When James Buice laid out of school as a teenager to go fishing on the Toccoa River with co-conspirators, he probably never dreamed he would turn any part of the experience into profit one day. In a sort of "Huckleberry Finn makes good" scenario, Buice went on to become a fishing guide, a freelance writer for outdoor magazines, and now the author of his own fly fishing guidebook.
The Southeast's Best Fly Fishing, penned by James Buice, saw publication last September by Headwater Books, a subsidiary of publisher, Stackpole Books.
Buice, who grew up in the north Cherokee County-south Pickens area, recently stopped by the Progress office to talk about the book. The 239-page, soft-bound volume covers trout streams in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
With thousands of miles of fishable trout water in the Southeast, Buice had to be selective about streams he included. He said he looked first at two things. He was hunting streams that offer a natural basin with a plentiful supply of resident fish. And he sought known rivers of some popularity, where the book could be used as a how-to for fishing these familiar waters.
"None of the rivers in the book are very obscure," Buice said. But his purpose was not to unveil a slough of secret fishing holes. He steers anglers to rivers they may already know but goes a step further, telling how to fish these waters once you get there.
“I interviewed a lot of veteran anglers on all these rivers,” Buice said. “There's so much local knowledge on these rivers gathered from local guides.”
The book includes detailed maps showing road approaches and access points for floating or wading to cast a line. And there are hatch charts "to tell what insects are hatching at what time of year," Buice explained.
Knowing a trout’s menu by month allows an angler to fish with an artificial bug that resembles whatever real insect fish are chowing on about then. Casting chicken croquettes while fish are biting on meat loaf won't get you much action.
And for stalking bigger fish in a river, Buice's guide tells you what flies to use and how to use them most effectively.
In addition to its waterside expertise, the book is a gorgeous production filled with color photographs. Many depict the big ones that didn't get away. Some purely capture the pristine peace of a remembered moment on a mountain stream. Buice and some angler friends (fishing guides and photographers) produced the pictures that grace the book.
"The best photography in the book by far is by Louis Cahill," Buice said. "He's a professional photographer in the industry. He's very talented. In fact, I think he and I are going to collaborate on the next book idea."
I asked Buice about his writing style. "What you want to do when you're doing a how-to is write like you're just sitting down with a guy in a diner and explain it to him one on one," he said.
It took Buice a year and a half to pen the book, but he started on it long before that, he said. "The research was the most time consuming," he said. "I've been researching pretty much my whole life." Some of the text Buice composed streamside on a laptop computer––for inspiration, he said.
"The last part of the book I think I wrote on my coffee table the last day before it was due," he said. Thirty-five years old, Buice plans to release a second book within two years.
His writing technique has served Buice well. The book has already stirred quite a lot more than a riffle of interest.
"It's selling really well," Buice said. "I'm very pleased. I've been very lucky. I credit most of that to the publisher. They've done a good job of promoting the book."
The Southeast's Best Fly Fishing is available from Unicoi Outfitters in Blue Ridge, from The Fish Hawk at Buckhead in Atlanta, and through book chains Barnes & Noble and Borders Books. The price is about $30.
Buice said he included only public-access streams in the book, streams where no fee is required to get on or to the water. To fish these waters, all you need is a state fishing license and a trout stamp, Buice said.
“More people need to come out and fish,” he said. “Fly fishing is not an elitist sport like a lot of people think it is. Too many times, it’s thought of as an elitist sport or expensive, and it’s not either. It’s a little more scientific. You’re matching the bugs to what the fish are eating.”
An underlying theme of the book is conservation of stream resources, Buice explained. He chose to include some rivers "for their unique physical features or the type of fishery: known for big fish; prolific insect hatches," he said. But Buice said he also chose streams with strong enough eco-systems to withstand the increased use pressure a popular guidebook could create with a fresh onslaught of fishermen.
"Another reason I wrote the book was to bring awareness to certain watersheds," Buice said. "If they keep building houses and don't regulate against poor landscaping practices that increase erosion and run-off, these rivers could be impacted in the next five to ten years––maybe even sooner with some of them."
Georgia's Toccoa River holds a spot on his endangered list, Buice said. It remains his favorite fishing stream, he said. "I like the Toccoa. It's my home river. I grew up fishing it. And I fish it more," Buice said. "I was on it yesterday," he smiled. "Product testing." |
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| Doing his research -- James Buice, author of a new fly fishing guidebook for the mountain area. |
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