The life blood of Rivers and Feathers flows from our pool of gifted writers. This talented group truly understands and appreciates the world of fly fishing.
While some of our scribes are well-known, others are just beginning to chronicle and photograph their experiences.
Here then are bios of our contributors. Perhaps, one day soon, we can add your name to this distinguished group.
Mike Watts
Mike Watts is a passionate fly fisherman and freelance writer. He’s a storyteller who loves to write and share the many outdoor experiences he’s witnessed on the water and in the woods. Like all good fishermen who recount their stories, everything he writes is considered nonfiction. In addition to riversandfeathers.com, his stories can be read in several outdoor publications. Many of these stories have earned Excellence in Craft awards from the South Carolina Outdoor Press Association.
For fifty years, Mike has fly fished across the country, yet he still calls the rivers and creeks of Southern Appalachia his “Home Waters.”
As the fly-fishing instructor at Clemson University for over 20 years, he introduced more than 1,200 students to the sport. He was reminded in a letter recognizing him as an individual who has made a positive impact on students at Clemson University: “The work that you do has truly made a difference in the lives of students.”
Mike’s unwavering dedication to fly fishing is evident in his numerous accomplishments and awards, a testament to his commitment since he began in 1976. His passion for the outdoors and conservation led him to receive the prestigious Silver Trout Award twice from the Mountain Bridge Chapter of Trout Unlimited, where he served in various capacities over the years, demonstrating his significant role in the fly-fishing community.
The greatest award was watching his grandson catch his first trout on a fly rod at age four, many years ago.
Mike played a key role in creating a public fly fishing program and volunteers as an instructor through the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
He founded RiversandFeathers.com in 2019 as a forum for nationally known outdoor writers and other fly fishing enthusiasts to publish fly fishing short stories on just about “anything fly fishing.”
Mike’s two books, “Riverbank Memories,” and his children’s book, “Pond Fishing with Papa’” are available on Amazon. He can be reached at mikewattsoutdoors.com.
Shared from the WYFF app – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wyff-news-4-breaking-news/id505507641?mt=8&uo=6&at=1010lpH&ct=appshare
Click image to listen to Publisher, Mike Watts of Rivers and Feathers as a guest on Wet Fly Swing Podcast.
Larry Chesney
Along with serving as editor of Rivers & Feathers, Larry is also a copywriter for an ad agency, and contributing writer for several outdoor magazines. Born in South Carolina, Larry has hunted and fished from Alberta to Africa. He is also about to (finally) publish a book, “Palmetto Creek.”
You can find Palmetto Creek on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble and sportingclassicsstore.com.
If you’d like to pitch a story, or just say ‘hello,’ you can get in touch with Larry at larry@riversandfeathers.com.
Patrick Hunter
Patrick Hunter was born and raised in the Carolinas. He grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where he fell in love with hunting, fishing and the outdoors. While a student at Clemson University, Patrick took a fly-fishing leisure skill class, and began tying flies as a stress reliever from engineering school. The once hobby has now turned into a passion and obsession as Patrick has pursued all varieties of fresh and saltwater fish on fly, and still loves tying flies and creating new patterns. Patrick is an Environmental Engineer by trade, and works to conserve the wildlife and the wild places of the Carolinas. Patrick lives in Conway, South Carolina with his wife Katie and black lab “Huck Finn.”
Jim Mize
Jim Mize writes humor and nostalgia about his escapades chasing fish with a fly rod or occasionally waving a shotgun barrel at upland birds. He has had the good fortune to pursue fish in far flung places such as Scotland and New Zealand, as well as his small home streams in the Carolina mountains. His stories and books have been selected for over eighty Excellence in Craft awards, including the Pinnacle award from the Professional Outdoor Media Association. His books include The Winter of Our Discount Tent, A Creek Trickles Through It, Hunting With Beanpole, and Fishing With Beanpole. You can find his books on Amazon or purchase autographed copies at www.acreektricklesthroughit.com.
Michael Altizer
Author of three books and contributor to numerous others, Michael Altizer is Senior Editor at Sporting Classics Magazine and has been appearing in various major outdoor publications and media for nearly three decades.
His writing is not “How-To” in nature, but is instead more intimate and introspective, focusing on the inherent essence and virtue of the experiences themselves.
His subject matter encompasses big game (gun and archery), wingshooting, bird dogs, waterfowl—and of course Fly Fishing, both in freshwater and salt. From his home in eastern Tennessee, Altizer’s ventures have taken him from Alaska to Scandinavia, northern Canada to southern Patagonia, and across the United States.
Most importantly, he deeply appreciates his Readers, and is always available to them at Mike@AltizerJournal.com
Steve Ehrlich
I am a lifelong educator with 35 years of teaching, counseling, and leadership experience in adult learning, continuing education, and human resources, and an equally long-standing calling in fly fishing. Former dean at University College, the continuing education division of Washington University in St. Lois, I am retired and turning towards a next chapter of teaching, coaching, writing, and delivering presentations on stories and lessons from the stream for personal and professional development, renewal and healing, and social change. Teaching classes on the literature, history, and philosophy of fly fishing, my approach includes a blend of fly fishing literature, along with information from several fields of psychology, leadership and organizational studies, and contemporary culture. My educational credentials include a PhD in Higher Education from Boston College, EdS in Counselor Education from the University of Virginia, MAT in History and Teaching from Brown University, and a BA in American Studies from Amherst College.
John Kumiski
John Kumiski is an award winning free-lance writer, photographer, and author specializing in fly and light tackle saltwater and freshwater fishing, paddle sports, and camping. He’s been published in Fly Fisherman, Salt Water Sportsman, Shallow Water Angler, American Angler, Fly Tyer, and many more. His books include Redfish on the Fly, Thirteen Summers in Alaska, Fishing Florida by Paddle, and other similar titles.
John has been president of the Florida Outdoor Writer’s Association, the Indian River Guides Association, and the Backcountry Flyfishing Association. He was a science teacher, a long time ago. He served in the U.S. Army, in another lifetime.
Find John’s websites at http://www.spottedtail.com and http://wwwjohnkumiski.com. Find his blog at http://www.spottedtail.com/blog.
B.B. Sanders
Brandon is a freelance writer that enjoys hunting and fishing across the world. His writing is informed by academic preparedness and flavored with real-life experiences of many sorts. He grew up bass fishing in southern Arkansas before he left for the Army at age 18. Previously deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Poland, he is currently serving in the National Guard as a chaplain. Brand began fly fishing as a way to reconnect with the wild after an arduous deployment. He lives in east Texas in a small cabin with his wife and two dogs.
L. Woodrow Ross
L. Woodrow Ross lives in Taylors, SC, with his lovely wife Margaret. As a freelance writer and photographer, he has written more than 500 newspaper articles and contributes to outdoor magazines and online resources. In addition, he has 40 books on Amazon Kindle on various outdoor topics, covering outdoor skills, travel guides and fiction. He practices primitive and survival skills and enjoys most outdoor sports.
Articles and postings by Ross are available at https://lwoodrowross.wordpress.com. He may be contacted at lross3871@charter.net. He is available to speak at events or conduct primitive and survival skills seminars.
John R. Childress
Growing up on a farm near the Umpqua River in Central Oregon, I learned flyfishing from my father and brothers. Although I consider myself an intermediate fly angler in skill, my appetite for fly fishing is huge, having fished in Kamchatka, numerous Alaska river trips (unguided), Argentina, the Amazon, the Ponoi Peninsula in Russia, Iceland, England and Scotland, Belize, Los Roches, Bahamas, Florida and Africa. I believe valuable leadership skills can be learned from flyfishing and I am keen to share these learnings with others thirsty to improve their leadership and fishing skills.
Josh Lanier
Josh lives in the Upcountry of South Carolina, where he hikes and fly fishes the foothills of the southern Appalachians. The natural world is the centerpiece of his writing, whether it be poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. His blog about life in the Upcountry of South Carolina can be found at http://www.wildcatcreekjournal.com/.
Tom Keer
Tom Keer is an award-winning freelance writer who lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He owns the Keer Group, a marketing and public relations agency that focuses on fishing, hunting, boating and conservation businesses. Prior to forming his own agency, Keer ran the national and international wholesale division for the Orvis Company. Visit him at www.thekeergroup.com or at www.tomkeer.com.
John N. Felsher
John N. Felsher is a full-time professional freelance writer, photographer and broadcaster with more than 3,300 articles published in more than 160 different magazines, plus countless websites. To see his work, do an internet search for his name. Felsher began to write professionally at 16 years of age and served as the outdoors editor for four daily newspapers and a weekly. He’s also written syndicated newspaper columns in multiple states. John served 12 years as an Air Force officer. He currently hosts an outdoors tips show for WAVH FM Talk 106.5 radio in Mobile, AL. Contact him at j.felsher@hotmail.com or through Facebook.
Craig Springer
Craig Springer is a fisheries biologist and writer in New Mexico. His stories have appeared in Iron Worker, The Drake, The New York Times, Outdoor Life, ESPN Outdoors, TROUT, Quail Forever, and Farmers’ Almanac. See CraigSpringer.com
Jerry Kustich
After building graphite and cane rods at Winston Rods for twenty-two years, in 2006 Jerry Kustich teamed up with longtime friend, mentor, and renowned bamboo rod master Glenn Brackett to found Sweetgrass Rods in Twin Bridges, Montana. Kustich is a craftsman, writer, conservationist, speaker and dedicated itinerant angler. In addition to co-authoring the classic Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead with his brother Rick, he has written four acclaimed books of fly fishing stories which include his latest Holy Water. His articles have also appeared in several publications over the years. In 2013 he retired and moved from Montana to fish in Mexico for a year. Now living in Maryland on the upper Chesapeake Bay, Jerry continues to build rods for Sweetgrass while still looking for new water and living a fly fishing way of life.
Tom Adkinson
Nashvillian Tom Adkinson became a journalist because his journalist father told him not to follow in his footsteps “because the hours are bad and the pay is worse.” His father was right, so Adkinson paid his mortgage with a travel industry public relations job that let him wander (and fish) across the U.S. and once in a trout stream in New Zealand.
He has been fishing since he could ride a bicycle, sneaking away from home to fish for bream in a creek that flowed through a nearby golf course. Keeping a low profile to avoid aggravating golfers proved to be a valuable skill when he started trout fishing in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1970s. There, the low profile was to avoid spooking trout, not hiding from golfers. He particularly enjoys chasing Appalachian trout.
He likes wading small streams more than any other form of fishing, although he is more than proficient handling a canoe and a fly rod simultaneously on flat water. He is a member of a Tennessee fishing club that is almost 100 years old. He also is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and author of “100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die.” His compilation of travel stories is at CornersOfTheCountry.com.
Chuck Hills
I have been fishing for a long time. It started with me and the old man, his L.L.Bean bamboo rod and a bear. I was 12, and the year was 1954. Since then I fished the fresh and salt from Alaska to Honduras, most of the Sierras, and half of Montana. Wolves, bears of all colors and species, a cougar, drug smugglers and a hurricane have been a part of all of it – from small Sierra creeks to dark water in the North to seamless, turquoise flats.
My fiction career began with a short story in the Stanford University literary magazine. Over the years other stories followed, appearing in angling publications, men’s journals, an equestrian magazine, and anthology of Northern California writers. The prologue to my novel, Killing Time in Paradise, was selected from eight hundred submissions, to win a Rupert Hughes fiction award at the Maui Writer’s Conference. It was my first work of long fiction. Since then, I have written a novella, a collection of short stories, and some screenplays. Currently, I’m at work on a novel of my generation.
On top of being a life-long fly fisherman, and a disciplined writer, I am also a dog’s best friend. I live in Kula, on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Peter Brookes
Peter Brookes is an award-winning, freelance, part-time outdoor writer from Virginia, and a recovering DC foreign policy wonk. He’s fished and or hunted in 35 states and a couple of countries. Brookes is convinced that catching a musky on the fly is a well-protected myth started by an evil cult of piscatorial prevaricators. He can be reached at Brookesoutdoors@aol.com
Eric Silfen, MD
Eric Silfen, MD is the former Chief Medical Officer for Philips Healthcare. In this role, he led the Office of Medical and Health Affairs and worked to inform and communicate Philips Healthcare’s thought leadership around the world. Operationally, he was responsible for embedding a “medical consciousness” into Philips Healthcare by developing the clinical and econometric evidence that differentiated the company’s products, services and solutions in the global marketplace.
Upon retirement, when not working around his home, writing for the Huffington Post or Riversandfeathers, or traveling to NYC to visit his children, Dr. Silfen is fishing; either walking Nantucket’s West Jetty or Polpis Harbor; or taking his skiff the Pilar II, to Great Point or Tuckernuck Island.
When not fishing at home, he can be found in such places as the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana; the New York / Pennsylvania / Delaware River basin; throughout Connecticut and Vermont; off Long Island in the Bahamas; or off Ambergris Caye in Belize.
Usually fly-casting, he prefers Nantucket Fish Stix custom rods; when hunting for trout, his favorite nymph is the deadly Rick’s Rainbow.
Tad Murdock
Tad Murdock is a Georgia Fly Fishing Guide with Georgia Wild Trout. When not fly fishing North Georgia, he travels the world hunting the many species of trout, salmon, char, and taimen on the fly. With only a handful of species left to catch on his list, he looks to help other fly anglers on their fishing journeys by writing informative articles, including stories on riversandfeathers.com, and sharing the experiences and the local knowledge of those he has met on his adventures at American Fly Fishermen. To follow him on his adventures and learn more tips and techniques, check out his Instagram pages tadpolefishin and GeorgiaWildtrout.com.
Gregg Rockett
Gregg Rockett has been fly fishing for more than 30 years and blogs about fly fishing adventures around the world at www.thetroutbandit.com. He lives in the DC area, volunteers for his local chapter of Trout Unlimited and likes to fish for brook trout in Shenandoah National Park. He can be reached at gregg@thetroutbandit.com.
Bob Romano
Bob Romano’s most recent novel, RETURN TO RANGELEY, was released in January 2025.
Published in 2023, RIVER FLOWERS, is his collection of short stories about wild fish, the places they’re found, and the people who seek them out.
He is also the author of the Rangeley Lakes series of novels: NORTH OF EASIE, WEST OF RANGELEY, and BROOK TROUT BLUES. North of Easie took second place in the 2010 New England Outdoor Writer’s Best Book Contest.
His novel, THE RIVER KING, is also set in western Maine.
Bob’s book of essays, SHADOWS IN THE STREAM contains his reflections on the Magalloway, Rapid, and Kennebago Rivers as well as Upper Dam, Parmachenee Lake, and the people who made these places so special—sporting legends such as Carrie Stevens, Louise Dickinson Rich, and Herb Welch.
His essays and short stories have appeared in various anthologies, including Christmas in the Wild, Fresh Fiction for Fresh Water Fishing, and Wildbranch: An Anthology of Nature, Environmental, and Place-Based Writing.
He is a frequent contributor to Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Magazine and Midcurrent, the online fly-fishing magazine. Bob also writes a column for Northwoods Sporting Journal while doing his best to keep up with his blog http://forgottentrout.wordpress.com
Trish Romano often adds artwork and photographs to illustrate her husband’s writing. An accomplished artist, the couple’s daughter, Emily Rose Romano, has contributed a number of watercolors to her father’s most recent books.
The family has owned a camp in western Maine for nearly forty years, where they spend much of their time. Sometimes referred to as “The Land of Fishing Legends,” it is a region of the country where moose outnumber the residents and native brook trout share the rivers with landlocked salmon.
For more information visit Bob’s website: http://forgottentrout.com
