Guides
We have 7 professional and licensed fly fishing guides that conduct trips throughout the season. They are leading authorities on the Delaware River and the fish in these challenging waters. Our guides have fished the river for years and can teach you as much as you want to know in order to enhance your experience. They love being on the river as much as you do!!
Bob Lewis
Born and raised in upstate New York, Bob honed his fly fishing skills on the Mohawk River and West Canada Creek. From the 70's to the mid-90's, Bob guided each summer in West Yellowstone for Bob Jacklin, Craig Mathews and Bud Lilly. For the remainder of the year from September to June, Bob taught high school English in New Hartford, New York. Educated at St. Lawrence University, he received his BA and then went to Syracuse University for his MA in English.
During the months of April, May and June, Bob targets the waters in the Delaware River system. His experience with this drainage began in the early seventies and initially focused on the upper East Branch and the lower Main Stem from Lordville down river. Fishing spinners on flat water and throwing streamers are two of Bob's favorite methods of catching trout. As a guide, Bob focuses on casting techniques, reading water and proper fly presentation. Early in his career, he was lucky enough to be mentored by Lefty Kreh who helped establish him as a guide and a photographer. Other notables Bob has guided include Joan and Lee Wulff, Dave Whitlock, Billy Pate and George Harvey.
Bob enjoys teaching casting to novices, as well as advanced anglers. He has fished the Catskills, Adirondacks, Montana and Alaska, as well as the Bahamas, Florida Keys and South America. His new addiction is chasing stripers and blues on the east coast. All in all, a day on the river with Bob is both entertaining and informative.
Joe Marinzel
Joe has had fun fly fishing ever since he can remember. He has been a guide with the DRC since 2000, but began his career four years earlier in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Joe enjoys sharing his knowledge of pursuing wild fish in the Upper Delaware during the spring. He then heads for British Columbia and Alaska where he displays his passion for steelhead and anything spey. Besides being an excellent angler, Joe excels at martial arts and hand to hand combat – a good guy to have on your side.
Bruce Miller
Bruce Miller has been fishing since he was a small boy. He began fishing the Catskill Rivers (Beaverkill, Willowemoc, Neversink and Esopus) in the early 1960's and never turned back. He introduced himself to the Delaware River System in the mid-1970's and was hooked. In 1985, Bruce splurged and bought his first drift boat, which he purchased with two of his buddies, and he's been floating ever since.
Bruce predominantly fishes with dry flies, but he's also a big fan of throwing streamers especially during high flows. While Bruce has had his guides' license for almost 20 years, he was not able to begin guiding until he retired from IBM in 2007. These days, when he is not guiding, Bruce finds any excuse to fish the saltwater in the Northeast, Florida and Texas.
Wiley Paul
Wiley is one of our most traveled guides and casting instructors. For the past fifteen years, Wiley has guided both in the USA and internationally. While abroad, he worked in Argentina and Chile, but at home, he enjoys fishing Colorado in the west, and the Delaware River System in the east.
2004 marked his first season guiding for the DRC, where his main pursuit is targeting trout in the spring on the Upper Delaware.
When temperatures warm up and insect activity wanes, you can find Wiley fishing and guiding for smallmouth bass with poppers and clousers. As a casting instructor, he enjoys demonstrating classic techniques that ensure accuracy and distance. This ability conveyed with his knowledge of entomology helps his students reaffirm their connection with the natural environment and the art of fly fishing.
Wiley enjoys tying exhibition salmon flies in his free time.
Stephen Shen
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When Steve's Mom asked him what he wanted for his birthday present during his teenage years, his response was always to skip school for the day so that he could fish the Hendrickson hatch. Since then, Steve has found time in between his fishing excursions to the Upper Delaware in the spring and the Salmon River in the fall to excel in his academic pursuits, graduating from Hamilton College in 2009 with a degree in business.
Steve's guiding experience started at the DRC in 2006. If you want to find out the latest in fly fishing innovations or tying materials, Steve is our resident equipment "junkie". An excellent fly tyer, Steve is always creating a new CDC emerger or heavy duty streamer to fool the selective Delaware trout. Aside from dry fly fishing and throwing streamers, Steve is an impassioned salmon and steelhead fisherman, basing his trips mainly in Pulaski, NY area where he guides on the Salmon River and Lake Ontario. Well read and knowledgeable, he has learned to be proficient and productive on his own and with clients while fishing the Catskill water shed.
To find out more about Steve and what he’s doing, you can check out his blog at http://delawaretrout.blogspot.com/
Kevan Smaracko
According to Kevan, he was probably born with a fly rod in his hands. During his youth in the Poconos, Kevan learned the fly fishing basics and was instantly hooked. After graduating from Slippery Rock University with a degree in resource management, he successfully completed an internship at the DRC. Realizing the guide staff at the DRC could give him a crash course on casting and fishing in general, Kevan was able to absorb a great deal of knowledge in a short time. His persistence and hard work have paid off with successful trips on the river. Kevan broadened his fishing experience by guiding in Montana in 2009 and hopes to travel outside the USA in the future. So far his adventures include Steelhead Alley, Colorado and the fabled streams of the Smoky Mountains. What kind of fishing is he into?? His motto is "Streamers=Big Fish" – enough said.
Jeff White
Jeff has over 13 years of guiding under his belt, but has been fishing ever since he was a toddler growing up in Connecticut, spending his summers near the Delaware fishing with his grandfather. After working in the corporate world for 5 years, Jeff decided to make a career out of his love for fishing and began guiding full time in the tail waters of Tennessee, prior to moving to Pennsylvania to manage the Delaware River Club. After 8 years at the DRC, the mountains of Tennessee beckoned once again in 2008, and Jeff has been fishing there until his return to the Delaware this spring.
Along with the Delaware River, Jeff has guided other waters in New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and both North & South Carolina. One thing is certain – good luck finding Jeff anywhere without a river nearby!
Don’t let his laid back and easy going personality fool you though - he knows the Delaware, its finicky fish and bugs like no other. Clients truly enjoy their time on the water with him, as he will put them on fish and teach them something new on every trip.
Keeping the family tradition alive, Jeff and his 6 year old niece fish as frequently as possible, but his true passion is his chase for the salt and his free time is spent seeking out stripers and blue fin tuna on the fly. When he’s not on the water, Jeff is designing new styles of flies, hunting grouse and raising chickens.
