Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with another Casting Angles with Mack Brown. How you doing, Mack?
Mac:
[0:12] I'm doing great, Marvin. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:13] As always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble, and, you know, it's kind of interesting. We've got probably, we're in May now, but we've probably been having some March weather in your neck of the woods.
Mac:
[0:24] We've had some March weather, and it's a little bit cold up here and a lot of wind, a whole lot of wind, like 40 mile an hour wind gust last night and today as well all day.
Marvin:
[0:34] Yeah. So, uh, where are you seeing on the water?
Mac:
[0:38] We saw a lot of caddis this evening and we saw a lot of blue wings.
We saw some Hendrickson still, and it was, it was good, really complex hatch.
But Jason was here at about three today. And so we got to go down and play around on the creek coming out of the national Park and a lot of good hatches going on today.
Marvin:
[1:00] Got it, and we were talking about what we wanted to talk about and we thought we would talk today about kind of mentorship and personal growth.
Mac:
[1:09] Yeah, I think that'd be a great topic, just because I was kind of explaining to Jason that today, just what that meant to me when I moved here in my early 20s, having somebody like Jim Estes in my life, and that's who I fished and camped a lot with up in the park.
He just really opened my eyes up to how inept I was, you know?
How inept, because he'd say, well Marvin, you go ahead and fish this pool first, and And when you do that, you think, well, I've got the brains and you've got the magic fly and the pixel dust and the magic rod.
You throw and throw and throw, and then he steps in and catches eight in a row.
Then you realize, well, you don't know anything at all.
So mentorship is huge. Without that, I don't think there's any way to get the growth that we really desire.
Marvin:
[1:56] Yeah. But before we get there, we really ought to talk about being intellectually curious, right?
Because if you aren't curious and you don't want to get better, all the mentorship in the world didn't go put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Mac:
[2:09] That's right. Having that curiosity, I think, is the biggest thing, even in casting, that we talk about a lot on the road with the classes.
Without being curious, and you're just not curious about how things work, then probably chances are you're kind of in a stagnation mode.
And so I think curiosity is the big spice to this whole fly fishing game.
And being curious. It's not the fish that we catch.
It's the fish that we didn't catch that ought to make you curious, like, why didn't you catch it? If you're not thinking that way, then I think we're kind of in the stagnation mode, you know?
Marvin:
[2:44] Yeah. And I don't think we have to get crazy about it. I mean, I think it's just one of those things if you just want to be better every time you go out, right?
And, you know, that just makes you open to learning things. And then, you know, coming back to mentorship, I think when you have that posture as a mentee, it makes mentors want to be more generous.
Mac:
[3:06] Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's definitely the case.
And you see that a lot with different relationships of when I was the mentee versus, you know, I mean, being a mentor, it's different roles, but you understand how it works because you went through it yourself. Yeah.
I think that helps a ton.
Marvin:
[3:27] Yeah, it's interesting too, right? Because I know you've got people in your life now that are really peers, but you were a mentee.
They were your mentor. Like, you know, I know you teach classes with Gary Borger.
And I mean, he knew you when you were a kid, which, you know, I'm sure your kids can't believe you were ever a kid, but it did happen once, right?
Mac:
[3:43] Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it's kind of neat. It's kind of neat how that works.
And it's just staying curious, I think, is the key to this whole growth process.
And I don't think, just from talking with a lot of folks on the road, not everybody's a growth pattern.
Like a lot of people here, well, it's like baking brownies or something in the kitchen with this curiosity about how things work and the way things work.
It's like, the more you know, then the more you realize that you don't know.
If that doesn't make you curious, then I don't know what else will.
Marvin:
[4:22] Yeah. And then I guess we really talk about where to find mentors, right? I know when I first was in fly fishing, I picked a particular club in Charlotte because I knew they had better anglers in it.
Mac:
[4:33] Right. Yeah, I don't know how that – I think that's a tough one.
I live is in a rural mountain community.
You know what I mean? I just look at like Jim, Jim was my mentor really when I moved here and he helped me immensely with a lot of the things that we teach today.
So we don't really have clubs and things here in Bryson, but expand on that a little bit for me.
Marvin:
[5:00] Yeah. I mean, you know, if you don't have a club, then I think about, you know, I really believe that local fly shops are great resources, right?
And that's a place to find mentors. And I know one of the things that I did when I first started fly fishing, you know, one, I did guided trips because I wanted to learn.
But then, you know, you can't do that forever.
And one of the things I would do is I would literally fish with Don Yeager at Jesse Brown's. And I would say, look, let's pretend you're not even here.
And I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do and how I want to fish this piece of water. And then you tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Mac:
[5:39] Right. Yeah, that'd be a good recipe for growth. Yeah.
Marvin:
[5:42] And then I think, too, you know, you got to kind of be honest with yourself.
But I mean, you know, the great thing is, I mean, and I know you know this from the casting program, is that there's all this great reach with technology.
Right. And, you know, all these people all over the world in the casting world, for example, or fly fishing in general, that you can find that are phenomenal resources.
If you have if you're inquisitive and want to reach out. And, you know, I always say fly fishing people are some of the most generous people I know on the planet. And, you know, I don't think I've ever reached out to anyone for help or with a question where they told me to go away. Right?
Mac:
[6:18] That's right. I think they're all really wanting to help people.
Just because it is a lot of things that seem simple can be more complex and they realize they've been through it already. And they want to share that and help people get through it quicker, you know.
Marvin:
[6:34] But I also think, too, right, the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know very much. And also, you realize that even the teacher learns something every time he teaches.
Mac:
[6:46] Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I think that happens in fishing, too. Yeah.
Marvin:
[6:53] So, I mean, I think those are kind of all things. And it's interesting talking about that because I know you're in the middle of your school season.
Do you have some schools coming up you want to let folks know about?
Mac:
[7:02] Yeah, we've got one, well, this next week for the May School, You, then we've got the Hall of Fame weekend this weekend in Bryson City, which will be a big, big fun time on Friday night, Loggers and Legends in Bryson City at Mountain Lairs.
Then we have the banquet up at the Frymont on Saturday, which will be a lot of fun.
Yeah, it's that time of year, it's just hectic. It's hectic compared to when Jason, Last time he was here was between Atlanta and Denver shows in February, and you know, the full moon was going on, it was cold, 33 degree water temp, and just compared to today, it was just like, man, it's like a kid in a candy store.
To go down there on the creek right below the house, you know, everywhere we threw, it's like, bam, bam.
It's like, wow, this is a lot better than it was in February, and I'm like, it's just a lot of fun when it's this time of year, you know?
Marvin:
[7:55] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly.
And if there's something in particular that you want Mac and I to cover, shoot me an email, DM either of us.
You know, Instagram is probably the best place, but anywhere on social media, we'll find it. We'd love to answer your questions. And before I let you go, Mac, you want to let folks know where they can find you so they can sign up for a school, get out on the water with you to fish, all that kind of good stuff.
Mac:
[8:21] Sure, like just Facebook, just Mike Brown, Flyfish is for the business, flyfishingguideschoolalso.com, or there's also an account on Instagram and Facebook for that as well.
And that has all the dates and everything listed.
That'd be great. I appreciate it, Marvin.
Marvin:
[8:40] Yeah, well, there you go. Well, I'm going to let you get back to drinking my scale mules with Jason and folks, you know, we've got great weather.
We got plenty of water for sure.
You owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
Mac:
[8:53] Tight lines, Marvin.