BREMEN, Ala. – Located next to the Walker County line along Alabama Highway 69, nestled next to the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River, you’ll find a quaint-looking cabin. It’s local and tourist favorite, Riverside Fly Shop, where you can learn all about the love of fly fishing and the uniqueness of the Sipsey.
The moment you open the door, you’re greeted by a warm, curious nose – Bull, the shop guard dog. He’ll welcome you- and take some pets, thank you!
Riverside Fly Shop Owner Brandon Jackson shared the history of the business.
“My wife and I came to Jasper in 2002 to the youth ministry, I feel in love with the (Sipsey Fork) river and fishing it,” he said. “The people who owned the building then were looking to sell and move out west, and we worked with them. We ended up purchasing the building in 2005 and slowly began understanding more about the river and meeting the needs of fly fishermen and those kinds of things and trying to listen to what was going on and how to make it work. Over the years we’ve built relationships and a model of what we do to try to help people enjoy this sport and to bring people to this area, get them involved in fly fishing, give them alternatives for things to do while they’re enjoying the lake or different things like that. We really try to become advocates for the river for people to be able to utilize it in the best way possible.”
Jackson said the most popular things the shop offers are guided trips.
“You can show up to the shop and we’ll outfit you with everything you’ll need,” he said. “We’ll put you in waders and boots if you want to do a wading trip, or we can do a drift boat trip where you show up and you’re able to enjoy the boat moving through the water and things like that. Those are probably some of our more popular things, especially for beginners (in fly fishing) and people who are just interested in getting out and trying something new. We also do guided trips with folks who are pretty experienced but want to learn some different techniques, things like that. We really try to focus on teaching during our guided trips as much as actually trying to just catch a fish. On our guided trips we teach casting and reading the water and things like that. In the shop we’ll also do casting lessons if you need or fly tying lessons, and really if it’s involved in the sport in any way, we will help you become proficient at it, we’ll help you get the skills that you need so that then you can do it on your own.
He continued, “We are a full outfitter, so we have all of the gear that anyone involved in the sport of fly fishing may need, so we can outfit people who’ve never fly fished before and we can give them every piece of gear that they would need to have a successful day on the water. Our fly box is one of the most important aspects of the shop. We try to keep fly lures in stock that work not only on the river here for the rainbow trout, but also for brim and bass, the warm water species we typically catch with the fly rod, and make sure we have everything there. We offer a little bit of primitive camping. We have basically flat pieces of land that we’ll let you stay on overnight; it has access to a restroom at the shop. We can provide those opportunities as well.
The Sipsey Fork is the only river in Alabama where you fish for rainbow trout year-round because of the river’s cool temperatures, he said.
“We’re a destination shop,” said Jackson. “Our business model is dependent on the success of the river- anything that’s going to help you enjoy trout fishing this stream, specifically, but then that will translate into any trout stream, really, we try to take care of it.”
Jackson has a passion for fly fishing, and in particular, his little piece of paradise.
“I had just fallen in love with fly fishing, and this is the only place in the state you can go and catch a trout year-round. Being that close in having that opportunity, we came here fairly often; the river is a special place. It’s unique in the fact it has the cold water to support trout, but it’s unique in its beauty and its flow in how clear the water is. There are a lot of things that happen here that don’t necessarily happen anywhere else and it’s just a beautiful place that was attractive to us and provided for us some opportunities that we saw and I think it has great potential to attract people to the state,” he smiled. “We’ve got a register of out-of-towners that’s pretty full of people who come to visit specifically to fish for rainbow trout in Alabama. It’s just such a unique opportunity, and we wanted to try to be part of making it better, making it accessible, making it easier to have success here and be able to enjoy it the way that we enjoy it.”
Jackson said COVID-19 impacted his business for a while, but the desire to get back out into nature brought customers back.
“We had to close; we were non-essential as a retail store. We were doing a little bit of curbside, phone order type stuff before the store was closed, and that really hurt for a while,” he shared. “Once things opened back up, people wanted to get back outside. We try to take the measures that we can to keep everyone safe, but also provide a great opportunity to get outside and social distance in an environment that is beautiful doing something that you can really enjoy. We wanted to be a part of that solution and offer those opportunities as much as we could.”
Riverside Fly Shop is located at 17027 Alabama Highway 69, Bremen, AL 35033 and is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.
Find out more at www.facebook.com/AlabamaTrout.
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