Oct 5, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min · 11 segments
In this episode of Southeastern Fly, we sit down with Daniel Roberts, a fly fishing and light tackle guide on Beaver Lake, Arkansas, to talk about freshwater striper fishing, fly design, and what fly…
David PerryHost
Daniel, there's a couple things I've noticed about gear and flying, especially on lakes it seems like, and maybe I'm pigeonholing folks and I'm trying not to, but if an angler starts with a conventional in gear and then picks up a fly rod, it seems like they just kind of stay with the gear and then the fly rod is kind of on the side.
But if an angler starts with a fly and then picks up conventional gear, they seem to end up more in the fly fishing space.
Not to say that's 100% of the case because I think I am one that picked up the gear and did that and made my way over to the fly space.
And now the only time I pick up a fly a conventional rod is where i find one in the middle of in the bottom of the river and get it out of there but yeah but that seems to be uh somebody gravitating back to what they started at seems to be the the rule and not the exception so You fish a lot of lakes with striper.
I have a lot of somewhat beginner clients who have fish gear their whole life and they pick up this fly rod for the first time and it becomes their new thing.
So I would tell you that, From the perspective of like you pick something up, but you still stick with what you know.
I see a lot of those beginner fly fishermen who pick that up and they're like, this is what I'm going to do for the next, you know, five years, 10 years, whatever.
I mean, I started fly fishing when I was, you know, about nine years old and it helped that I started tying flies at the same time.
So it was a lot it was a lot deeper for me, I think, than just the surface level of fly fishing itself.
But it becomes something much deeper of like, okay, I've been fishing my whole life, but now there's a whole new world to this.
And I think depending on the type of person you are really dictates how deep you go into that new sector of what you're looking at.
If you're someone who wants to try something new but doesn't necessarily want to dive all into it, If you're more of that person, then you're going to naturally gravitate more towards trying it, liking it, doing it once in a while, but sticking with what you know.
If you're the type of person who sees something new and wants to just dive in it, I mean, and just get lost in it, then you're typically going to be the person who, in my experience I've seen, makes a hard shift in their fishing history, I guess, their fishing life.
Yeah, I mean, I picked up a fly rod and I didn't fish conventional gear for like over 10 years.
And then I started, you know, we started repping for St. Croix rods at the time.
Daniel, there's a couple things I've noticed about gear and flying, especially on lakes it seems like, and maybe I'm pigeonholing folks and I'm trying not to, but if an angler starts with a conventional in gear and then picks up a fly rod, it seems like they just kind of stay with the gear and then the fly rod is kind of on the side.
But if an angler starts with a fly and then picks up conventional gear, they seem to end up more in the fly fishing space.
Not to say that's 100% of the case because I think I am one that picked up the gear and did that and made my way over to the fly space.
And now the only time I pick up a fly a conventional rod is where i find one in the middle of in the bottom of the river and get it out of there but yeah but that seems to be uh somebody gravitating back to what they started at seems to be the the rule and not the exception so You fish a lot of lakes with striper.
I have a lot of somewhat beginner clients who have fish gear their whole life and they pick up this fly rod for the first time and it becomes their new thing.
So I would tell you that, From the perspective of like you pick something up, but you still stick with what you know.
I see a lot of those beginner fly fishermen who pick that up and they're like, this is what I'm going to do for the next, you know, five years, 10 years, whatever.
I mean, I started fly fishing when I was, you know, about nine years old and it helped that I started tying flies at the same time.
So it was a lot it was a lot deeper for me, I think, than just the surface level of fly fishing itself.
But it becomes something much deeper of like, okay, I've been fishing my whole life, but now there's a whole new world to this.
And I think depending on the type of person you are really dictates how deep you go into that new sector of what you're looking at.
If you're someone who wants to try something new but doesn't necessarily want to dive all into it, If you're more of that person, then you're going to naturally gravitate more towards trying it, liking it, doing it once in a while, but sticking with what you know.
If you're the type of person who sees something new and wants to just dive in it, I mean, and just get lost in it, then you're typically going to be the person who, in my experience I've seen, makes a hard shift in their fishing history, I guess, their fishing life.
Yeah, I mean, I picked up a fly rod and I didn't fish conventional gear for like over 10 years.
And then I started, you know, we started repping for St. Croix rods at the time.
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