Ellis Ward Guide Service

Ellis Ward Guide Service is a one-guide fly-fishing operation based at Johnson City, Tennessee, run by Ellis Ward. Alongside guiding he is a fly tyer and fly designer who processes his own bucktail, and he sells flies as well as trips; the business was named a 2025 Best of Tennessee winner in the hunting and fishing category. Six waters make up the range, and they are unusually spread out for a single guide: the South Holston out of Bristol, the Watauga at Johnson City, the French Broad down at Asheville, the Clinch and Melton Hill near Knoxville, the Holston proper at Kingsport, and the Nolichucky at Erwin. That spread lets the year be split between cold tailwater trout fishing for browns and rainbows and warmwater work for musky, smallmouth bass and striped bass, with fly tackle the default and conventional gear available on request. Every trip is a float from a drift boat rather than a wade day, and all trips run with gear, tackle and lunch supplied.