If there is a river you should go and fish as a beginner to fly fishing, I’d highly recommend the Cumberland River, one of the TU Top 100 Trout Streams. Furthermore, the guide you want is Troy Humphrey of Cumberland Trout Guide. Troy had us on fish from the start, including a double (both Barb and I hooking up and landing fish at the same time) on our first drift. We also caught all three species of trout in the Cumberland… browns, brookies and rainbows.
Why the Cumberland? It gives you a really good chance of catching a lot of fish so you can practice casting, mending, setting the hook and landing fish. Often times you don’t get to practice all of these like you do on the Cumberland.
Why Troy? He talks a lot about his guide philosophy of safety, fun and fish… in that order. Anytime you get in a boat you want to have safety as a number one priority. Close behind that, at least for “Berb” and I is fun. We had a blast with Troy… Barb became “Berb” during the day. You’ll have to fish with Troy to find out why…. all i can say is, he does have a great sense of humor. Finally, yes, of course, fishing! We quit counting the number of fish we were catching about 15 minutes into our full day trip. It was evident we were going to be on fish a lot, be able to practice our skills, and hopefully hook into a big lunker along the way. Troy delivered on his “trifecta” with us. For now, please enjoy this interview with “Streamer Troy” to learn more about this great fishery.