S6, Ep 39: Mac Brown's High Country Hideaways and Warm Water Wisdom
Learn to avoid the crowds with host Marvin Cash and the seasoned wisdom of Mac Brown in this enlightening episode of The Articulate Fly. As spring unfurls its greenery, Mac recounts his recent Appalachian Trail adventure with family and his return to his home waters. With the trout opener drawing legions to the water, Mac offers sage advice for those seeking tranquility and eager bites—venture to the lesser-trodden paths up high or embrace the thrill of warm water fishing for bluegill and bass.
Looking beyond the river's edge, Mac shares details of his upcoming advanced casting school, an opportunity for anglers to refine their skills and embrace the challenges of wind and water with finesse.
Whether you're a seasoned angler or a novice, this episode is a treasure map to the hidden gems and solitary stretches of water where the fish are plentiful and the company is scarce. So lace up your boots, grab your rod and let the wisdom of Mac Brown guide you to your next great fishing adventure.
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Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
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Marvin: We're back with another Casting Angles with Mack Brown. Mack, how are you doing?
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Mac: I'm doing great. How are you doing, Marvin?
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Marvin: As always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble. And you've been off the water
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Marvin: for about a week because you knocked out almost 80 miles on the AT over spring break.
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Mac: Yeah, we went down to Georgia and hiked back up towards North Carolina.
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Mac: It was a fun spring break with the kids.
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Mac: And it's nice to be back. They had to be back in school today,
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Mac: so we're back to reality.
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Marvin: How's that treating you?
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Mac: Oh, it's good. Reality is good. But it's nice weather.
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Mac: We got a lot nicer weather, you know, since we've been home than what we had
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Mac: when we were, you know, we had several days of really high wind and rain.
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Mac: And so it's nice seeing this blue sky and all the birds singing and spring is here.
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Marvin: Yeah, and so are the crowds. You know, we were talking before we started recording
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Marvin: and you know most states have some kind of trout opener that at least in our
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Marvin: part of the world usually revolves around hatchery fish but you know that brings
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Marvin: a ton of people out on the water uh they're relatively actively stocking you
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Marvin: know d8 streams and so the real question is what do you do to get away if you want a little solitude.
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Mac: Well i think a couple of good options is is like to get up in some uh warm water
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Mac: fishing like uh the pigeon or like where i live the little tennessee,
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Mac: fontana lake go after brim or copy or something fun like that if you got kids
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Mac: and stuff with you and then the other thing is is go up high like if you want
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Mac: to get away from the crowds and,
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Mac: don't go to a dh because right now it's just insane like when i got home i looked
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Mac: at this i live right above the church there on deep creek and when we got home
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Mac: on a sunday night there was It's like eight cars all going to catch the big one at the church hole.
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Mac: You know, it's like, who wants to do that, fish with eight people?
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Mac: But I don't know. I think the key is just go somewhere else.
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Mac: Like go up high and get away from the crowds.
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Mac: The same thing happened in Georgia. We stayed at Unicoi Park the last night right above Helen.
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Mac: And you could see it there on the Smith River and the Chattahoochee.
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Mac: Same deal going on down there. We probably saw 50 fishermen that were on the
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Mac: Chattahoochee. and in the Smith, you know, that's a DH program as well.
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Mac: Of course, everybody's coming out because it's nice weather.
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Mac: But I don't know. I don't think they have as many options probably around Unicoi
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Mac: is up here, but we have a lot of options up here. We're really blessed.
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Mac: And Swain County, there's a lot of water.
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Mac: There's a lot of water that stays untouched most of the year because people
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Mac: are too lazy to walk to it.
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Mac: So if you're willing to walk for a couple hours, then yeah, you can get to stuff
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Mac: where you don't see anybody all day.
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Marvin: Yeah, and the great thing about it, right, is, you know, it's,
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Marvin: we've had a decent amount of rain this spring, so you got good water levels
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Marvin: up high, so it's not like you're doing this in August trying to beat the heat
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Marvin: and you get up there and it's a trickle.
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Marvin: That's right. And it's also, we've got a good hatch time and the fish,
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Marvin: you know, are still like kind of, you know, wiping the winter sleepers out of
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Marvin: their eyes, so they're pretty eager to take a fly.
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Mac: Oh yeah dry fly i mean you could go up high right now in
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Mac: the park and just you would need to nip fish or tightline your
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Mac: own nymph or any of that you can just take a single dry fly and go
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Mac: up there and fish all day long and have a blast i mean that's
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Mac: the way the park fish is most of the time fish are looking up very
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Mac: opportunistic fish whether it's on eagle or forney or or nolan creek or you
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Mac: know there's just there's a lot of water coming out of the park i mean you got
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Mac: 6700 foot foot peaks coming down to 1700 feet elevation and all that water has opportunistic fish so,
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Mac: that's a good option but also bluegill like i say if
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Mac: you got kids we did that for the kids spring break this was
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Mac: the kids spring break we went on the at but years ago we went down on the buffalo
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Mac: of course that's a pretty good drive from here it's like 12 hours away the buffalo
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Mac: that flows into the white river in arkansas it's a national scenic river and
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Mac: um that was a fantastic Fantastic trip.
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Mac: We had the cousins from Colorado and they're all about the same age.
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Mac: And we fished for bluegill for a week. I mean, literally, that's what the kids caught.
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Mac: We threw a green mock fly and the bluegill will hit it within 1,001 the whole way down the river.
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Mac: So you can't ask for any better fishing for kids.
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Mac: So warm water is really a good choice this time of year because they're super active as well.
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Marvin: Yeah, and that's really, you
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Marvin: know, small woolly boogers, small poppers for panfish, pretty good, right?
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Marvin: And then I would always like, you know, when I start fishing this time of year,
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Marvin: I like to go for about the last,
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Marvin: you know, I don't know, half hour to hour of light and try to fish for bigger
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Marvin: fish with, you know, bigger sliders and poppers and maybe see if I can get Mr. Bass to play ball.
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Mac: Oh, yeah. That's a lot of fun, too. The other thing, well, down there on that trip was alligator gar.
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Mac: There was a lot of gar on that river, and that was a hoot because they're big.
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Mac: They're 30-plus inches, and, of course, the kids caught some of those on pulling
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Mac: some streamers down deep.
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Mac: And, of course, that was a handful for a little kid, 12 years, 8 years old.
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Mac: That's how old the boys were last time we did that on the buffalo.
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Mac: But warm water is a lot of fun this time of year. You know, I think so much
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Mac: pressure is put on trout and there's so much delayed harvest put and take,
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Mac: you know, stock fish, wild fish.
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Mac: And it's like everybody gets all excited.
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Mac: I mean, trout's great. Don't get me wrong. But there's carp.
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Mac: Carp's great. Bluegill's great.
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Mac: Gar's great. And it's just a lot of things to go do. I think that if maybe there's
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Mac: a lot of excess pressure this time of year just on trout.
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Mac: So I think it's a lot of fun to go after something that's a lot of times warm water fish too. yeah.
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Marvin: The other thing is it's good practice because we've got a major hatchery in
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Marvin: the state of north carolina that's going to be offline for a few years.
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Mac: Oh yeah now i'm going to post on that on facebook a few weeks ago if people
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Mac: want to read about it but it's going to be shut down for for several years and
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Mac: we're looking at getting less than a third of the normal,
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Mac: dh um stockings that they've had for the last since it started in 91 so i mean
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Mac: basically you're You're going to see a lot of, I don't know what's going to
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Mac: happen with all that, to be honest, but they're going to try to buy fish.
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Mac: There's a lot of what-ifs going on with it right now, but that'll really change the game.
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Mac: It's not going to be like what it's been, for sure.
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Mac: I mean, it's going to change it. It has to change it because if you only have
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Mac: a third of the fish and they're not stocking big fish, they said the average
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Mac: fish is going to be much smaller than what we've seen over the years, you know.
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Mac: So I can't imagine a lot of tourists are going to be excited to come up and
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Mac: catch eight, nine inch fish.
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Marvin: Hmm. Sounds like maybe you should just go up high.
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Mac: Well, I'll do what I'll do, Marvin. If you come up and visit me,
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Mac: Marvin, we're just going to go up high.
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Marvin: Yeah.
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Mac: We're going to walk in a couple hours, just go up high and have fun.
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Marvin: Yeah. It's interesting too, right? So you're back from spring break,
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Marvin: so you've got re-entry. So, you know, that means you've got schools, you've got guide trips.
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Marvin: You want to talk a little bit about upcoming schools and let folks know how
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Marvin: to find you so they can book in fish with you?
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Mac: Yeah we've got the next thing
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Mac: up is uh i guess the casting
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Mac: school the 27th 28th weekend and it's an
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Mac: advanced line control school for fly casting for those that want to take up
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Mac: you know salt water and do do you know better with their presentation cast with
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Mac: curves and piles and cut cast and the things that we use a lot when we fish
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Mac: and of course that's um that's uh always a fun fun thing having that in April
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Mac: and we do it again in September,
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Mac: but that's the next big thing on the table of the school in April. I already got that.
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Mac: There's no room in that, so I better not even talk about it.
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Mac: But they can find that information on backgroundflyfish or theflyfishingguideschool.com
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Mac: or on social media, same names.
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Mac: And if they want to find that information on either one of those,
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Mac: but yeah, we're looking forward to the castle one.
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Mac: That's probably one of my favorite two days of the year.
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Mac: And then you can see people really, really grow over the two days.
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Mac: Of course, most people, most people will neglect that for 20,
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Mac: 30 years and go to Patagonia and realize they can't cast in the wind.
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Mac: And they, oh my gosh, my cast is not what I thought it was. And then they want
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Mac: to get a tune up, they call it. But reality is,
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Mac: casting works by building foundation from the beginning not not tune-ups 30 years later.
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Marvin: Yeah it's funny you say that because i've got all the hula hoops i've got an
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Marvin: old duck blind bag full of cones and measuring tapes and all kinds of stuff
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Marvin: and have been getting out trying to do my 30 minutes several times a week just
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Marvin: to kind of work on one thing and,
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Marvin: see if i can't dial things in that's.
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Mac: A fun thing to do having a bag like that's really really really good when you're
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Mac: out practicing too to have a course and have an agenda and have some goals of what you're working on.
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Mac: And I think that's a big part of it as well. So yeah, no, it's always a fun thing.
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Mac: The two-day school is just fun because you see people really grow and progress.
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Mac: And you see those light bulb moments go on with the students.
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Mac: And that's a good feeling as a teacher.
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Mac: So that's one of my favorite things of the year by far.
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Mac: A whole lot more rewarding than just doing a guide trip, you know?
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Mac: Guide trip, you don't. So, yeah, they might catch a fish, but my gosh,
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Mac: they put 28,000 in the river right now.
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Mac: So, surely they could catch a fish, you know?
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Marvin: Yeah. You know, it's funny, back on the casting practice bag.
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Marvin: So, you know, if folks are interested, I have probably, I don't know,
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Marvin: maybe a dozen or more little of those low soccer cones.
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Marvin: And I've obviously got one of your pipe tools in there. and chopsticks when
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Marvin: I'm teaching just so I can show people that closing the wrist,
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Marvin: rod tip movement thing about it, you know, really quickly.
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Marvin: But then also, you know, hula hoops with different sizes.
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Marvin: And I always keep, you know, yarn.
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Marvin: I always, for casting practice, I'm always using 0X liters because it's kind
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Marvin: of like, I think that's just a FFI casting test hang up, you know,
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Marvin: to just keep a 0X liter with you so it'll straighten out real well.
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Marvin: And, you know, along track and field, uh,
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Marvin: measuring tape and some business cards and some sunscreen and a baseball cap
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Marvin: and stick the reels in there and I'm always ready to go.
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Mac: Well, what about the Articulate 5 sticker?
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Marvin: Oh, sometimes I have stickers, but I always have business cards.
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Mac: So that's good. We ought to list that for them. I'm serious.
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Mac: Let's have a little kit for those that want to get out and do that and go down
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Mac: that route. We'll have to list that when we post this.
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Marvin: Yeah. You know what I'll do? Actually, I'll go and I'll put a
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Marvin: specific specific practice instagram post out and i'll list
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Marvin: all that stuff out and i think the biggest trick right and mac you and i talk
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Marvin: about this all the time and you know whether it's practicing or fishing you
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Marvin: know keeping your gear together and in a place where it's easy uh to you know
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Marvin: put it in your car and go it will really help you one practice more it'll also help you fish more right.
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Mac: Oh yeah yeah i've got mine in a duffel bag i just grabbed the one duffel bag and we're ready to go.
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Marvin: Yeah and so you know the only thing i would say folks is remember you know hot
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Marvin: cars in the summer summertime are bad for fly lines.
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Marvin: And so I generally keep that stuff in the garage and don't let it cook in the
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Marvin: car, but, you know, keep it, keep it kind of put together. And,
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Marvin: you know, it's a simple thing, right?
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Marvin: You know, it's an easy, it's a great Sunday afternoon or, you know,
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Marvin: uh, you know, on your way home from work or after dinner and go out and spend 30 minutes.
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Marvin: And, you know, back, you and I've talked about this a ton.
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Marvin: It's way better to practice four times during the week for 30 minutes of pop
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Marvin: than it is to go out and do some marathon session. session.
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Mac: Oh, yeah. Little short sessions are much more valuable for myelination development,
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Mac: what they call muscle memory.
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Mac: So, yeah, keep the sessions shorter and more frequent than trying to do long marathons.
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Marvin: Yeah. So, I guess, you know, to kind of summarize, get away from folks and go
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Marvin: higher, go fish a farm pond and get your practice gear out there and practice a little bit.
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Marvin: And, you know, folks, and of course, you know, get out there and catch a few.
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Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt Brown.
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Mac: Tight lines, Marvin.
Mac Brown
Guide | Casting Instructor | Author
Mac Brown is the owner of Mac Brown Fly Fish and Fly Fishing Guide School in Western NC. Mac created the first full-time fly fishing guide service in Western North Carolina. The first Delayed Harvest on the Upper Nantahala River in early 1993 was also a result of his efforts.
Mac Brown is the author of “Casting Angles” which is a fly casting handbook for those on the journey of understanding the mechanics of the cast. The ACA, FFI, and others have endorsed this text as a reference for instructors as well. Mac is a Master Casting Instructor through the Fly Fishers International.
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