I don't blame you at all! If I was that close, I would be fishing there way too much! Have you fished any of the other states the SABT is native to?

Love to hear that!! Compares in many way to small stuff in Utah! But I really appreciate the support as always!

No kidding! Well tell her thank you very much! Doing the best with what I have! It’s very sad to see what’s happened to them! The road to recovery is going to be awful long but we gotta start somewhere. How bad has the damage been in your opinion? I haven’t really seen much about the aftermath..

@ Depends on the on area, obviously. GSMNP and far western portion of NC didn’t get hit as hard as the area between Asheville and Boone. Wilson creek and it’s headwaters have been wiped out. I don’t know anyone who’s caught a fish in that drainage since the storm. That was a big trout fishing destination prior to Helene. I’m planning on fishing East Fork Pigeon and the Smokys this month. Hoping to find some surviving NBTs.

What an absolute shame! That’s so sad to hear.. just goes to show how quickly some of those unique populations can be wiped out..

It really is a shame.. I left quite a bit of trash I found out of the video.. but I saw very similar instances. It looked like an entire dumpster was just tossed down a hill. It can all seem a bit bleak, but if we all pick up some trash whenever we can, maybe things can change!

I’ll most certainly give it a look! Thank you for the recommendation! Generational outdoorsman is what we need more of! Is the fishing up that way pretty incredible?

@ used to be amazing but some lunatic introduced smallmouth bass and chain pickerel a few years ago that have devastated the trout. A few areas remain untouched but you gotta walk and hike to get there. I don’t mind that at all so we trouties are hanging in there… love the channel

What a shame! Such a similar story no matter where you seem to go. Thank you for the support!!

Enjoy it all is right! There is a time and place for everything. But these little fish are absolutely gorgeous and so full of personality. Thank you very much for the kind words!

As a fisherman and a fish keeper I would be really interested to know your overall understanding of dissolved oxygen.. I would maybe agree with bringing a portable aerator if they were to be kept in that confined space for many hours.. but they were all back in the water well before they ever ran out.

How do you know? I can speak with almost certainty and say that Golden trout were never historically stocked in the Southern Appalachia. Please send the stocking records over if you know something I don't! All the rainbow trout that were featured in this film were undoubtedly O. mykiss.

Oh man that’s a good question.. I think it’d greatly depend on the make/model of your truck, what are you driving?

@ I have a Ram 1500. I live in Missouri and was looking at the Leer 100R. It looks similar to what your model is. I think they make the models for several different truck makes/models. Just was curious if you had the 100R. Supposed to be nice here coming up. Going to try to get to Spring or Mill. Cheers

I think the one I have is the 100 XR!

@ thanks so much!

Also I love the water box that you keep the trout in. You can definitely see the beauty of the fish!

Each one was its own work of art! Thank you so much, doing our best!

Thank you very much! Which reel on which rod are you referring to? I carry a couple.

I’m so sorry to hear that! Like I mentioned I’m not a biologist, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say no that would not help with their genetic diversity. It would only further muddy the waters. Like I mentioned in the video multiple times I had no good way to properly harvest the rainbows. If refusing to needlessly kill a wild fish makes me a bad person, then I’m a bad person. I’m not opposed to taking fish, but if I’m going to take fish I want to do it in an ethical manner that respects the loss of life.

What’s there to explain? It’s a good knife

Sure thing! Matt spoke very highly of the work y’all are doing for native fish!

I’m not sure if this will translate well, but greetings! Russian trout have always been super interesting to me! All the trout are either brown trout or rainbow trout. We didn’t catch any Brook trout this time around.

I’ve heard great things about Maine! I’ve also heard access can be tough, have you ever fished it?

@@FLYALLSZN I live in Maine. Personally I do not find access to be tough. Our industial timber land is treated as public land. Yes the drives can be long on the logging roads. But the hikes are generally short. Unlocked boats and canoes can be found on 95 percent of the trout ponds. And the few well known rivers that have big trout are easy access. Although I don't fish them because they are often crowded. Ponds on where I focus my time.

Sounds like a lot of cool opportunities! I’d love to do a similar production in a place like Maine! When would the ideal season be ya think?

@ Late May and early June are best typically. First week of July is usally the peak of the hex hatch, which can be fun.

Interesting! I’ll have to look into it! Seems like amazing country up there

Shoot I’ve heard good things! Think it’d be worth a film like this?

Thank you so much!! And there is so much value in those native Brook Trout! Those stockers aren’t worth their weight in salt. 50 years is a long time! How has the state of Brook trout changed in that time? Any insight?

@ I had an uncle that would take me fishing as a kid when I was about 10 years old and at the time I didn’t really know the difference between a rainbow or a brook trout. He would tell me that’s a spec or a rainbow trout. He also kept everything he caught and I remember him coming by our house sometimes with 50 or more fish. I didn’t know any better at the time but looking back I wished he hadn’t kept so many. I’m not sure if they were all brook trout or not but there were lots more trout back in the mid 70’s. I fished pretty regularly up into my late teens but then life and work seemed to have gotten more busy and I stopped fishing for a few years. As a mid 20 year old I worked on the road and never fished much. Back in those days we mostly fished with red worms. I just started fly fishing a few years ago and haven’t went back. I’ve read that prior to the logging industry of the early 1900’s brook trout could be caught in streams as low as 2000’ in elevation in western NC. I’ve fished a few of the streams in your video and as you pointed out the brook trout are still there if you’re willing to put in the work to find them. You seem to have put in a lot of research and probably know more than I do about how much change has taken place in there habitat. I just turned 60 but still really enjoy chasing the native brookies but I can’t walk for miles before I start fishing. Usually a mile or so in the right location will put me on them.

That’s very interesting! Super cool you’re still out there getting after it. I noticed the same thing, it doesn’t take long to get away from other folks and onto the fish.

I wasn’t opposed!! Just really confused that’s all! Thank you so much!

It definitely makes sense as to why the legacy of acid rain would have an adverse affect on those invertebrates. See that’s the thing about this story! It’s such an intertwined ball of issues. And 11” brookie is no joke! Did you get em to come up on a big bushy dry fly?

Thank you!! There is so much history! Too much to fit into one story like this.. maybe I’ll have to come back one day! What would you have liked to hear more about?

The southern Appalachian and mid Atlantic were the two strains I ran into. Each can be further categorized as clades. But those clades get to be well past my level of understanding.

It’s funny, anglers in Japan will carry a bait caster, fly rod, AND a tenkara rod. It’s just another tool in the tool box! It’s fun to hate on and has almost become a meme at this point, but you can’t argue that it has its time and place! What size rod do you like to use?

I use three "zoom" rods. Essentially, that gives me 9 different rods differing in length from 8 to 20 ft. Very easy to collapse, stuff in the pack, and deploy. On the shorter rods a 6 inch fish can feel like a 12 inch one. I'm only about an hour from Blueridge, Ga. and start hitting the Rhododendron lined trails in spring.

I could see those being super useful for hiking in and out of those spots! I had to break down my traditional fly rods in half on most of the streams just to be able to walk up and down. Still using similar flys?

Anything in your box, including small streamers. You can use all your knowledge to fish tenkara. As you can probably guess, I'm not bridled by conventional thinking. It doesn't make sense to not use all the tools available to me.

I also follow Flicky Flies and Tenkara Addict. Those guys know a ton about it.

Special is within the eye of the beholder! For me it’s rooted in the history of these fish and the cultural significance. What I said is not meant to put one strain above another because I’ve yet to experience the others. I’d love to give em a look one day and fish for those as well! What makes your WV natives special to you?

Thank you so much!! That would be a super cool story to chase! I’ve heard Scotland has some great fishing

Glad you enjoyed it!

Are you asking about the wading boots?

YES! So glad you enjoyed it!