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