction, especially considering just how big the Blue Ridge Mountains are, which extend from Maryland all the way to Georgia. We would like express our most sincere Thank You to everyone who nominated and voted for us! You can read the article and check out all the Winners of the Best of the Blue Ridge here at http://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/best-of-the-blue-ridge-4/

Classic Wood Drift Boats

This Winter the Fly Fishing the Smokies staff are hard at work crafting classic wooden McKenzie drift boats! We are nearing the half way point on one of several wooden drifters built to classic specs from plans by legendary master boat builder Don Hill from Oregon. These old world styled boats were the catalyst for modern drift boats and fly fishing from drift boats on big water. Originally designed to run the mighty McKenzie River in the 1930’s and 40’s these classicaly styled boats offer a ride like no other. Fly Fishing the Smokies will be bringing a fleet of these fine boats to the water starting in March 2018. You can follow along with our builds on our Facebook and Instagram pages. We’ll be posting lots of photos to come of these beautiful hand crafted boats.

2018 Fly Fishing Trips

Of course we are continuing with the fantastic trips we currently offer and adding a few more new ones to the mix! For 2018 we have added the following rivers and areas to our roster.

Nanatahala River: Trout Unlimited’s Top 100 Trout Streams in America. Record Brown Trout and an amazing habitat full of wild fish!  Big river fishing,  and small back country tributaries full of wild Brook trout!

Cullasaja RIver: One of the most scenic rivers in all of the south. Massive waterfalls, over 11 named falls to be exact, and gorgeous Brown and Rainbow trout set in a beautiful national forest. Fantastic dry fly fishing during the warmer months.

Panthertown Valley: Apptly named the Yosemite of the East, Panthertown Valley offers miles of breathe taking scenery, solitude and impeccable fly fishing for wild trout. Dry Fly Fishing here is hard to beat!

Carp Fly Fishing: Now before you do the whole “say what” to yourself, think about this for a second. No these hillbillies haven’t gone crazy. Big fish, easily weighing over 15-30 pounds, brutally hard fights with battles lasting well over 15 minutes, spooky fish, stalking them on grass flats and fishing from drift boats… Yeah now you get the picture. Carp aren’t called the fresh water Bonefish for nothing!

We also have a few more awesome trips yet to be unveiled. We’ll keep you posted on those! Its going to be a great 2018, and a season we are really looking forward to it. We hope you are a part of 2018 with us!

We’ll see you on the water!

Faith, Family, and Fishing