Mike Kesselring will show off his enormous fly collection and other gear gathered over 40 years of world-wide travel 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, at the United Methodist Church in Sylva, as part of Trout Unlimited Sylva’s regular monthly meeting. 

A three-week fly-tying course will teach participants to tie flies from the Southern Appalachians, 6-8 p.m. Mondays Jan. 15-29 at the Folkmoot Center in Waynesville. 

Doug Mcelvy was only 3 or 4 the first time he picked up a fishing rod, but it sparked a love for the water that’s stayed with him throughout his life — at 36, that passion inspired him to open Canton’s only fly fishing shop, Mountain Fly Outfitters. 

A free youth fishing clinic will coincide with an Old Time Music Jam 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Cherokee.

Delayed Harvest Trout Waters regulations will go into effect in Western North Carolina on Sunday, Oct. 1.

Something we have done quite a bit of this year is gone fishing.

Learn how to fly fish with the Tuckasegee Chapter of Trout Unlimited 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, at East LaPorte Park in Jackson County.

When people praise the Smokies, it’s often the area’s status as a four-season bonanza of beauty that spurs the discussion. From snow-blanketed winters to vibrant-leafed autumns, these mountains dress to impress year-round.

People sometimes wonder if the prehistoric Cherokees used any sort of poisons on their blowgun darts. These darts (slivers of black locust, hickory, or white oak) were from 10 to 20 inches long with thistledown tied at one end to form an air seal in the blowgun (a hollowed piece of cane cut to a length of seven to nine feet). The Cherokees were accurate with these weapons up to 40 or 60 feet, especially when shooting birds, but there is no evidence they used poisons of any sort on their darts.