775 | South Carolina Fly Fishing with Mike Watts - Southern Appalachia, Clemson University, Rivers and Feathers
Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Podcast
Dave Stewart
4.7 • 530 Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
#775 Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/775
Presented by: San Juan Rodworks, Mountain Waters Resort, Togiak River Lodge, Patagonia
Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors
In this episode, we head to the Southeast to explore South Carolina fly fishing with Mike Watts of Rivers and Feathers. From chasing wild trout in the Southern Appalachians to building community through Clemson University's fly fishing club, Mike shares what makes his home waters so special. If you're curious about Southeast fly fishing, small stream tactics, or want a glimpse into a growing regional fly fishing scene, this episode is for you.
Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/775
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It all started with 25 college kids, a field full of fly rods, and a box of safety glasses no one wanted to wear. |
| 0:09.4 | What came next was a decades-long journey mentoring, first-time anglers building a grassroots blog from scratch and creating a fly-fishing class so popular it had a waiting list every semester. |
| 0:20.4 | By the end of this episode, you're going to |
| 0:21.9 | find out how to make fly fishing simple again, what the most important knots are to know when |
| 0:26.3 | starting out, and what happens when your first fish is a seven pound bass, and you forget how to |
| 0:32.3 | land it. This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, |
| 0:37.2 | how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back to this species we all love. |
| 0:43.7 | Mike Watts, educator, writer and founder of Rivers and Feathers, |
| 0:47.3 | joins us to share what it's like teaching a fly fishing group of college students who have never held a rod before. |
| 0:55.7 | We're going to find out where he starts with the basics when teaching people, |
| 0:58.7 | how he built a fly fishing class that is still going strong today and the secrets around that. |
| 1:04.5 | And what it takes to turn a one-page writing assignment into a lifelong connection on the water. |
| 1:10.4 | Plus, Mike reveals a story behind his students and how 40% of them had never even caught |
| 1:17.3 | or touched a fish before. |
| 1:19.7 | And the challenge was good, but Mike has a great story here. |
| 1:23.4 | All right, we're heading down the southeast with Mike Watts from Rivers and Feathers.com. |
| 1:30.6 | How you doing, Mike? |
| 1:31.7 | Good morning. How are you? |
| 1:33.4 | Great. Great. Yeah, this is going to be a fun episode. |
| 1:36.2 | You know, a lot of our episodes come from either listeners or guests who've been on the podcast. |
| 1:41.9 | And we were talking to Jerry Custitch, and he recommend you. |
| 1:47.8 | And I've heard a little bit of the story that I think there's probably a story there about |
... |
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