Patrick Weaver

Patrick's outdoor education began on the banks of a trout stream in northern Indiana, where he grew up hunting, fishing, and devouring his father's copies of Sports Afield magazine. A series of articles on fly fishing in those pages sparked a lifelong obsession, and he soon caught his first trout on a Royal Wulff Wet Fly — a moment that set the course of his life.

At age 19, Patrick moved to Colorado, where a fortunate introduction to his fly fishing landlord Tom accelerated his development on the water. Tom was a master dry fly angler who introduced Patrick to the Front Range fisheries and the art of a fly-first presentation — a foundation that remains central to his teaching philosophy today. When Patrick and his wife relocated to North Carolina in 2002, another mentor entered the picture: Joe, a gifted nymph angler who taught Patrick to read water from the bottom up.

Over the decades, Patrick has fly fished in more than 20 states, pursuing steelhead in New York, snook in Florida, smallmouth bass, and trout across wildly varied waters — from the demanding Elk River in West Virginia to high-country streams in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. That broad experience informs everything he teaches.

Patrick's formal education deepened his credibility as an instructor. He holds a BS in Secondary Education with a major in Biology from Indiana University South Bend and an MA with a specialization in Integrated Judgment in Risk Management from Prescott College. He taught high school biology and physics, monitored rivers for the State of North Carolina surveying aquatic macroinvertebrates, and developed a fly fishing curriculum for the Asheville School.

In 2025, Patrick published Hatches of Pisgah Forest: A Guide to Insects and the Flies that Catch Them, a practical field guide presenting major eastern hatches alongside his proven system for fly selection and presentation. With more than 40 years on the water and 30 years of instruction, Patrick brings rare depth — and genuine passion — to every angler he meets.