Support WNC and TN Fishing Guides after Hurricane Helene

Hey everyone. Zack Davis here with Brown Trout Fly Fishing, LLC. I live in Canton, NC, and have been guiding here for about a decade.

As you know, Western NC and surrounding areas have been and are in ruins after Hurricane Helene. The area is facing devastation beyond anything we could ever comprehend. "Biblical" is the term they're using.

The communities here are working as hard as they can to get supplies and help out across the region, and ongoing search and rescue efforts are happening. Federal help is here, and they're working alongside local Emergency Services to get to those in need. The terrain here is making it very difficult to get to everyone in a timely fashion. The toll the hurricane has taken is large. So large it's going to take a long time for this area to recover fully, and we're all absolutely heartbroken. Communities in and around the Asheville area are coming together the best they can with what they've got, and we've seen so much love pouring through with everyone willing to help. It's honest to god hard for me to ask this of any of you, but my goal here is to start organizing a relief fund for guides in the area that have been impacted the most. I know a lot of these folks, and they're all such caring, wonderful individuals and stand-up people in the community. We all work together on the same rivers here and support each other.

These funds will help the guides get through this time and give support for loss of wages.

A lot of these guides are also contributing their time to help others in need and have homes to rebuild or repair and families to take care of.

We're going to be out of work for a little while, and we aren't sure what the safety of those rivers in our WNC or Eastern TN look like or even accessibility to the areas we love the most. Not to mention if the area and communities will be ready for visitors due to access to goods and services for the people that live here. I'm not sure what each guide needs and how many we're trying to help, but there's a lot of us in these mountains all over the place. Even if we're back to work in mid-October, which isn't likely, that leaves maybe a month to work in November before our slow season begins and then won't pick back up until spring. We're working on rescheduling as much as possible, but the future is unclear on when we will get back to work. Guiding is a profession of passion. We depend on our home waters and the communities that surround us.

I'll be reaching out to outfitters and guides to start building a spreadsheet of how many folks we are going to try and help.

I'll also start working with other organizations to begin collecting and distributing funds as they come in.

The funds raised will be sent to shop owners and managers to be spread out to their guides accordingly so guides can get food and water, fuel, supplies, or anything else they need for their families.

I've never conceived asking for help like this on a level so large for the community, but we're gonna f**king go for it. Every little bit helps all these wonderful women and men in our industry.

Thank you,

Zack Davis

- Brown Trout Fly Fishing, LLC