Bryson City, North Carolina · Est. 1987
Mac Brown — FFI Master Casting Instructor, Bryson City NC
Grateful for every single day on these rivers.
Mac Brown is the founder of Mac Brown Fly Fish in Bryson City, North Carolina — the original fly fishing guide and instructor in Western NC since 1987. The only FFI Master Casting Instructor in North Carolina, recipient of the FFI Lifetime Achievement Award (2023), the Mel Krieger Award (2021), Field & Stream Angler of the Year, and Southern Fly Fishing Hall of Fame inductee. Author of Casting Angles, national presenter since 1987, and co-teacher of the All-Day Advanced Fly Casting Class with Gary Borger at The Fly Fishing Show.
About Mac
A Life Lived
on the Water
I've been lucky enough to call Bryson City, NC home since 1987 — and luckier still to have spent most of those years knee-deep in some of the most beautiful water in the world. What started as a passion became a life's work, and I'm grateful every morning it did.
Along the way I had the chance to start the first full-time fly fishing guide service in Western North Carolina, and to help establish the first Delayed Harvest on the Upper Nantahala River back in 1993. Those weren't solo efforts — they happened because of a community of people who cared about these rivers as much as I did.
Teaching has always been at the heart of what I do. I was fortunate to spend four years as Associate Professor at Western Carolina University, where we built a collegiate fly fishing program from scratch. During this tenure it taught me about process in teaching. Watching students go on to shape competitive fly fishing in this region — and around the world as multiple Fly Fishing Team USA World Champions — is one of the things I'm most proud of.
I also wrote Casting Angles, a fly casting handbook endorsed by FFI. I am a Master Casting Instructor through Fly Fishers International — a credential that led to serving as a member of the Board of Governors and steering multiple committees. See the full credentials list →
Since 1987 I've had the privilege of guiding and teaching tens of thousands of anglers — beginners who'd never held a fly rod, and seasoned fishers chasing their next level. Every single one of them taught me something too. That exchange is what keeps me out here.
The Man Behind the Guide
A life built around water, wilderness, and the people who love both.
The career that became Mac Brown Fly Fish didn't begin on the Tuckasegee. It began much further from home — on the wild rivers of Tasmania and New Zealand, running destination trips to some of the most remote and breathtaking trout water on the planet. Those early years abroad shaped everything that followed. The fish were extraordinary. The landscapes were unforgettable. And the experience of guiding serious anglers through unfamiliar water in the far corners of the world built a foundation of knowledge and adaptability that no amount of local fishing could have provided.
Those trips also revealed a practical problem. In the remote backcountry of Tasmania and the South Island — long before satellite phones and international cell service — staying connected with family back home in the mountains of Western North Carolina required a different solution entirely. Mac found one.
He earned his FCC Extra Class amateur radio license, call sign AI4JL, allowing him to communicate via HF radio from virtually anywhere on earth. It worked so well that the whole family followed — Jennifer, Connor, and Duncan all hold their own licenses, making the Brown family one of the more unusually well-connected households in the rural mountains of Western North Carolina. Whether deep in the Smokies backcountry or halfway around the world on a fishing expedition, home was never more than a radio call away.
"Getting my Extra license was one of the best decisions I ever made. It opened up a whole world of communication that most people don't even know exists — and it gave me peace of mind on every trip I've ever taken since."
That same curiosity and enthusiasm for learning that drove the radio license has never left. It shows up in the way Mac approaches fly fishing instruction — always digging deeper, always asking why, always looking for the next layer of understanding beneath the one he already has.
Mac and family are naturalists and enjoy multi-day river trips, backpacking, medicinal plants, and other outdoor pursuits. When the sport of adventure racing was big in the mid-90s he was fortunate to compete often abroad in all-day races as well as 4–5 day races with great sponsors and teammates. These style of races tend to present obstacles to conquer similar to angling and living.
When he's not on the water, Mac is most likely making music. Guitar, piano, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo have all been part of his life since childhood — instruments that share more with fly casting than most people would expect. Both reward patience. Both punish tension. Both require a feel that no amount of thinking quite replaces. The Appalachian musical tradition runs as deep in these mountains as the rivers do, and Mac is genuinely part of both.
The foundation of everything, though, is family. Jennifer, Connor, and Duncan share Mac's love of the outdoors completely — river trips, backpacking excursions into the backcountry, and long days on the water together are simply how the Brown family spends its time. In a profession that demands so much of a person's presence and energy, having a family that not only understands that pull but actively shares it is, as Mac will tell you, the greatest piece of luck in a very fortunate life.
"I am blessed to carve out a living in a field I love, surrounded by wild water, good people, and a family that would rather be on the river than anywhere else. It doesn't get better than that."
Mac Brown serves as a National Advisor to Scientific Anglers and Temple Fork Outfitters — working relationships built on decades of field experience and a genuine investment in advancing the sport.
The gear recommended here has been tested under real conditions and evaluated through the lens of serious instruction. It works because it has been made to work — sometimes with a direct hand in that process.
Mac is also proud to serve as an Ambassador for:
Patagonia·Regal Vise·Whiting Hackle·Maxima·Ross Reels·Grundéns·Fish Pond
Each of these companies has earned its place not through a marketing arrangement but through performance on the water, at the bench, and in the hands of students learning the sport the right way.
"None of what I've been able to do happened alone. I've been shaped by great rivers, incredibly generous mentors, and more kind people than I can count. I'm just grateful to still be learning, still be teaching, and still be on the water."
If you're thinking about a trip, a school, or just want to learn more about fly fishing in the Smokies — I'd love to hear from you. These rivers are worth it. I promise.
Some humbling recognitions received along the way
Questions