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RS Staff
Al Pugh
Al Agnew
Tracy Gosselin
Steven Flint
Marc Hutchison
Brian King

Meet Our Staff
This is the page where you can learn a little bit about our staff and what they do outside of smallie fishing. As much as each of us would like to spend all of our time chasing smallies, we do have full-time jobs and responsibilities that require our attention. Each staff member is a part of this site because of their love for smallies and river fishing.

Steven Flint is a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Licensed Guide. He also guides & recreates in Canada and has studied various, riverine ecosystems across North America. Steven has been listening to and studying Nature for over 32 years. Formerly a River keeper and Watershed Protection Program Manager, Steven and his wife, Rebecca, now reside in the Adirondack Park in upstate New York. Rebecca works for the Adirondack Nature Conservancy and is also an accomplished artist.

“Over the years I’ve been observant enough to realize that unless we have a firm understanding of the seasonal & behavioral attributes of our fish species of choice, the odds are always in their favor. Far beyond this thoughtful game we call smallmouth bass fishing is our inherent responsibility to protect and preserve our country’s creeks, streams and rivers. Personally, I witness these ecosystems as the circulatory system that feeds and drains our great Nation. We must strive to be remarkably careful of what we do to our floodplain landscapes, the flesh, if you will. If we injure the flesh, we poison the arteries…….and ourselves.

I very much enjoy teaching and passing on what I’ve learned and have come to understand to beginning and novice anglers. I do hope to make a positive contribution here at riversmallies.com”.

Steven's email address is beyondthebanks@yahoo.com.

Tracy Gosselin started fishing at the age of three. Being born and raised in Maine gave her the opportunity to fish at almost any time the interest struck. "Maine is such a great place to live if you enjoy fishing. From my home, I can travel 1 – 2 hours to the west and be fishing clear mountain streams for brookies and rainbows. Travel east a half-hour, and be casting to stripers in the surf. And, best of all, just 10 minutes away is one of the best smallmouth rivers in the state….the Androscoggin."

Like most children, she started fishing by catching sunfish living under the dock on spin tackle and live bait. "It was such a rush to catch one. I always let them go…I never did develop a taste for fish."

She started tying flies at the age of 12, and started fishing with them a few years later. "I would borrow my dad's white fiberglass Wonderod, and start flailing it around. I was entirely self-taught, and pretty bad at it."

After being hired to work in the fishing department of a retail store, she went through an intensive, 3-day fly-fishing school, and "unlearned all my bad habits." Now, she is an instructor in the school, and teaches fly fishing and fly tying to both adults and children.

Tracy has been married for over 20 years, and has two teenage daughters. Aside from fishing and fly tying, she enjoys working in pastels and oil paints, photography and "…an on-going renovation of our house that has been taking our time for the past 17 years!" E-mail - fishingal9@adelphia.net

A native of the Missouri Ozarks, Al Agnew is a wildlife artist who is renowned for his paintings of North American animals, birds, and fish. He paints smallmouth bass with the highest degree of accuracy and authenticity because he is also an avid stream smallmouth angler, and is considered one of the foremost authorities on smallmouth fishing in Missouri. Al has fished for smallmouths in nearly all the rivers of the Ozarks, as well as streams in Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ontario.

Al grew up living less than a mile from one of Missouri's best smallmouth streams, and from the time he was nine years old he was riding his bike to the river nearly every day to fish for bronzebacks. He started floating the streams in an old 12-foot johnboat when he was twelve, and bought his first canoe at the age of seventeen. Since then he estimates he has covered nearly 10,000 miles of smallmouth rivers in canoes and other watercraft. Al makes many of his own lures, including a wooden crankbait and a bucktail spinnerbait that he says are two of the best stream smallmouth lures he has ever used, so good that he doesn't sell them and is hesitant to describe them. He says you have to fish with him to see them!

Al now lives with his wife Mary in southern Missouri in a home they designed, on 40 acres of forest and fields with a bass-filled pond next to the house, and his favorite smallmouth stream is still the one he fished as a boy. E-mail - alagnew@alagnew.com Website - www.alagnew.com

Al Pugh grew up on the Greenbrier River and learned to be part of the outdoors from his father, who he calls Pappy when he writes. He says Pappy never took a poor shot, never kept a fish they didn't need, and always wanted the other person to "have the best show." After high school, Al married his high school sweetheart. Two sons and a Navy submarine career later, they are still looking forward together. Both sons love the outdoors and hunt and fish whenever the opportunity occurs.

Al's home is in Newport News, VA but he works for a defense contractor in engineering management in the Washington, DC area, which gives him a wider scope of rivers to fish. He hunts and fishes whenever he can and loves to introduce others to these pursuits.

Al did his first writing for RiverSmallies.com and Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits' Inside Line Magazine, and he still cherishes those associations. Additionally, he is associated with Case plastics and Cabin Fever Tackle, and most recently, he has joined the Pro's Soft~Bait Glue Pro Staff with Mike Rice's Innovative Products, Inc. It has been some time since Al fished any sort of tournament tour, but his fishing experience dates to 1959. Al feels that becoming a "pro" in this way gives him the freedom and the responsibility to choose his associations carefully. He believes he has done just that.

He primarily fishes rivers for smallmouth bass, and his most likely lure is plastic (Senkos, tubes, Hula Grubs, Mad Toms, etc), followed closely by hair jigs, small silicone jigs, and selected hard and wire baits. He is searching for a replacement for Phil Shafer's hair/fur jigs since Phil semi-retired from making them. He throws Butch Neal's silicone jigs, buzz baits, and spinner baits and he throws Yamamoto plastics primarily, backed up by Charlie Case's creations among others. Because of his schedule, he may be found on any of the mid-Atlantic rivers, from the Susquehanna south to the New, and inland to the Greenbrier and New in WV. Since Al describes himself as a "jack of all trades" on the river and since his grandfather 7 generations back ran a ferry on the Greenbrier and was called "River Jack," Al has taken the email address AlRiverJackPugh@aol.com. He tries to respond to all serious inquiries, but asks that correspondents allow him time to reply.

Marc Hutchison was born and raised in West Virginia. He graduated from Marshall University with a BA degree in Criminal Justice. While attending Marshall, Marc was involved with several professional criminal justice organizations and firearms teams.

Marc is a veteran of the United States Air Force where he served four years at Sembach Air Base, Germany. Marc earned the "Distinguished Honor Graduate" and "Louis H. Fischer" awards at the Air Force Police Academy. During his four years at Sembach, Marc earned a Security Administration degree. He also earned four medals and ten ribbons during his stay at Sembach including the Air Force Achievement Medal for his actions, during Desert Storm, as part of an anti-terrorist team. Marc also earned the "Best American Shooter" award at a European Handgun Championship in Germany. Marc worked for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1995 - 2002.

Marc has had a life long passion for the outdoors, especially river and stream fishing for smallmouth bass and trout. Marc's favorite river lures are Rebel Crawdads, Bandit Crankbaits, Schubert's tubes, ASSALT plastics, Rattlesnake 4" worms, and Butch Neal jigs. Marc also serves as a Pro Staff member for PRO'S Soft-Bait Glue. He enjoys music, reading, reloading, muskie fishing, and firearms collecting. Marc lives with his wife, Stephanie, who is an avid outdoorswoman, and their two children in West Virginia. E-mail - riverwarrior4570@hotmail.com

Brian King is a native of Michigan, grew up in West Virginia, and now resides in central Kentucky. He learned how to hunt and fish at a very young age. Brian's grandfather spent many hours teaching him, his brother, and cousin proper gun safety. His grandfather also took them fishing. Brian's early fishing days were spent catching bluegills and largemouth bass. It wasn't until later while living in WV that he became hooked on river and stream smallies.

Brian graduated from Marshall University with a BA in Criminal Justice and a minor in psychology. He was vice-president of Lambda Alpha Epsilon and a member of the shooting team. Brian is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force where he served as a Security Policeman. He was a distinguished honor graduate from basic training and graduated in the top 1% of his class from the Air Force Police Academy. He served in Desert Storm where his team's duties consisted of personnel protection and anti-terrorism. Brian also spent a year in South Korea as a customs inspector. He is now a 13 year police veteran assigned to a special operations unit at his department in Kentucky.

Brian has a passion for smallmouth fishing. He prefers to wade and float the rivers and streams of KY and WV in pursuit of smallies. When it comes to gear and equipment he likes to keep it simple. Some of his favorite lures include Case plastics, Butch Neal silicone jigs, Phil Schafer's hair jigs, Venom tubes, Rattlesnake worms, Tiny Torpedos, and buzzbaits.

In addition to fishing, Brian enjoys hunting, shooting, riding horses, reading, computers, ATV riding, and working around the yard. Brian is a single father of a young daughter. He owns a Quarter Horse mare named Anna and a Maine Coon cat named Gunny. E-mail - bking@riversmallies.com