Name: Ian Rutter
Age: 41
Location: Townsend, TN
Employer: Partner and Guide at R&R Fly Fishing Guide Service
Experience
I first came to fly fishing through hiking and backpacking in the Smokies. Somewhere along the line, I saw some trout in a stream and thought it would be fun to fish for them. I tried a few times unsuccessfully with spinning tackle and a neighbor told me you were supposed to fly fish for trout and gave me an old outfit he had in his tool shed. It was grossly inadequate, but I didn't know any better. I think it was probably a fiberglass seven weight and the fly line was pretty crunchy but I used it for a few months.
Anyway, I bought whatever equipment I could with saved pennies from a part time job I had while I was in school at UT Knoxville and went fishing every chance I could. I didn't know anyone at the time who fly fished and my love of hiking almost guaranteed I never met other fly fishers on the water to learn anything from anyone. I probably went fishing for about 6 months before I had any idea of what I was supposed to do. At the time the only books I found on the topic just didn't translate to what I saw in the Smokies.
By the time I graduated from UT in December 1994, I was fishing at least an hour or two almost every day if I wasn't fishing all day. If I couldn't get to the Smokies I would fish the Clinch. If I couldn't get there or the water levels weren't good for wading I'd cast poppers on Fort Loudon Lake. My job search after college revolved around places with good trout fishing. I sent some resumes to Idaho and Oregon with no response. I got some job leads in South Carolina and Mississippi that I didn't even follow up on. I was probably very fortunate to realize very early that fly fishing was what made me happy and decided to base my life around it. So my first regular job as a college graduate was working the night shift at Talley Ho Inn in Townsend in 1995 and that's when I started guiding.
Home Water
Here in East Tennessee, I'm fortunate to be able to have tons of home water and a range of species. On any week from April through early November, I might be on a small brook trout stream, row a drift boat for trout, and cast poppers for smallmouth; all in the same week. I don't know how many places you can do that, but it's my favorite aspect about the area. Most of the mountain trout water where I live is for wild fish and that's pretty special.
I'll always favor the Smokies over everything else, but I also think of the tailwaters around Knoxville as home too. The Clinch seems to have its up years and down years, but it's a highly underrated fishery. Every summer I always get on a smallmouth bass kick too. We've got small streams, lakes, and big rivers with smallies so there's plenty of variety with them too.
In the Smokies, I use a four weight rod more than anything. I've got a couple of Scott G2's that I use for everything from dry flies to nymphs with split shot. Five weights and lighter rods like three weights are good too, but I don't really use anything lighter than that. I'm a big advocate of longer rods in the Smokies and rarely fish one shorter than 8' long. I think I've got a 7'6" rod I consider my small stream rod. That surprises most people, but you'd be surprised by how much more you can do with a little more length, even where just carrying a rod is inconvenient.
On the tailwaters I tend to stick with the four weights most of the time, but only because we're usually casting small dries or nymphs. A size #16 fly is big on our big rivers and casting accuracy with a light touch is critical. Five weights are good here and I usually recommend them to my anglers just because most anglers have a little tougher time with the light rod if there is any breeze.
I ALWAYS keep a meat stick rigged in the drift boat. That's a stiff, fact action six weight with a fast sink tip fly line. I love to fish streamers and like for my anglers to give it a crack at least a few minutes on most days. It's not for everyone and it's not good on some days, but it's at least as visual for me as dry fly fishing.
For the smallies I usually use a six weight. I've used an eight weight a couple of times but it just seemed like overkill, even on the larger fish. The six casts the poppers I use just fine and is just more fun to use.
Why do you guide?
Easy . . . I live in a beautiful place and do what I love everyday. Depending on where I am on any given day, I share my "office" with osprey, eagles, fox, and black bears. I don't care who they are, nobody has a better office view than I do.
What Music do you listen to on the way to the water?
I've got a pretty eclectic mix going at any time that usually includes Dave Matthews, Ziggy Marley, the Allman Brothers Band, Greensky Bluegrass, Widespread Panic, and Railroad Earth.
Tell us the best/craziest fish story from your guiding career?
Let me think... There's tripping over a rattle snake, seeing a 16" rainbow eaten off a line by a striper, having a customer watch me measure a 18" trout he caught on a #18 dry fly and ask if that's as big as they get....
I think the one story I keep coming back to is when a guy on a float trip really needed to take a leak. It was a pretty residential stretch of river and I didn't want him going in someone's yard so I pulled over at this little patch of bushes to hide him from view. In fact, it's almost a regular stop for anyone who floats the river regularly. The water was low and he had to walk through a few steps of mud between the drift boat and river bank to get up in the trees. So he goes up and does his business and gets back in. He's back in the boat and decides that he should probably swap seats with his buddy. The boat I had at the time had bench seats so he's stepping up on them as he's moving around and leaving dirty tracks. After the swap they decide the original arrangement was better because one was right handed and the other left and now they would both have to cast backhanded. They move around again, this time climbing over the clean side of the benches leaving more dirty footprints on the floor and seats.
As we're floating along a foul whiff of something nasty keeps getting stronger and I'm trying to figure out if someone put a hog farm in or something and it hits me! I look at the guy's shoes and there's toilet paper and other stuff on his boots. I thought he was tracking mud all over the boat, but ..... Uggghhh.... It's funny now, but trust me it was pretty grim in that boat the rest of the day.
If you could fish anywhere, where would it be?
I've been real fortunate to have covered a lot of water. I've been going to the northern Rockies every year since 1996 to spend several weeks. I've been to Belize a couple of times and fished a number of locations in coastal Carolina, the Everglades, the Keys, Florida panhandle, Texas and Louisiana. Saltwater is great but I couldn't leave trout fishing for it.
I don't know. I guess I'd like to fish in Patagonia or New Zealand, but I don't think I'd consider skipping my annual trip to Yellowstone to do it.
What makes a guide a "good" guide?
A good guide is a bit of a chameleon. You have to make beginners comfortable while not being condescending to experienced anglers. Some days the fish seem suicidal, and other days the fishing is tough and the angler can have a lot to do with that. I've heard the comment that the angler is the weak link between the guide and the fish. Some days that's the case, but the guide's job is to reinforce the weak link. I always want my anglers to leave at the end of the day knowing something they didn't when they arrived in the morning. That might mean they can cast or mend line better, know how to do a reach cast or it might mean they know how to discern an osprey from an eagle at a distance, but regardless a guide needs to be free and easy with his knowledge.
What makes a client a "good" client?
Every angler is different and has different motivation, so I hate to say one is better than another. Some folks really want to learn and others just want to catch some fish then go back to their life tomorrow. Personally I like to guide folks who are up for anything. There are times I'll tell folks who booked a trout float that we can catch trout, but it will be a day of strict nymphing from the boat; effective, but not very interesting. Just watching yarn indicators and setting the hook when it goes under. On the other hand smallies are crushing poppers somewhere else. I understand folks have waited all year to fish for trout and I put everything into it regardless of how tough the day might be, but I always love it when customers say "Just take me wherever the fishing is best, whatever that is."
What is an issue that guides face that clients might not be aware of?
There aren't many people out there who guide full time for a living. There's a reason for that. It's a tough business to keep regular work and steady pay. When the work is regular, the hours are long and it's strenuous. There are days when it's tough to get out of bed after you've hiked up creeks or rowed a boat for 17 or 18 days in a row. It seems like the dream job, but I don't know if most people grasp the idea of it being work.
Fly fishing guides aren't typically stereotyped as responsible, but I've got a house to pay for, a wife and two kids. There's no 401K, paid vacation time, or company dental plans so I have to be more than responsible at all times if I want to keep doing it. It seems like you're either keeping a nervous eye on the checking account balance or struggling to keep up with the string of trips on the calendar. Honestly, I don't know if I'd wish this life on anyone, but I can honestly say I can't imagine doing anything else.
What is a local fly fishing issue that you care about?
I'm a huge advocate of wild and native trout and try to volunteer with Smoky Mountains fisheries biologists whenever I can fit it into my schedule. This isn't as often as I'd like with a busy guide calendar and a couple of kids, but I find the work fascinating. Plenty of people question the rationale of removing one species of trout to replace it with another, but there just aren't that many places you can go anymore and fish for native trout. There are tons of places you can go for rainbows and browns around the country, but wild brook trout are rare in the places where they belong. Fly fishing is fun no matter where you do it, but I see fishing for native fish as the way God intended it.
Soapbox - This is your chance to publicize something that you care about, fly fishing related or not.
There's been a lot of talk over the past few years about how the fly fishing industry is shrinking and small, hometown fly shops are fading out. The trend is undeniable and one of the biggest reasons is because there are fewer people fly fishing. I know that plenty of fly fishers don't want to see any more people on the river, but as someone who spends almost every day on the water I'll tell you that at least 90% of fishermen go to no more than 10% of the available water.
I think the benefits of more people fly fishing far outweigh the negatives. More people would care about water quality and fish and that's a good thing. I just don't think the fly fishing industry promotes itself in the best way. We all aspire to fish for large fish in exotic locations, but it seems like that's the bulk of what you see in the fly fishing media. I seem to remember when Montana and Alaska were the ultimate while trout in the Smokies, Pennsylvannia and New York were the "common" destinations. Now Montana is a baseline and everything has to be bigger and more extreme. It's fun for diehard fly fishers to watch those videos and read those articles, but it's a lousy way to attract new fly fishers.
Every week I talk to folks who are curious about fly fishing but weren't even aware that you could use a fly rod for bluegills, let alone bass or other very common fish. It's not unusual for me to hear from people who trout fish, but haven't cast a fly rod in a year because they don't live near trout water. I doubt anyone loves trout fishing more than I do, but is there any more perfect a fish for a fly rod than a bluegill? They rise, attack a fly, fight hard for their size, and most importantly, you can find them anywhere. I'm just mystified that the fly fishing industry continues to push more exotic fish and locations to a dwindling number of people when there are plenty of people who would love to get involved in the sport, even if they don't live near a trout.
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