Relentless Fly Fishing Guides
Jay Nichols has been smallmouth bass fishing in Pennsylvania since he moved here from Montana in 2000. A day on the water with Jay is custom fit to your needs and wishes. Patience, communication, and targeted tips for improving your techniques are hallmarks of his guiding approach and style.
Over the years, Jay has collaborated with the sport’s legends on books such as Casting with Lefty Kreh (Kreh and Nichols), Fundamentals of Fly Casting (Kreh and Nichols), Clouser’s Flies and Fly Fishing for Smallmouth (Bob Clouser and Nichols), Fleye Design (Bob Popovics and Nichols), and Game Changer: Tying Flies that Look and Swim Like the Real Thing (Blane Chocklett and Jay Nichols). He is also the author and publisher of Keystone Fly Fishing: The Ultimate Guide to the State’s Best Waters.
His videography work includes instructional fishing and fly tying videos with George Daniel, Landon Mayer, and Jake Villwock as well as filming and directing the documentary Lefty: The Greatest of All Time, which premiered on The Outdoor Channel.
Location: Carlisle, PA
Eric Naguski Eric Naguski has spent the last 40 years chasing trout around Pennsylvania with a fly rod in hand. He is the owner of Riseforms Fly Fishing guide service and also a guide for Relentless Fly Fishing. He currently lives and guides out of Boiling Springs, PA in the heart of the Cumberland Valley. Surrounded by its legendary Spring Creeks and their notoriously difficult trout. Eric is a bug geek and loves to dry fly fish. To him, sharing the experience of successfully presenting a dry fly to a picky rising fish with a client is most often more fun than doing it himself.Eric has a biology degree in aquatic ecology and is heavily involved in conservation activities in the Cumberland Valley as a board member of Cumberland Valley TU. He also finds the time to serve on the board of the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum Association working to preserve and promote the storied history of fly fishing in Pennsylvania. Eric enjoys fly fishing for saltwater fish and has caught fish on the fly from Massachusetts to Mexico, but his heart lies in the limestone streams of Pennsylvania.
Location: Boiling Springs PA & Cumberland Valley
Tom Baltz, a New Mexico native, has been a fly tier for over 50 years, those since the mid-1970’s spent among the legendary tiers and anglers of the limestone valleys of south-central Pennsylvania, near Carlisle. A full time fly-fishing professional since 1974 and one of Pennsylvania’s first licensed fishing guides (PA Guide License #9), Tom is an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide who was named North East Trout Guide of the Year (2001) by Orvis, a signal honor resulting from client feedback. Tom is a member of the Regal Engineering (Regal Vise) Pro Staff. He and his wife Eileen live outside Boiling Springs, PA, very near Mountain Creek, the Letort, and the lovely Yellow Breeches Creek. Tom ties fishing and collector flies for discriminating anglers coast to coast. His trout and Salmon flies are in the collections of the Pennsylvania State Museum (Jack Eschenmann collection), the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum, The Angler’s Club of New York, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and private collectors from Europe, across the U.S., to Asia. Tom is the only four time Pennsylvania State Fly Tying Champion and his flies have appeared in Field & Stream, Fly Fisherman Magazine, Art of Angling Journal, Eastern Fly Fishing, and American Angler magazines, the Orvis catalog (I.C.S.I Midge, Mudd-Bugger, Hatching Nymph and Beetlenat) and numerous other books and publications. He is a Contributing Writer for the Mid-Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide and appears at fly-fishing shows around the country.
Location: Boiling Springs PA
Eric Richard likes to say that as anglers we are shaped by the waters we fish, and a lifetime spent exploring the wild trout and smallmouth bass waters of his native Perry County have made a tremendous influence in his unique approach to fishing and his passion for pursuing and protecting wild fish. In 2004 Eric and his wife Mitzi began their guide service Coveted Waters. Eric was also a Fly Fishers International Certified Casting Instructor for 15 years. In 2021 Eric began guiding on the beautiful waters of the Paradise Valley and the greater Yellowstone region and spent the past two years on those streams and rivers. For 2023 Eric returns to his roots in Pennsylvania, joining the Relentless Fly Fishing team and guiding clients on the waters knows intimately. Eric's professional life has been working as a youth counselor for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. A day with Eric will not only be a great fishing experience, but a unique opportunity to learn more about our wild fish.
Location: Perry County PA & Boiling Springs PA
Frank Landis has been fly fishing since he was in elementary school and fishing in general since he can remember. He is on his 5th season of guiding with the Relentless Fly Fishing team and continues to run classes and seminars through TCO Boiling Springs and State College. Frank guides both the Cumberaland Valley as well as Central PA. Frank spends most of his time targeting wild brown trout throughout the state, and is well traveled, having spent months of time fishing and exploring the Rocky Mountains over the past 10 summers. Whether dry fly fishing, tight line nymphing, fishing small streams, or night fishing, Frank provides a well rounded set of skills to help you grow as an angler. Lately, Frank has been spending a lot of time focusing on targeting wild trout after dark, and is offering trips focusing on learning the night game on a limited basis. Frank also runs the Relentless Fly Fishing Blog and works as a teacher when not on the water.
Location: Boiling Springs, PA and State College, PA
Jake Gilliland - At an early age, I was introduced to the outdoors and found myself hunting, camping, and of course, fishing. It wasn’t until I had an unforgettable experience on a small spring creek in central PA that fishing took on a whole new meaning in life. The hooking and landing of a pretty sizable brown trout was enough to make fly fishing my life long passion, and to my astonishment, a career.
I got my formal education at Penn State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries Science. During my college years, I had my first guiding opportunity in Colorado as a fly fishing guide and I fell in love with education. Less than a year after graduating college, I moved to Alaska to pursue more guiding and ended up completing four successful seasons with a highly reputable company. I now have 5 full seasons of guiding under my belt.
I’ve been fly fishing for 15 years and have been an industry professional since 2013. In addition to being a guide, I work full time at TCO Fly Shop in Boiling Springs, PA. I enjoy educating people about all aspects of fly fishing but I particularly enjoy teaching clients about entomology and on the water techniques, especially nymphing. When I’m not “working”, you’ll either find me on the water or at my vice tying flies.
Location: Boiling Springs PA