S6, Ep 136: From Arkansas to Appalachia: Fly Fishing with Mac Brown

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the articulate fly. We're back with another casting angles with Mack Brown. Mac, how are you?

I'm doing great, Marvin. How are you doing?

As always, Just trying to stay out of trouble. And you know, with all the driving you've been doing, you probably got back from Arkansas and had to go to the Jiffy Lube.

Well, I got in pretty late. I left. We finished up at about 4:00 Central Time yesterday and I thought, well, I'm just gonna go ahead and drive back.

So I drove back, got here at about 4 o'clock this morning eastern time and slept for. I don't know, I slept maybe an hour and a half and then got up, got some coffee and had a lot of projects to get caught up on.

So I'll be tired tonight for sure.

Yeah.

And so, you know, if folks don't remember you were down there, I think you did a two day, pretty long two days really, with the north Arkansas fly fishing Club. With, with Davey Watton, right?

Yeah, that's right. And that's. That's a fantastic place. I mean it's right there on the White river at Bullshoes, Dustin's visitor center. And that was a lot of fun.

That's where I kind of started back as a kid with my grandfather. He had a house right there next to bullshoals Marina. So I remember the first time I threw a plug.

A plug with an ambassador reel was right there at the dam at bull soils. First time I did a lot of cast and stuff is right there at bull shows with my grandfather when I was a little kid.

So it's kind of special for me, like just driving there in the morning to go to those things Saturday, Sunday and you know, to see the. There's a lot of color there. I mean, here the leaves have fallen off pretty much, but I mean, it's still colorful out there.

And you had the fog, it looked a lot like the smokies. You know, you get the fog over the lake and over the white.

And it just, it brought back a lot of memories for me because I remember, I remember a lot of that as a kid. But the other thing that I remember is it's a lot bigger now than it used to be, I'll tell you that.

It used to be a lot of me, mountain home and flipping and potter and all. That's a whole lot more busy than it was back when I was small. You know, it's expanded.

Yeah.

And you know, then the good news is you Know, you come home to find out that, you know, anywhere with a, with a good road, the state has figured out how to get in there and stock the DH water. It's a little bit late, but better than never, right?

Oh, yeah, yeah. We got. We have fish here in the upper Ang, Webster up by the college, and also here in Bryson City.

They went ahead and stopped it, I think the first day when I left and had a message from Tony and he was keeping up with it. And so the big thing is figuring out, you know, because I know this just from what they keep showing on the news.

Like the people in Arkansas were all shocked that they could even get here because on the news it makes it sound like everything's shut down, it's a disaster, and nobody can come. And, you know, I had to talk about that during the slideshow.

And the fact that the Tale of the Dragon, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1974, from Chattanooga, Cleveland. That's open. Atlanta's open. Coming up, 4:41.

Of course, 40's open, 26 is open if you're coming from Asheville, it's just not open if you're coming from the west on I40. So there's a lot of highways that are open. There's only like a few that are closed, but the majority are open. So.

So I think that that's really what's affected the number of people. But, you know, once they realize those things open, that's.

I think that was a lot of work for the, for the state with the hatchery program too, because there's a lot of counties that couldn't get, you know, that had DH programs that they can't get fish into.

So what they did, just so the folks know what they did is they took those fish that would have gone to the other BHs that they're supposedly supposed to go to, and they put them in these other programs that are like Jackson County, Macon county, and Swain County. So. And then of course, a lot more counties up in the Northeast.

Cause I think there's what, 37 of these programs now, back in the old days, it was just a couple. And it keeps expanding. But what they did is they doubled up the numbers on the, on the ones they could get to. Yeah.

And what I'll do is I'll drop a link in the show notes to the stocking page from North Carolina Wildlife and that'll tell people the stocking schedules. And I'll also drop a link to the best kind of road condition website because things are way, way, way Better than they were six weeks ago. Right.

And, you know, we can drop that stuff in there for folks.

And then, you know, you and I were talking before we started recording, you know, get out in these communities, spend some money, go fishing, but also remember that, you know, with that much water, you know, be. Be smart about how the river may not be the way that it was the last time you got in it.

And also be on the lookout for debris because, I mean, there can be, you know, not just trees, but, like, sharp metal and all kinds of stuff. And, you know, just be. Be smart. Right?

Yeah, yeah. Just, you know, look around if you. I mean, here, not so much, but. Yeah, further up north. Yeah, definitely. We didn't. We didn't really get the water.

You know, the floods, like what you see on the news. So here it was just like any other 20 rains we get in a year. You know, we didn't really get flooded here, so.

So north of here, absolutely got tons of water, you know, like from the. No, Truckee and Mount Mitchell. So.

But, yeah, I think that's really good advice because a lot of people that are up near Boone, Spruce Pine, Burnsville area, the Green River, a lot of that got changed dramatically. So, yeah, be on the lookout for that. It really depends where you go.

And, I mean, I guess the only way to know that is the people that live here know where. Where it was hit hard and where it wasn't. So that's hard.

That's hard to describe, though, in a few minutes on the, you know, I mean, on a podcast to say where it was hit hard and where it wasn't. But basically, the eye of the storm came over Bryson.

So obviously, when the eye of the storm comes over something, it's not hit as hard, and the outlying bands is where it was hit much harder. So that's about 40 miles, 40 to 60 miles away is where it was hit much harder with the eye passing here. Yeah.

And so what I would tell people to do, too, like, if they're really concerned about it, is, you know, every one of these areas have local chambers of commerce and tourism, and they're going to tell you, you know, what the deal is, right.

So whether it's Johnson City or Northeast Tennessee, you know, or Asheville, you know, just go online, go to the Facebook pages, and they're going to tell you kind of, you know, what the temperature is for, you know, taking visitors like, you know, Biltmore reopened probably a week and a half ago, Right. Beginning of November.

So, you know, you know, as we keep saying, And I know we sound like a broken record, but folks, this is going to take years for these people to recover. And you know, the biggest thing you can do is to visit the areas that are open and spend money.

And if you can't get there, get gift certificates and gift cards and don't cancel your guide trips and just roll them over to 20. Right?

Yeah, that's a big help for sure.

And I think that'll help a lot of these, A lot of these friends of mine that are up in Bonesville and Boone and all these other outlying areas that got really devastated. And it's like. And don't bail on them. You know, if you got a trip, just go ahead and put it, put it to, put it to 25 or something.

Don't call an asset for a refund because they got devastated. I mean, that's really beyond their control. And it's, it makes it tough on those people.

When you ask for everything packed and everybody wants it back, you know, they've already been buried. It's kind of like with the, with the flood, you know, it's tough on a lot of those people. A lot of people lost everything.

And that's what I think a lot of people don't realize when you lose everything, it's tough.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's kind of amazing.

We're already in the middle of November and you know, Thanksgiving is late this year and so next thing you know you're going to be flying all over the country for fly fishing shows. What's your, what's your show schedule? Starting to shape up like Mac, I'm.

Gonna start off in Marlboro, Marvin, and we go to Marlboro. And then from then on it's, it's pretty much week after week until middle of March.

We end up with the show at the Great Waters Fly fishing expo in St. Paul, Minnesota. And I think that's the last show that I'm going to do because then I have schools and too many commitments here.

But, but yeah, we'll be busy from start in the middle of January till the middle of March. It'll be, it'll be pretty much shows, shows going on. So I can go to the fly fishing show.com to find that.

It's also on my website, there's a page on there about specialty classes and shows. You know, I always post it on my website as well under the menu item so they can find it there as well.

And you know, they can sign up for look at classes and whatever's going on on the road. That's why we do those on the road, you know, is. Is It's a lot of fun to meet people.

And that way it gets more regional to take it to the Northwest, take it to the west coast and all over the country. What's going on?

Yeah. And you can sign up. I know Ben, for probably at least a month now, has had all of those specialty classes that the fly fishing shows up.

And I would just say as the holidays approach, it's a great gift for that fly fisherman that has everything in your life if you're near one of those shows. Right, Mac?

Oh, yes. Yeah, I think that'd be great. And I promise you they'll learn something.

I'm not saying that being they'll learn plenty, it's probably a better investment than buying another rod or reel or line or whatever it is they're looking at. Paying for.

The education, I think is probably the quickest way, lowest common denominator or the lowest hanging fruit, you know, for them to get something back for the reward of learning about something.

Yeah, it's definitely the force multiplier. And, you know, folks, you know, we have unseasonably warm weather here in the. In the mid Atlantic.

And, you know, as I always say, in February, when it's kind of cold and dreary, you're going to regret not getting out and fish. And if you can, go support some of these communities in east Tennessee and western North Carolina and southwest Virginia. Tight lines, everybody.

Tight lines, Mac.

Tight lines, Marvin.