The Moonshine Journal — Fishing Guide

In our Field Guide series, we’re offering quick tips you can use on the water to catch more fish on the fly, species-by-species. In this edition: The cure for cold-weather blues. Around late winter and early spring, all of us tend to get the itch. We’ve been cramped inside for far too long, you can only tie so many flies, and it’s time to hit the water whether the fish are ready or not. But, there is a bit of hope and it comes in the form of spring smallmouth season. These green torpedoes are legendary targets with a fly...

Just like anyone else, anglers are shaped by our past experiences, both good and bad, and no one understands this more than Phillip Kauffman. He’s experienced trauma both as a civilian and a veteran, and they’re memories that he takes with him every time he heads to the river. But, as we cover in our conversation, he takes them to the river not as an escape, but as a way to find a new perspective in life:  “There's so much that goes into it—whether it's a stream running across your waders, the rhythm of casting, trying to outsmart the trout,...

In our Field Guide series, we’re offering quick tips you can use on the water to catch more fish on the fly, species-by-species. In this edition: the adrenaline rush known as the redfish. On paper, it seems like the redfish was put on this earth for anglers. This may be a myopic way of looking at it, but it makes sense when you think about what it offers: accessibility, action, challenge, natural beauty, you name it. The redfish is known for its striking coloration and spotted tail, as well as for its tendency to cruise in shallow salt flats, ready...

There’s an element of being a fishing guide where you need to let go of what people think. At some point, naysayers are going to tell you that you can’t fish for a living, or that it’ll never work. You need to plant your feet, pick up your fly rod, and hold your ground.

For Susan Thrasher, founder of Southern Brookies, this confidence seems to come naturally. When she started fly fishing in her 30s, it would’ve been easy to think that she was behind the eight ball as a newcomer and a woman in a male-dominated industry. In our conversation, though, it seems like that’s not the way her brain works.