Fly Fishing Guides

Meet the fly fishing guides that make your day on the water special. Ohiopyle is our home fishing base, our full service fly shop is literally, 125 steps from the banks of the Youghiogheny River. We are the only outfitter based on the water, when you call and ask fishing conditions, we are looking at the water from our offices. Also a cool feature of our location is that our large wooden building attracts recent hatches. So if you want a first hand account of what happened last evening, pull into Garrett Street and look closely at the siding on our building. Our fly fishing guides are all involved in conservation and educational activities that further the resources that we work on and expanding the community of fly fishing folk. Come on down to the Yough and get to know some of this gang.

Aidan Kane

Aidan is a West Virginia University Wildlife and Fisheries major minoring in conservation ecology. He’s been fly fishing in the Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia areas for about 5 years now. He began as a bass, catfish, and snakehead angler and progressed to trout after moving to West Virginia. He’s a Conservation officer and member of the West Virginia University Fly Fishing Club, and he’s volunteered with Project Healing Waters, Trout Unlimited, 5Rivers, the Great Falls Foundation, Friends of the Cheat, and Friends of Deckers Creek.

JT Smith

JT’s passion for fly fishing began at the age of eight in his home state of Louisiana fishing for large mouth bass and bluegill. Fast forward to 2017 during a business trip in Ohio. He contacted Orvis looking for places to go fishing they recommended Ohiopyle. When he arrived in Ohiopyle, he went to Wilderness Voyageurs where they had everything he needed and advice on where to go fishing. On the way out of Ohiopyle, he called his family telling them we should move up here. Two years later, he and his family bought a house just ten minutes from Ohiopyle. He’d like to thank fly fishing, Orvis and Wilderness Voyageurs for helping him find a new home and a dream job!

Ashley Wilmont

Ashley started at Wilderness Voyageurs as a whitewater guide, but now is the fly fishing instructor extraordinaire. She has been fishing her whole life and fly fishing for the last 10 years. She graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. Her “day time” job is Dirt & Gravel Road Program Coordinator and Erosion Control Inspector at the Washington County Conservation District. She also volunteers for Western Pennsylvania Casting for Recovery, a non-profit organization that teaches women that are affected by breast cancer how to fly fish. When she is not fly fishing, she is reading about fly fishing and macroinvertebrates, practicing fly casting, and painting colorful trout.

Doug Matthews

Doug has been fishing since he was a 6-year-old throwing worms at bass and trout. He’s basically lived in the woods either hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking since he can remember. He grew up fishing all over WV and its mountain streams, especially on the New River, but he recently fell in love with Pennsylvania’s awesome trout streams and especially the Yough. Doug has a BS in History with a Minor in Biology. He enjoys teaching people, especially kids, the enjoyment of outdoor recreation and fly fishing. Doug currently works with Mcfly Outdoors as a fly fishing manager. When Doug isn’t fishing, he’s usually hiking or throwing the frisbee to the dog.

Dale Kotowski

Dale has enough fishing knowledge to fill a book or two. The only thing that he has more of than knowledge, is absolute passion for sharing the sport of fly fishing. Dale has fished more than 200 waters around the US and enjoys both fresh water and salt water and is as happy chasing carp as he is chasing trout. He is the president of the local Trout Unlimited chapter and spends a lot of his time on local conservation issues.

Kevin Garrison

Kevin has been running around the hollers of West Virginia and Pennsylvania chasing fish since he was about 12. When it was time for college, it was a no brainer, he moved to State College to fly fish and attend college “in that order”. He graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in Recreation & Parks Management, then promptly moved to Alaska to be a fishing guide. We are stoked that he has since returned home to western Pennsylvania. He now has a grown up job, operating the Washington County Park System, but he is able to sneak away and spend time floating and fishing in Ohiopyle. From his mouth… “I am always on the hunt for hog Johnson, ” the biggest fish in the river”, my favorite fly is the one in the fishes mouth. Spend a day with Kevin and you will see how he really enjoys teaching folks about fly fishing and seeing them catch fish.

Rob Walters

Rob has been leading fly fishing trips for Wilderness Voyageurs since 2007. He has a BS in Wildlife Biology & a minor in Entomology from the University of Delaware. His fishing training is extensive: Certified PA Fly Fishing Guide, WFA, LNT, BWSA (instructor), Take me Fishing (instructor), American Red Cross CPR and Basic First Aid (instructor), PA Fish and Boat Commission Fishing Skills (instructor).

Prior Work: Wildlife Rehabilitator, Field Technician, Environmental Scientist, Naturalist, Wildlife Biologist, Outdoor Recreation Program Manager at Venture Outdoors, Membership Director for Venture Outdoors, presently Rob is the River Keeper for the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, PA

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