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The art of the cast
Chattooga River fishing guide Karl Ekberg coaches first-time trout angler Michael Banks on proper casting technique.
Photo by Matthew Franklin Carter
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Fit to be tied
When he’s not fishing the local rivers, guide Karl Ekberg keeps busy decorating fishing hooks to mimic the various insects and nymphs trout feed on naturally.
Photo by Matthew Franklin Carter
Fly rod in hand, fishing guide Karl Ekberg leads the way down a single-file dirt path inside the Sumter National Forest near the South Carolina-Georgia border, through the mountain laurel and rhododendron with their clusters of flowers, past the hemlocks and pines that shoot straight into the blue sky.
We are headed to a stretch of the Chattooga River known as Burrells Ford, a prime spot for rainbow, brook and brown trout that Ekberg claims is “a little slice of heaven in South Carolina.” As I descend a muddied, rock-strewn hillside that’s camouflaged in leafy green undergrowth, I am suddenly thrust upon the main stage. The river, running clear and cold, is bathed in bright sunlight that bounces off the ripples of the current and illuminates the rapids that carve their way through boulders.
The air smells fresh and clean. The calls of songbirds form a chorus with the sound of the running water. A feeling of inner peace slowly overtakes me, along with the sweet cooling relief of the breeze off the river.
Now, all I have to do is catch a fish.
Know your bugs
But before there’s even a thought of casting a line, Ekberg is off and slogging through the water, eyes intent on the bottom of the riverbed, hands feverish as he lifts one brown rock after another, looking for nymphs and other aquatic insects.
“Bug in the water catches fish,” he says, explaining that nymphs eventually grow to become mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies—the insects that lure trout to feed near the river’s surface, making it possible for anglers like us to hook them with a well-placed cast. A few minutes into his search, Ekberg triumphantly finds “a monster stonefly.”
“If you have stoneflies in your river, it means you have very clear water,” he says, and begins rigging our lines with a lure designed to mimic a stonefly nymph.
Growing up in northern New Hampshire, Ekberg got hooked on angling when he was 21 and received fly fishing gear and a fly-tying packet from his parents—a present for gaining acceptance into culinary school. There were many leisure hours spent casting on the local rivers, where he learned the art of fly fishing by trial and error.
“It was, pretty much, the school of hard knocks,” Ekberg, now 55, recalls.
His skills began to improve when he listened to the words whispered by wise fishermen: “Know your bugs.”
“I really studied bugs. Because if you didn’t know what was going on, you weren’t catching,” he says.
For most of his adult life, Ekberg has taken every opportunity to hone his fishing skills whenever he wasn’t working in the kitchens of resorts and hotels, primarily in the Northeast. Drawn by warmer weather and the presence of family in Central, he moved to South Carolina in the late 1990s to supervise the dining hall at Southern Wesleyan University and soon began fishing the Chattooga and Chauga rivers.
In 2007, his tales of fishing adventure caught the attention of Karen Maddox, one of his co-workers.
“He came in bragging about all of these fish he was catching. And I was like, ‘Dude, if you’re not going to invite me, I don’t want to hear about them.’ It was game on after that,” says Maddox, who began taking lessons from Ekberg and fell in love with the sport herself.
“The first time that I went out there I realized that the river just has a way of capturing your soul and reworking it and giving it back to you before you leave,” she says.
The couple, both members of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, now operate Chattooga River Fly Shop off Hwy. 28 in Mountain Rest. Maddox operates the shop, selling merchandise and setting up trips; Ekberg is “the bug and fly guy, rods and equipment guy” who guides trips.
Ekberg has caught his share of trophy fish over the years—including a brown trout measuring 27 inches in length—but his favorite fishing memory is of a day in 2014, spent with his elderly father, fly fishing this very section of the Chattooga.
“We caught a few fish that day, but that wasn’t what it was about,” Ekberg says. “It was his last trip and I’m glad it was here.”
Not as easy as it looks
This is my first attempt at fly fishing, and like many first-time anglers, my concept of the sport comes from the 1992 film A River Runs Through It, watching actor Brad Pitt deftly handling his fly rod, the line, long and graceful in the air, as he coaxes fish to rise from the rapids of a Montana river. Here on the Chattooga, I more likely resemble the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, with arms askew and the rigidity of my pose mirroring the tin man.
Ekberg, wise and knowing, introduces me to a roll cast in which I handle a 9-foot pole with my right hand, whipping the line out 90 degrees across from my shoulder to the fast-moving water some six to eight feet away. His words are reassuring and welcomed as he teaches me to fish by using the drift of the current.
“Let the river do the work. Keep your tip up. Now, slowly, let it down. Watch as it moves down the river. Very nice. Good work.”
“Uh, what do I do with my left hand?” I ask.
After a slight pause, Ekberg offers his advice with a hint of New England accent: “Keep it waahhmm in your pocket.”
And, so, this is what I do. Cast upon cast, I try to remember to pause at the top before flinging my line at the fast-moving foam nearby, watching the red stretch of leader that indicates the position of the weighted fly as it bounces along the river bottom. I can’t always tell if it’s a rock or a fish that tugs on the end of the line, but my eyes stay locked on the leader, and on a couple of occasions, my eager attempt to set the hook causes my fly to go “Bill Dancing” across the waters behind me.
I cast again and again. Through it all, Ekberg remains encouraging and helpful. I almost feel like a third-grader who has gotten an A on his math quiz when he tells me, “Fantastic job, Michael. Fantastic cast.”
There are worse things I could be doing on a Tuesday afternoon in July.
‘Catching fish is a bonus’
In the end, I did not catch a fish. A low rumble of thunder, darkening skies and the threat of lightning chase us from the river earlier than we had planned.
Arriving back at the Chattooga River Fly Shop, I was greeted by the hot, humid wrap that is known as summer in the South. Harsh white light bounced off the pavement and my cell phone began to ring as soon as I reached the overheated cab of my truck.
I raised my eyes to the north, to the green forested mountain range and imagined myself back on the Chattooga River, standing knee-deep in its cool, clear waters and casting to the trout who lurk beneath. It now seemed days, not minutes, past. I was disappointed in not catching my first trout but found solace in Ekberg’s advice delivered back on the river.
“This is the escape from reality,” he told me on a break between casts. “You see the beauty of the river. Catching fish is a bonus because you’re standing in God’s creation out here. And all of a sudden you look around and say, ‘Wow. This is something.’”
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Get There
Guided fly fishing trips on the Chattooga River range from $140 to $300 for half-day sessions to $250 to $350 for full-day trips. Most outfitters provide equipment (including waders, boots, flies, fly rods and reels).
Anglers 16 and older must have a South Carolina fishing license, which can be purchased online from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources at dnr.sc.gov. The cost for a freshwater license for a South Carolina resident ranges from $5 (14 days) to $10 (annual) to $30 (three years). Size limits, possession limits and tackle restrictions vary by season and location. For a complete guide, visit eregulations.com/southcarolina/huntingandfishing/trout-sizes-limits.
Chattooga River Fly Shop
6832A Highlands Highway
Mountain Rest, SC 29664
(864) 638-2806
Dodson Fishing Company
533 N. Highway 25
Travelers Rest, SC 29690
(864) 610-2140
River Blade Knife and Fly Shop
1398 Boiling Springs Road, Suite 1
Spartanburg, SC 29303
(864) 699-9433
Southern Outlaw Adventures
141 N. Little River Road
Salem, SC 29676
(864) 614-1019
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Walhalla Fish Hatchery—Visitors are welcome year-round to see the work of the state’s only hatchery raising rainbow, brown and brook trout for anglers.
Stocking up on trout—Take a tour of the Walhalla Fish Hatchery, the DNR facility that keeps Upcountry lakes and rivers stocked with ready-to-catch rainbow, brown and brook trout.