Hackle and Hare Fly Co.

05/26/2026

Been a bit since I posted, life and work got in the way for several months. I’ve been traveling a lot so that has taken away any time on the water. This past weekend I was up on the Chattooga. The river was blown out from all the rain but I still went out. With the rain, flow being up a little and looming storms to come the trout just weren’t active in the area I was in. I decided just to walk the river. Walked from a section down below “Bull Sluce” and up past it. Sometimes it’s just best to put the rod away and just walk, turn over a few stones to see what bug life is there and also to take in where you are at. No matter the time of year I’m always amazed by this river and how beautiful it actually is. I walked probably 2.5-3 miles of the river before heading back to the truck and good thing I did because the bottom dropped out of the sky. I say all of that to say this, it felt great to finally be back on the river regardless of the conditions. It brought me back to my center and reminded me to take in where I was. Hope you guys/gals had a great weekend. See you on the river soon!

05/15/2026

So we have been quiet here lately, things have been crazy with my full time job but we have a trip out to the Chattooga planned for the weekend of Memorial Day. Hopefully the rain holds off.

03/27/2026

Early morning with no one on the river. The sounds of the river, wildlife moving in the tree line, these are moments we live for. To keep we all have to get involved, conservation efforts, classes on protecting wild places and working with groups like your local DNR, Trout Unlimited and others. Heck, I know multiple fly ships that partner with groups and government organizations to help in efforts. Over the coming year we are gonna be working with several groups to aid in things like this(more to come on that). If you have a group you would like to see us work with let us know. Hope you all have a great weekend, see you on the river!

03/16/2026

Spent the weekend dock hopping with boat captain chasing reds. Now it’s back to the old grind stone, hope you guys had a great weekend!

03/09/2026

Weekends are made for time on the river. Hope you guys had a great weekend! See you out there!

02/26/2026

Been working on apparel, finding the right design and right company to work with. Still working out some kinks and then there is product testing. Some things are a slow process and I’m getting a pretty good lesson in patience, in a world where getting things “On Demand” is prevalent things like this make you realize you have to just sit back and enjoy the process. Slow learning is still learning and sometimes you need to be reminded to slow down. Here is a basic design for one of our hats. Let us know what you think. See you on the river.

02/22/2026

The long awaited video, sorry for the delay. A lot going on between starting a new job and travel so I’m sorry for the delay. It’s my first time doing something like this and I felt like I was kinda stumbling all over the place, I’m sure has I do more of these it will get easier. Hopefully you guys/gals get something out of this, if you guys have other suggestions on weekend warrior or beginner setups make sure to leave a suggestion in the comments. As always, have a good week and see you on the river.

02/10/2026

02/10/2026

There are many reasons trout become a darker or black shade. It could be a genetic mutation it could be a melanistic mutation or it could be from stress and other environmental causes, I’m betting on the latter. Russ and I were out on the Eastatoe this past weekend, working our way up the middle section when we came across both of these trout. They were extremely dark and lethargic which brought concern to both of us. We were able to net them very gently, once netted we made sure to keep them in the water during inspection and made sure any time out of the water was minimal. We noticed one of them had probably been hooked by a treble hook based off of the damage to it outer and inner mouth and to state the obvious probably not handle properly. We aren’t casting shade at anyone but just trying to bring to light how important it is to handle these fish properly, whether wild or stocked from a hatchery. Wetting your hands before touching them, keeping them submerged and out of the water for as little as possible will give these fish a chance to live longer and spawn others. Education is key and that’s what we want this post to be, if you have questions about how to handle trout feel free to DM us and we will gladly share what our practices are when handling trout. See you on the river.