Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
Marvin: and we're back with another Casting Angles with Mack Brown. How you doing, Mack?
Mac: I'm doing great. How are you doing, Marvin?
Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And, you know,
Marvin: it's kind of funny, we got spoiled, I guess, this past week,
Marvin: had temperatures well up in the 70s. And I mean, we've got a freeze warning
Marvin: tonight, and they're talking about 30 and 40 mile an hour wind gusts.
Mac: That's what we had we had a lot of wind today on the river and and yeah it's
Mac: a lot colder yeah at least it makes it feel a lot colder yesterday i think we
Mac: were 72 i think today it was 42,
Mac: with 30 mile an hour winds floating we got about blown back to webster from
Mac: bryson city so yeah it's brutal when it's that kind of wind all day in a boat
Mac: i got a little bit of wind burn yeah Yeah.
Marvin: You know, the interesting thing is we're kind of like, as we ease and we're
Marvin: almost officially to spring is that, you know, the conditions bounce all over the place.
Marvin: And so one of the big takeaways is I think you have to be a little bit more
Marvin: nimble as an angler, right.
Marvin: To really focus on taking what the river gives you. Cause you can't go out with
Marvin: a mindset that you want to do one thing.
Marvin: And if the river is not willing to give it to you, you're gonna have a really bummer day. Right.
Mac: Oh yeah yeah we saw that in webster and we just wrapped up a school yesterday
Mac: and um yeah it was real obvious you see a lot of boats there was a lot of boat
Mac: traffic up the day we went to webster,
Mac: and it's kind of funny and some of them are banging the big five inch streamers
Mac: to the bank and hoping for the best and others are golf ball size indicators
Mac: doing the same thing the whole float it's just funny how many i mean you get
Mac: just the right thing it's like we did a wet fly game,
Mac: for the um students in the school it was every cast for 30 minutes every cast
Mac: boom fish fish fish and then you watch all these people float by till they're
Mac: out of sight and they got a certain,
Mac: i think that's what happens i mean people have preconceived notions and once
Mac: you're on the right thing you stay with it till it quits work and then you get
Mac: to go figure it out again but But I think a lot of people try to force things this time of year.
Mac: Yeah, there's a lot of fish in the DH, but when they show up and try to force
Mac: their technique, with that, as you said, being nimble, I think that can definitely
Mac: backfire on people real quick.
Marvin: Yeah, because, you know, we look at colder water temperatures,
Marvin: and you and I were talking, it's like if you walk out and you don't see fish
Marvin: rising and there are no birds, right, and you don't see any insects,
Marvin: you probably may want to skip the dry fly, dry dropper action for a while.
Mac: That's right. I mean, yeah, and it's tricky.
Mac: Like today we had an epic Granum and Hendrickson hatch, but you got fish that are relatively new.
Mac: I'm not sure when, because I hadn't even looked at it. I don't look at it.
Mac: I just know, you know, the DH, they're back in March, April, May.
Mac: As far as adding to the replenishing what's in there, and it's like you got
Mac: fish like today with literally thousands of dries on the water that totally
Mac: got ignored. So go figure.
Mac: I mean, it's a cold front. Yeah, there's serious clouds and wind blew.
Mac: But literally to have that many bugs and realize nothing's coming up and even
Mac: looking at them, I wonder if you were somewhere where those had been there.
Mac: You know, they probably would have responded, wouldn't they, if they were there.
Mac: Born and raised there, I'm saying they'd know what that meant.
Mac: But here's a dinner bell going off and they totally got ignored.
Mac: So I guess because the Hendrickson doesn't look like a pellet, you see.
Mac: So it takes them a while. Sometimes it takes them longer, you know.
Mac: This year, it seems like it's taken them longer to figure out, hey, that's dinner.
Mac: And the swallows were there. Like you said, I mean, we had a lot of swallows.
Mac: I was like, yeah, there's a hatch. And we started looking at the water,
Mac: and you could see all the insects in the phone line.
Mac: But, yeah, the fish really didn't know what that was.
Mac: Yeah, people get away with a lot of things. It wasn't their first put in,
Mac: but you've still got to be working a system. system, you know,
Mac: work in a system, like try something, doesn't work, change, doesn't work,
Mac: change. I mean, change until you figure out what it is.
Mac: And I think that's, what's real common, like this time of year,
Mac: when you see boats, that was the theme of the whole week with the school is
Mac: just telling them, look, here's your process and going through the process where
Mac: they've got a process, you know, to figure out what it is.
Mac: And then they get a big smile once they figure it out on their own.
Mac: And that's the way it's supposed to be.
Marvin: Yeah. It's interesting. You know, I always think this time of the year,
Marvin: unless you see something that tells you to do something different,
Marvin: you start at the bottom and work your way up the water column and try to figure
Marvin: out where they are and what they're eating.
Marvin: I imagine that's probably why the wet flies were so successful for you because
Marvin: the fish were active and eating mid-column and you were able to pick them up there.
Mac: Yeah, yeah, that was a good, that was actually the most productive thing that
Mac: we did during the whole week.
Mac: I mean, the wet fly game ended to work pretty good the whole week.
Mac: So, and even today, that's what I did.
Mac: I have a, I have a guy here from Connecticut for five days and we did a little bit different.
Mac: We fished real similar to Davey's technique,
Mac: like a muddler daddy up top with an unweighted wet in the middle and just have
Mac: a little bit of just a brass bead on the bottom fly, a little small brass bead on a 14-size hook,
Mac: and just by enticing them.
Mac: It was pretty funny when the guy got the hang of it. I showed him one cast of
Mac: how to move the rod tip back and forth as he's bringing the top fly to make
Mac: it undulate on the surface.
Mac: Had a rainbow come up and he missed the drive, that 21-inch rainbow today.
Mac: So it was pretty, then he got really excited.
Mac: You know, then he did it again in the same spot, same rainbow came up.
Mac: And he tried to get the dry fly again, but he got excited and yanked them all
Mac: away. And I said, no, remember what happens.
Mac: When that happens, you bring the dropper up to the surface next, you know.
Mac: But he got excited and set the hook, even though the fish never ate it.
Mac: So a little bit tricky. Tricky.
Mac: A little bit tricky because people get excited, you know, when they see something
Mac: close to it, they get excited thinking he might get it.
Mac: But, yeah, that was fun.
Marvin: Yeah, I mean, the good news is, right, you know, the longer the fish are in
Marvin: the system as it warms up, things are going to start to stabilize out.
Marvin: So it'll start to be a little bit easier, you know, for people to dial things
Marvin: in because the fish will more likely be doing what you would expect them to
Marvin: do. But you still need to have a process, right?
Mac: Eight oh yeah yeah because it's going to move around it's going to move around
Mac: from from the bottom to the top and on you know more overcast days maybe from
Mac: the top to the middle um it's you know it's just it's it's fun figuring that
Mac: part out that's really the whole fun part about it,
Mac: Yeah, doing the process, and when it's working good and it stops working,
Mac: that's the part I like the most is get to go back through and work it again.
Mac: That's the fun part is the process to go back and figure it out.
Marvin: Yeah, and then, of course, the really fun part of the process is you're officially
Marvin: done with show season for 2024 because you just got back from being in Michigan last weekend.
Mac: Oh, yeah, that was a lot of fun. That was a really fun show,
Mac: and I love how they kick that off every year. I've got the Pied Piper's name
Mac: and email and all that, but I really like that.
Mac: They have him do that every year and play the pipes, kick off the show each day.
Mac: And so I had a fun time talking with him about where he learned to get into
Mac: playing bagpipes and all that.
Mac: And we used to go to the Highland Games always in Boone as a kid for Grandfather Mountain, you know.
Mac: And that was always fun going up there, seeing all the clans come from all over
Mac: the world, watching them throw the caber toss and all that so yeah there was
Mac: a really good attentive crowd,
Mac: up there in michigan the demos and seminars went really well and it was fun
Mac: it was fun to see everybody up there but i'm kind of glad we're done till next
Mac: year i don't have to do any,
Mac: any more of them till sometime in 25 yeah.
Marvin: You know it's interesting too because i think they They have a really,
Marvin: really unique fly fishing culture up in Michigan.
Marvin: I mean, and it's not just trout and steelhead. I mean, there's big smallmouth,
Marvin: you know, culture up there on the fly as well.
Mac: Oh, yeah. There's a lot of good. They've got a fantastic Atlantic program going
Mac: on in Michigan as well. There's just a lot of fun things you can do up there.
Mac: It's a heck of a fishery. I mean, that's where, when I was a kid,
Mac: we'd always go up there from the Ozarks. because my dad had a couple ants that
Mac: lived right on Lake Michigan.
Mac: So we'd go up there and we'd fish. My granddad would go up there with us and
Mac: we'd go up to the UP. I remember going up there a lot as a kid.
Mac: And I hadn't been in. I missed about 15, 20 years of being up there.
Mac: I'm going to definitely keep it on the radar every year to make a point to get
Mac: back up there because I think it's a wonderful state for everything about fishing. fishing.
Mac: So yeah, it's got a lot more opportunity to get on a river and kind of get away
Mac: from people up there, I think, too.
Mac: Up in the UP, you can get on things and disappear and not see anybody, which is kind of fun.
Marvin: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, as we sort of, you're back at your home base,
Marvin: that means kind of two things for you, right? It means schools and it means guiding.
Marvin: So you want to kind of give folks an update on your schools and also where they
Marvin: can find you. So if they want to book you and float down the river with you, they can do that too?
Mac: Yeah, that'd be good. The fly fishing schools are on the flyfishingguideschool.com page.
Mac: We're still going to have April, May, June, October, November.
Mac: And those are going well.
Mac: And I guess the way to get a hold of me for the other, I mean,
Mac: you can message too on like social media stuff.
Mac: But macgroundflyfish.com is where all the info is for like outfitter stuff.
Mac: Stuff and um that's that's
Mac: the easiest place to get information on on doing
Mac: it online you know like just to go online and do it
Mac: and this time of year it's also you get the time of year where lots of people
Mac: are planning their spring trips and it's like today it's funny because you get
Mac: calls from people are like we're coming we're gonna be there in june you get
Mac: off the river calling back we decided we're going to a whole other state it's
Mac: just like i'm glad i didn't answer those calls.
Mac: But it's just funny. People don't even know, I think, a lot of times when they
Mac: call, they're like, we might go to the Smokies.
Mac: And it's like, it's probably a good thing to screen on a voicemail like that.
Mac: Because it's kind of funny. I'm like, oh my gosh, two hours later,
Mac: now you're not even going to a whole different state.
Mac: But it's just funny. I'm glad I get those things taken care of before you.
Mac: Because I text them back, yeah, you want to talk about this?
Mac: No, we're going to Wyoming now. Oh, great.
Mac: But yeah, Yeah, that's kind of funny.
Marvin: Yeah. Well, you know, folks, when we get on the other side of this little cold
Marvin: front that's passing through here in the southeast, it'll be a great time to get out on the water.
Marvin: We got plenty of water in our part of the world, which, you know,
Marvin: has not been the case the last few years. And you owe it to yourself to get
Marvin: out there and catch a few.
Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Mac: Tight lines, Marvin.