S6, Ep 147: Tailwaters Fly Company: A New Haven for Fly Fishers in East Tennessee

Marvin Cash
00:00:04

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. On this episode, I'm joined by John Leraas, the owner of Tailwaters Fly Company.

Tailwaters is the newest fly shop in East Tennessee and caters to the serious fly angler and fly tire. John shares his fly fishing journey, what makes East Tennessee such a special angling destination and his vision for Tailwaters.

I think you're really going to enjoy this one, but before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items. If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating and review in the podcatcher of your choice.

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Use code ArtFly20 ArtFly20 all one word for 20% off of your Trout Routes Pro membership at maps.troutroutes.com now on to our interview. Well John, welcome to the Articulate Fly.

John Leraas
00:01:25

Well thanks for having me on Marvin. I'm a longtime listener, first time caller, I appreciate it.

Marvin Cash
00:01:30

And you know we have a tradition as you know, because you listen a lot on all of our interviews. We like to ask our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.

John Leraas
00:01:39

I do know.

So I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, right on the southern tip of Puget Sound, and when I was about four my dad took me down to the local boat launch, cast out a either one or half ounce lead weight with a piece of herring on it and we caught a stringer full of what we called bull head, which are basically like a big sculpin and I remember bringing home a big stringer full of them rather than just leaving them on the dock as most of the people there did. And we ate them for dinner. I had very supportive parents growing up and so we had many bullhead dinners growing up.

Marvin Cash
00:02:20

Very, very neat. So when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?

John Leraas
00:02:25

Well, my grandfather passed away when I was five or six years old and I inherited all of his fly tying stuff. So I, I kind of started, I tied some Flies, honestly, I tied them with lead wire at that point because it wouldn't unwind on you. So.

So you could make a mistake and break something and you know, it wouldn't come all unfurled and loose. But, you know, I tried it, got into it, got excited about it, didn't quite stick. You know, at 6, you only have so much coordination.

So kind of went back to bait. But that helped maintain and build my passion for fishing in general.

And I came back to it when I was about 13 years old and kind of advanced from brim and stocker rainbows to things like sea run cutthroat and chum salmon and flounder and those types of things.

Marvin Cash
00:03:14

Things, yeah. And as we always say, it was kind of downhill from there.

So, you know, who are some of the folks that have mentored you on your fly fishing journey and what do they teach you?

John Leraas
00:03:24

Yeah, so my dad definitely helped introduce me to the sport and got me out there. And then honestly, he took me to a local fly fishing club called the Puget Sound Fly Fishers.

You know, when I showed up and I was in my early mid teens and everybody else was at least 50 years old, everybody was super supportive, receptive, helpful, went out of their way to just make me feel welcome and show me things. One person in particular, Gary Oberbilig, ended up being my grad project mentor.

My grad project in high school was tying a ton of flies for a road trip up to British Columbia in Alaska after graduation. So he helped me with that.

And then when I moved out to the Triangle, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill in North Carolina, I got hooked up with the Triangle Fly fishers. I'd say everybody in there has been really influential on my fly fishing journey and helping to acclimate me to a new area.

Three people, I'll just mention real quick. John Couric invited me on my first South Holston river trip. Pretty selfish aims in mind.

He was the president at the time and he was recruiting board members. So I kind of got roped into that. But appreciate it overall.

Ned Jones organized tons of trips out here and I was lucky enough to be invited to a bunch of them. And then Malcolm Finlayson is a good friend of mine.

He was the officiant in my wedding and he really took me under his wing and not only showed me a lot on the South Holston and Watauga to get me started, but, but Roanoke stripers, false albacore out on the coast, New river smallmouth, redfish, all kinds of things in North Carolina. And then the Other big one was Bjorn beach, who owned and ran a fly shop where I grew up called the Fly Fisher.

And he was helpful in, you know, introducing me, introducing me to the sport, getting me excited about fly tying, but also, I would say a mentor in the fact that a lot of what I am basing my business on today are things that I picked up from him.

So I remember going into his shop, it was kind of a shoebox that was packed to the brim with time stuff, and he maintained a pretty low overhead and just put all the money into materials and inventory. And if you were excited about fly fishing and fly tying, you went out and you saw him and you enjoyed it out there.

So anyway, he was a really influential person, too, and even allowed me to tie commercially for the shop when I was in high school. So those are some of my mentors.

Marvin Cash
00:06:17

Yeah. Super neat.

And so, you know, you've been lucky to fish, you know, on two coasts with, for a lot of different species, you know, which is your favorite one to chase on the fly.

John Leraas
00:06:29

My absolute favorite thing to do is to wade fish alone for big brown trout. And there's a certain intimacy with the fish. There's a connectedness. I'm 40 now, so I still have the physical ability to run down a big brown trout.

It's heart pounding, it's an adrenaline rush, and it's a bit of a chess match. It's just something that I get really amped up to do.

I also like fishing for stripers and hybrids here and, and browns in the lakes and all kinds of things like that. But wade fishing for big brown trout is my absolute favorite thing to do.

Marvin Cash
00:07:09

Very, very neat. And, you know, you touched on the fact that you, you know, kind of got a taste of fly tying when you were very, very little.

And obviously, if you were tying commercially and you own a fly shop now with a big focus on fly tying, you know, tell us a little bit about kind of how you came back to fly tying the, you know, after being five or six years old.

John Leraas
00:07:31

Yeah. Yeah. So again, started at five or six and came back to it really kind of around 13.

You know, my dad had hundreds of books in the house, and dozens of them were around fly fishing and fly tying. And I just consumed all of those and started going to that local fly shop and spending my allowance there.

And that's a habit that I developed that has continued for, you know, 27 years. It's been kind of an ever evolving passion.

And every time I've moved and moved to a new fishery, it's a way for me to kind of figure out the new area and get really connected with it.

And you know, even during periods of my life where I haven't been able to fish all the time or every day or every week or month, it's really a way that I've been able to stay connected with what I like to do.

So, I mean, I have really vivid memories of sitting at my tying bench thinking of as I'm tying a split back nymph, thinking about the specific ripple here in the South Holston and the specific trout that I'm targeting with that nymph. So it's a habit that has served me well over the years.

Marvin Cash
00:08:46

Very, very neat. Any kind of notable mentors or people that influenced you on your flight time journey?

John Leraas
00:08:52

Yeah, yeah. You know, I would, I would say that group out of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, the Triangle Fly Fishers, we got together and did a beer tying event.

They're still doing it. It's been going on for, gosh, I don't know, 20, maybe longer than that years. And everybody in there has been influential.

We'll get together and kind of show each other patterns and ways of doing things. Couple folks from that group, Malcolm Finlayson, Dave Bussell, Harry Bales, all focused a lot on these rivers out here.

And then Preston McQueen is a really creative tiger from that group too and influenced me in a number of ways.

Marvin Cash
00:09:36

Neat. And you know, it's kind of funny, right?

So you were in the, let's just say the real world in the Triangle and you're clearly obsessed with fly fishing and fly time. But that doesn't really translate into like saying we're going to leave the Triangle, going to move to East Tennessee and open a fly shop.

Tell us a little bit about that.

John Leraas
00:09:55

Yeah, so it's been a long time in coming.

I started fishing out here probably around 2009 and as I got to learn the fishery and be out here, I just started coming out here as often as I could in 2016, I think my wife and I came over here from the Triangle and for those folks who don't know, that's a four hour plus drive. We came over here over 20 weekends in one year. So we've been pretty enamored with this area for a long time.

We did a brief stint in Richmond, but finally moved out here full time in 2020, right around the onset of COVID So we've been out here for a few years, but a few things came together at once. You know, a lot of my background is more Kind of corporate, and I was looking for something else to do.

My daughter was starting kindergarten, so my wife and I were both going to be able to work in the business. We'd saved up some money to stock inventory. And then another big thing, to be completely honest, is we'd lived here for four years.

I'd always been terrified of getting into the industry because I was afraid of burning out on it, to be quite frank.

Some people you see get into it and after a few years, they decide that when your passion turns into a job, it can kind of put a damper on it a little bit. And I mean, I've been out here four years fishing every second that I can, and it has not gotten boring.

It still feels like Christmas whenever I get to go out. So got over that. And then the last piece of the puzzle really was kind of seeing the opportunity, which we'll see how it plays out.

We're about two months in, but you know, honestly, really well stocked fly shops that have tying material I feel like are kind of a dying breed.

And I mean, even talking with the folks that I still know in the triangle, you know, they have a hard time getting materials between there and here, between the coast and here. And, you know, carrying a ton of flight time materials kind of sucks as a business model.

You're trying to sell, you know, 500 spools of thread instead of one rod, but I feel like it really kind of captures the soul of the sport. And if you talk to the most serious fly fishermen out there, you know, probably 9 out of 10, if not more tie. So.

So anyway, it's just something I've been really excited about. Have a fly shop like that work you. You need a few things and especially a community, you know, locally, we've got at least 100 fly fishing guides.

We've got a bunch of people who live here. Some of them live here for the fishing, some of them live here coincidentally, but have picked up on it and just fish as much as they can.

And then we've got a bunch of people who travel to the area, and a lot of them don't have a whole wall of whiting hackle back home, you know. So I'm hoping between those three groups that we can kind of support a shop like this. And it's early, but it seems to be. Seems to be working so far.

Marvin Cash
00:13:20

Yeah. It's interesting you say that because, I mean, I would say, you know, in Charlotte we have outdoor stores, but we don't have a fly shop. Right.

And you know, to Your point? I mean, it's a phenomenal challenge. I mean, I know because I've been watching your Instagram feed.

I mean, you're spending a ton of money on inventory, right? Yeah.

And it's really awesome because one of the big frustrations is if when you go into a store that doesn't have what you need, then generally what happens is you end up pulling out the stock J. Stockard catalog or Feathercraft, and you make all those purchases there, right. And you.

And, you know, and that's even before you go down the rat hole of like, who do you trust to send you natural materials? So, you know, I think you've got a great fishery, I would say.

I'm sure you've got an E Commerce solution coming which is going to, you know, I imagine, help you sell spools of Viva's thread, Right?

John Leraas
00:14:16

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Marvin Cash
00:14:18

Yeah. So, you know, you're spot on. Yeah. So as you mentioned, right, you've been open for about two months now, officially.

You know, what's been the biggest challenge or surprise so far?

John Leraas
00:14:28

You know, I'll mention a couple of things. You know, one, every. Everything always takes more time and effort than you think is going to in life, period. If you're kind of an optimistic person.

Two has been honestly keeping pace with demand. I feel like I've been running downhill full tilt and just trying to keep my feet under me. We opened the shop way before I was comfortable doing it.

We still have a bunch of furniture in here that I'm hoping to replace.

But as we were hanging slatwall and just had piles of boxes with dubbing and hooks and everything in it, people were just walking through the door and disrupting my day setting up the shop to talk about fishing.

And after the second or third person did that, I kind of figured out that, oh, nuts, I've got to get a point of sale system set up so that these people can start buying stuff. And it doesn't have to be perfect on day one. So kind of keeping pace with demand has been a big part of it, which is a good problem to have.

But then the third, and probably on a more serious note, the other big surprise was Helene.

Obviously, for those of you or those listeners who don't know this specific area, different watersheds within a very close proximity were affected really differently. So, you know, the shop is physically located right on the lower end of the South Holston, which fared relatively well through all of this.

The Watauga, just a few miles away, is another one of our premier fisheries and that was really severely impacted by Helene. There's still a lot of muddy water coming out of Watauga Lake, which is really unfortunate.

But it flooded a number of houses and lodges and other things like that. And then a bunch of the Freestone creeks. Just one example, the Doe river runs through Elizabethton and then into the Watauga.

Today, I think that was running at 145cfs during the peak flow of Helene, it hit 20,000 cfs and it flooded everything in the Watauga downstream of it. And then further down, some of the river systems you have, like the Nolachuckee, which was hit really, really hard.

So, you know, the other thing is that these fisheries, that being the South Holston and Watauga, are good enough that they draw anglers from quite a ways. So there are outfitters, guides, people who are located in Asheville and further away who will travel up here with clients for the day.

And all of those people were obviously severely affected. So navigating that was extremely difficult. We were extremely lucky. My house didn't have any damage, the shop didn't have any damage.

We got extremely lucky. But there was a lot to navigate through, all of that.

Marvin Cash
00:17:43

Yeah.

And I would say, and I've been since you listen, you know, this on all the fishing reports and kind of where I can, you know, and, you know, there's a huge human tragedy to all of this, but then the economic tragedy is, you know, Southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, western North Carolina, a huge component of their economies. Their fall tourism season. Right. Which was absolutely devoured.

And, you know, whether you're talking about being a month late with delayed harvest stockings and those couldn't happen everywhere.

But, you know, what I would tell people, because I think a lot of people don't know, is that basically most of western North Carolina, southwest Virginia and East Tennessee are open for business. 40s open. All the way across from North Carolina, 26 is open.

So where maybe a week after you open the shop, you are going to have to drive six hours from Charlotte to get to Johnson City, because you're going to have to go up 77 and come down. That's just not true anymore. And so, you know, I completely get it.

And I've been encouraging, you know, people one to visit the communities and spend money, but also to buy gift certificates and not to reschedule guide trips.

John Leraas
00:18:53

Absolutely, absolutely. I would 100% agree with that. You know, I've got one example of a guide who comes in here frequently.

Literally during Helene, he had a tree fall on his house and you know, he had a guide trip the next day and he's kind of faced with a dilemma of what do I do?

And you know, he has a family to feed and he elected to go out and take clients and put food on the table and hopefully have money when that repair bill comes in, you know. So anybody who's thinking about, you know, coming out here doing a guide trip, I would really encourage them to.

One, because it's helpful for the economy and two, you can feel like you're doing something good.

And three, the fishing has been pretty good and you know, not every single day is the same but we've had a lot of big fish put in the boat here over the last month or so.

Marvin Cash
00:19:49

Yeah. And there's some great restaurants in Johnson City, you know, some neat places to stay.

So you know, bring your, your non fishing friends with you and make a big weekend out of it.

John Leraas
00:20:01

Absolutely, absolutely.

Marvin Cash
00:20:03

And so, you know, I'm a bit of a shop rat and so I, you know, it's kind of what I do. And I also kind of know the game for how to get information out of fly shops when you travel and hint folks, it helps to buy stuff.

John Leraas
00:20:19

I'll neither confirm nor deny, actually, I will confirm up front.

Marvin Cash
00:20:22

Yeah. And I generally found that you get higher quality and more abundant information the more you spend. So there you go.

I have lots of flies that I'll probably never fish again, but it's all okay.

But you know, every shop has a personality and I know you're really young but you've kind of been around the sport and been in shops, you know, you know, what's the feel that you're going for with the shop and kind of what do you think you need to do? To quote, have a good fly shop.

John Leraas
00:20:49

Yeah. So in terms of feel someone used this term and I'd say it's exactly what I'm going for.

They, they said this almost feels overwhelming and that's exactly what I'm going for. What I'm hoping to do is have kind of a shoebox of a place.

Hopefully it's not quite that small, but just jammed packed with as much stuff as you can physically cram into it. It's a place that's going to cater to serious fly fishers and have serious fly fishing equipment.

Obviously a lot of that is tying stuff, but there's also a lot of kind of niche products that are just the best out there and they're really important for me to have. So for example, if you're into Euro Nymphing. I've got Pierre Sempe, which I bought straight from that company in France.

I've got High and Dry floating. I've got Lefty Craze Secret Indicator yarn.

There's all these niche little things that if you're real serious about it, I'm really hoping to have in stock. There's a lot of great fly shops with a lot of great, you know, their own characteristics.

This is not a place to kind of after a day of fishing and relax and unwind and talk sports.

This is a place where if you want to nerd out on optics under the water or some other aspect of fly fishing that's pretty deep and in the weeds, we're perfect. And I'll talk your ear off for an hour. But what I want people to have in here is just kind of a sense of awe, a sense of sensory overload.

You know, we obviously want to be welcoming and helpful and be here if you're just getting into it, or if you're, you know, a guide or if your budget's $20 or if it's $2,000. But, you know, we just want to have that high energy, overwhelming shop that you can be excited about.

Marvin Cash
00:22:48

Very neat. And, you know, I've probably said it almost a half a dozen times at this point because I watch you on Instagram.

You got a ton of stuff in your shop, right. And you just mentioned some really kind of, you know, nerdy propeller head stuff. Right.

That gets guys really excited, which they'll be excited when your E Commerce solution shows up. But, you know, tell folks, kind of give them an idea of, you know, kind of what you're stocking kind of generally.

So they just kind of have a feel for what's in the store.

John Leraas
00:23:15

Yeah, yeah. So the name of the shop is Tailwaters Fly Shop. And that's intentional. And it's a slight reference to the South Holster in Watauga.

But for those of you who don't know this region intimately, it's an area that's really impacted, I would argue, positively by the tva. And so there are many fisheries outside of those two that are just world class, to be completely honest.

We've got great smallmouth fisheries, We've got other great trout fisheries, even kind of freestone stream stuff. Got musty fisheries, striper hybrid largemouth carp, pretty much anything you can ask for. And so everything we have in here is catered to those.

So I would say the only thing that we don't really, you know, go out of our way to Specialize in is salt water and steelhead. Tons of tying stuff, great fly selection, and then all of those niche little components.

I mean, one thing, for example, that you don't find in many fly shops anymore is Maxima Chameleon for building leaders. And we've got a huge stock of that. So hopefully all those little odds and ends.

Marvin Cash
00:24:36

Yeah. And also too, because I've seen the wall in your shop, you've got a nice variety of lines, Right.

Which you know, when you're doing multispecies and fishing lakes as well, you really need to be able to find that fly line for the job, Right?

John Leraas
00:24:51

Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, the other thing I'd say is we've only got so much space. We're a retail shop, not a distribution warehouse.

So everything in here is pretty curated and it's stuff that I. Almost everything in here is something I've used personally.

Marvin Cash
00:25:08

Yeah. And I know Ellis wants to put you on the clock for your online store.

John Leraas
00:25:15

Yes, he does.

Marvin Cash
00:25:18

And I can't remember what he told me last night when I talked to him that he was committing you to, but so folks, just so you know, and you can see it too, in the Instagram feed, I can see a lot of product shots.

Like, I know you're taking product shots for your probably your Shopify page and putting them out on Instagram, but between now and the time everything gets online, I assume folks can call the shop and say, hey, do you carry this? What have you got? Here's my problem. And you can ship them stuff.

John Leraas
00:25:44

Absolutely, absolutely. So that, that's part of the running downhill at full speed.

You know, a couple times I posted something on Instagram and someone's messaged me and been like, hey, in the lower left corner at the second three, I saw this. Can you send me a picture and possibly mail it to me? So I've definitely done that and we'll do that for folks.

And honestly, it's good practice for me just in the whole mailing process. But I think those people have been.

Marvin Cash
00:26:13

Really happy with what they' Very cool. And so, you know, obviously it's cooling off and that generally means classes and tying stuff.

And I know you've got a million things going on and, you know, you only opened a fly shop, you know, within a week of a hurricane hitting your area. You know, literally a, you know, a once in a multiple lifetime event. You know, you have anything kind of on the calendar you want to tease.

John Leraas
00:26:37

For folks, you know, nothing specific. We will do some sort of events.

I don't Know if those will be over the next three months or the next 15 months, we will probably start small and build intentionally, but we will have some events.

And then honestly, too, in terms of kind of helping people out and that kind of thing, you know, I'm certain that we will start doing more kind of instructional YouTube videos and that kind of thing over the medium term.

Marvin Cash
00:27:12

Yeah. And very neat. And we. We should talk to. Because I have all kinds of ideas.

I spent a fair amount of time over there and got to spend some time with the tourism folks and kind of that entire region. So we'll have to. Maybe we'll. Maybe we can part together and do something.

But, you know, for folks that don't listen to everything that we do, you know, kind of this part of the world is kind of in the wheelhouse for the articulate fly.

But why don't we, like, walk folks through, you know, we can start with the South Holston and talk about the Watauga and kind of touch on some other things, but kind of let folks know kind of what's available, you know, roughly how to fish it, maybe kind of the season, you know, so we can talk about sulfurs on the South Holster and all that kind of good stuff. But why don't we start there and kind of walk through some of the fisheries?

John Leraas
00:27:54

Yeah, yeah. And let me start with the South Holston Watauga, because those are the two preeminent. You know, I think most people here, South Holston.

What I will say is Watauga has been a really amazing river as well. So if you're ever coming out here, don't poo, poo, poo. The Watauga. If you have a guide who's trying to take you out there, just listen to them.

If they're generating. Generating on the Holston, wading the Watauga is not a bad option.

So both of those rivers are tailwaters, you know, kind of run and operated by the tva. And it just creates a really amazing environment for trout. Both of those rivers eventually run into Boone Lake.

And so you have a combination of resident fish that will grow extremely large.

And then you also have fish that will migrate down to the lake, feed on shad in the winter, and then as the lake temperature rises, they'll move back up the rivers in search of cooler water. So there are some true fish of a lifetime in both of these rivers in terms of season. You know, I'll just kind of start in the spring with.

With a few things to be on the lookout for. And typically, these Things happen on both rivers. One may happen more on one river than another.

And usually on the Watauga, it's a month or a couple weeks earlier than the Holston. So spring we basically have sulfur start hatching. And they start hatching on the lower parts of the river and move up. Caddis start hatching.

There's a really great Mother's day caddis hatch on the Watauga. The suckers run up both rivers and spawn. And if you hit that right, the fishing can be just absolutely amazing. And there's also shad runs.

And so brown trout, hybrid striper will follow these shad runs and feed on shad. And that's another really cool fishing opportunity.

If you hit things right during the summer on both rivers, you have, you know, continual bug hatches, A lot of sulfurs, a lot of caddis potential, particularly on the Watauga. And then during the fall, you get some kind of pre spawn movement, pre spawn activity.

And, you know, big fish that have been holding in very specific lives for three or four months are moving somewhere new. They don't quite have the scenery as dialed in. They may be a little bit more aggressive.

And you see a lot of fish get caught pre spawn that are really big. You know, winter fish will spawn and then go back on the feed. There's some really amazing streamer fishing that takes place out here on both rivers.

And so, you know, when people say, when should I come? You know, there's a couple weeks, you know, maybe a couple days, week or two in late August that are tough.

And maybe there's a period between post spawn and when the sucker spawn thing starts happening. That can be a little tough, but it's pretty much good all year round. And then in terms of tactics, I always ask people what they like to do.

I do a couple companion. I don't do any guiding. I do some companion trips that I've donated to the triangle fly fishers over the years.

And I always ask people what they want to do. Because you can come out here and you can focus on dry fly fishing.

You can come out here and you can European nymph and come out here and streamer fish, night fish. You can do pretty much anything that you want. And there's a few adjustments. And maybe certain times a year are better for one tactic over another.

But they're both really dynamic fisheries. So that's the quick overview on the Holston and Watauga.

One other thing I'll just mention because it's kind of weird and it tells people what a Geek I am when it comes to this stuff, But I. I have a drone, and I've been flying it over different sections of the south holston. More south holston, but Watauga as well, for a couple years now.

And I've actually kind of charted out some of the migratory patterns that the brown trout take as they're moving up out of the lake. And again, kind of looking for that colder water throughout the season.

So I can say pretty definitively that, you know, by, let's just say, the end of July, the most of the big browns have moved out at one section and up into another. So that's kind of the overview on both of those tailwaters.

Marvin Cash
00:32:41

Yeah. And so, you know, also, too, you got the lake you want to touch a little bit on the striper action.

John Leraas
00:32:48

Yeah, yeah. So we have a number of other really great fisheries locally. The striper in Boone lake is definitely one of them.

During the winter, we'll have the lakes cooling down. Shad gets stressed. They kind of seek a little bit warmer water. And it's really wild. Striper, hybrid, and striper.

I mean, like, you know, 20 pounds is not a big striper here. There are very large striper in some in boone lake, hybrid, over ten pounds. And then the brown was wild as the brown trout get in there with them.

And the brown trout will be in there eating shad right alongside the stripers. And we're talking browns, you know, over easily over five pounds and over eight and sometimes over ten.

So the striper, hybrid, and brown trout get together and feed on shad kind of the fall and winter. That's a really amazing fishery.

And then other ones that we have, you know, within a reasonable distance up here are smallmouth, both kind of during the summer. And there's also some tailwater opportunities for them.

Locally, we've got muskie within a reasonable distance, Some of them, again, fisheries affected by tva. And then there's other weird things that people don't even do a lot of fly fishing for, like walleye.

I need to get that on my bucket list, because there's really great walleye fisheries out here. So a lot of cool stuff. Even chasing carp. There's great carp fisheries out here on Boone lake.

A lot of people don't travel here for carp, but if you're local, we've got a lot of really cool fisheries.

Marvin Cash
00:34:38

Yeah. The neat thing is, really there's so much close.

But even within, you know, if you make, you know, your part of the world, kind of a base of operations, you know, within A relatively reasonable drive. Right. Particularly if you're used to driving four hours from Raleigh.

John Leraas
00:34:55

Yeah.

Marvin Cash
00:34:55

You know, you can really do anything. Right. Because in, you know, you can get, you know, north.

North of Bristol and you can fish little small freestones for really, you know, beautiful mountain trout. Right. Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of options.

And that's kind of one of the things that kind of makes our part of the world so special, is you do have those options.

John Leraas
00:35:16

Absolutely, absolutely.

Marvin Cash
00:35:18

Yeah. And so, you know, before I let you go this evening, John, is there anything else you want to share with our listeners?

John Leraas
00:35:25

Yeah, you know, one other thing that I kind of emphasize is just the quality of the ecosystem of fly fishing people in the fly fishing industry out here we have an amazing ecosystem of guides.

You know, one thing is I was thinking through the fly shop and you know, people, you know, sometimes would ask, oh, why don't you think about guiding? And you know, quite candidly, we've got a ton of amazing guides here and they don't need John trying to push his boat in between them.

But we've got great guides. We've got other good fly shops in the area. You know, I'm doing something different than some of the other fly shops.

But if you're here for the weekend, you don't only have to come see me. You know, stop in and check out South Holston River Fly Shop, the Fly Box, Eastern Fly Outfitters, Trophy Water Guides.

And then even some of that guide experience and passion has translated into things like some drift boat manufacturing.

So High Country Drift Boats and Blue Ridge Boat Works, both people who guided for a long time who have put just immense hours of thought into the design of their boats. So we've just got a really amazing ecosystem of people in this area that.

Marvin Cash
00:36:45

Fish these rivers very, very neat and, you know, get down to the practical stuff, you know, where are you located and when are you open?

John Leraas
00:36:54

So I'm located in downtown Bluff City, right where the South Holston meets Boone Lake. Bluff City is a pretty small town, so if you just drive through and look for the building painted like a giant trout, that's us.

We're right next to South Fork Coffee. And soon to be South Fork Taphouse is coming in the other side. And then Brothers Brewing is right down the hall from me.

They actually gave me a little sample before we started recording. So downtown Bluff City, big trout print. And we're open 8:30 to 5, closed on Sundays and Tuesdays.

Marvin Cash
00:37:30

Got it. And if folks want to learn more about the shop and kind of keep up with all things Tailwaters. Where should they go?

John Leraas
00:37:37

The best place is Instagram. So we're at Tailwaters, and that's plural. Underscore Flyco. Our website is tailwatersflyco.com.

you can find us on Facebook if you look up Tailwaters Fly Company. And you can email me John J. Ohn@tailailwatersupplyco.com.

Marvin Cash
00:37:59

Well, there you go. Well, I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes for you.

John Leraas
00:38:03

Awesome. Well, let me say one more thing real quick. Marv, thank you so much for hosting this podcast.

Thanks for having me on, but thanks for everything you do. Like I said, I've been a longtime listener. I've gotten a ton out of it, and I really appreciate you publishing it.

Marvin Cash
00:38:16

Oh, I super appreciate that.

Yeah, I just, you know, I think there, to your point, like, all the people you mentioned in your community, you know, there are all these great people that make, you know, fly fishing so much better. And I just love being able to kind of, you know, bring them on the show and, you know, work with people like you.

Like, you know, when I, when Ellis and Matt told me that you'd open your shop, and then when the hurricane came through, I was like, we need to get him on the podcast. So, you know, I appreciate that. And, you know, it's a part of the world that I grew up in that I love, and I love being outdoors.

So I really appreciate you saying that. And, you know, I will say, let's put you on the clock now. We say it so it has to happen. When's your online store going to launch?

John Leraas
00:39:00

So we will be staggering it and tranching it so we will have something within the next few weeks.

It may just be T shirts or hats or some other swag, but by the first of the year, we should hopefully have something a little bit more meaningful, and it will get better by the end of February.

Marvin Cash
00:39:22

Very, very cool. Well, listen, John, I super appreciate you spending some time with me this evening.

John Leraas
00:39:27

Thank you, Mark. Really appreciate it.

Marvin Cash
00:39:29

Take care. Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

Don't forget to check out Trout routes pro@maps.troutroutes.com Use ArtFly 20 Art Fly 20 all one word to get 20% off of your membership. Tight lines, everybody.