A Brief History of the Southern Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame
After establishing the Fly-Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians in 2013, my vision included supporting a Hall of Fame as one of the activities associated with the museum. The museum would primarily exhibit Stream Blazers of our fly-fishing past. The museum Hall of Fame would recognize the outstanding accomplishments related to fly fishing of both posthumous and living individuals involved in our sport.
I consulted with the Director of the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum and Center about his approach to starting their Hall of Fame. How do you select and induct the first class for the Hall of Fame? His response was… “have the museum board select the first class, then systematically grow a selection committee from the recipients over the next few classes.”
One of the museum board members was Ron Beane who had a great deal of experience putting together the Caldwell County Athletics Hall of Fame. Ron recommended four categories of recognition with ideally one induction being posthumous and three living. The application forms, the annual induction, the published program and the Induction Ceremony were all derived from Ron’s model of a Hall of Fame. We initially established four categories of recognition: Communications, Conservation, Crafts and Recreation.
With everything for the museum start-up in place, we held the museum’s first Grand Opening on June 6, 2015, in Cherokee with over 120 visitors in attendance. Soon after in November 2015, Jackie Greene and I first met to discuss the first inductees slate and to establish the museum Fly Fishing Hall of Fame. Once we had the first class named for induction the museum Fly Fishing Hall of Fame was born with a plan to have the Induction Ceremony the next year in the fall of 2016. In the meantime, by June 2016, the museum had to be moved with the relocation to be to nearby in Bryson City. In July, the museum held a second Grand Opening on Main Street in Bryson City.
The inaugural museum Hall of Fame remained on schedule for early November with plans for the Induction Ceremony to be held at the old Almond School just west of Bryson City. With a lot of volunteers, the event was a huge success. There was no doubt that such an event was needed and desired by our fly-fishing community.
Fast forward to the present. In hindsight, the museum Hall of Fame inducted a new class annually until COVID-19 struck. After several years “the COVID class” was finally inducted in the Fall of 2023. From the many lessons learned, from great constructive feedback, with a top-notch selection committee and with Jackie Greene as the Director, the museum Hall of Fame has been renamed the Southern Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame.
There are now six recognition categories: Ambassador, Humanity, Communication, Conservation, Crafts and Recreation. The scope has been expanded geographically beyond the Southern Appalachians to include all the southern states. Potential candidates for induction include fly fishing individuals from Coldwater, Warmwater and Saltwater domains.
The Southern Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame far exceeds my expectations and fully completes the vision that I had. I am more than proud of Jackie Greene and these accomplishments which are associated with the museum.
Alen D. Baker, Founder
Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians
and Cap Wiese Fly Fishing Center
