I am the son of an East Tennessee native and fish with my 80 year old dad often. I have lived in East TN and WNC the last 25 years, the last 12 years in Hendersonville, NC. I have a wife Charlotte and two kids Krystalyn (22) and Paul (17). I also fish regularly with my “World Famous Fishing Dog” according to Linda Michael, Shadow, a Black Lab and Chow mix.

I have been fly fishing over 37 years and tie my own flies. I leaned to fly fish on the Davidson River in the Pisgah National Forest and Big Santeehlah Creek in Graham County, NC. I am a member of the Hilltop Fly Tyers (10 yrs), a Master Angler volunteer for the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education (3 yrs), a CFR River Helper (3 yrs) and have served three co-current terms as president of the French Broad Fly Fishers – a FFF Charter Club.

I’ve been guiding friends new to the sport over the last 10 years. I started guiding wade and float trips commercially in 2009. I have a 16′ fiberglass EMR drift boat and enjoy floating the South Holston, Watauga, Tuckaseegee for trout and the French Broad and Pigeon rivers for smallmouth bass. In the last four decades, I have covered hundreds of miles of well known and little known trout streams in WNC, East TN and the Smokies. Occasionally, I find my way to Montana to fish the Big Horn.

I am a fly fishing enthusiast because of the simultaneous simplicity and complexity. Fly fishing offers something new on every trip. It is a sport where one skill is built on another. I consider myself a student first and then try to pass that knowledge along to others willing to learn.