Thank you all for coming to learn more about Spartina Flats and my hopes of what I want to achieve through this venture! My name is Steven Smith and I currently reside in Claxton, Georgia, a short hour drive away from the prettiest ecosystem in the world….the Spartina Grass Flats of the Georgia Coast.

I was extremely blessed growing up.  I was raised in Dublin, Georgia and my family owned a 35-acre Mill Pond where I could literally walk out of my back door and fish every day.  My Dad loved fishing more than any other human I have ever met so it was instilled in me at a young age the love for the water and the fish that lie beneath its surface.  Like most, I grew up fishing for bass and panfish, and especially my Dad’s favorite, the Shellcracker (red-eared sunfish).  My Dad had one rule, you fished with a spinning rod until you were able to throw a fly rod.  We would even fish live crickets on fly rods with the reels filled with straight monofilament.  What I would give to go back to those early days of him, my brother, and myself in a two person plastic bass tracker floating out in the middle of that lake.  

When I was about 7-8 years old, my Dad started going to Richmond Hill on most weekends to fish out of Kilkenny Marina.  Usually the boys had to come along with Dad so I got exposed to the coast life early and fell in love.  I can still vividly remember those epic days of catching redfish until we could not pick up our arms anymore, watching the Osprey hunt for its next meal and land in its stick built nest in a tree, and getting caught in squalls and coming in soaking wet getting pounded until we would round the famous “109” marker where you knew you were going to make it home safe.  

College took me to Athens, Georgia to the University of Georgia (GO DAWGS!) and mountain trout fishing replaced coast fishing during that timeframe.  In true fashion, my old fishing partner would travel up on the weekends and we would take our 2-3 day adventures throughout North Georgia and North Carolina exploring different mountain streams.  I graduated college in December of 2007 and took a job as an environmental consultant in Savannah, Georgia where I still reside today.

Following graduation, my Dad and I still took our mountain trips 1-2 times a month. I got married to my beautiful wife Brooke in June of 2010 and we had our identical twin boys in September 2013. The trips slowed down but never stopped until my Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer at Christmas of 2014. He passed in September of 2015.  Around the same timeframe both of my boys were diagnosed with non-verbal autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  Life can sometimes throw you curveballs and sometimes it can beam you square in the back.

Fishing took on a different meaning after my father passed. I had a hole in my heart from losing my ultimate fishing partner and companion to share those trips with. Slowly I began to obtain new fishing partners and have become apart of a great community of anglers on the Georgia Coast and I love to share my days on the water with them.

I was never truly happy with some particular item in a factory rod, either the handle was too long or short, the rod was too heavy, the guides would rust, the reel seat would get loose throughout the day and have to continue to tighten on the reel foot, or the rod just flat out wouldn’t throw the bait i needed it to or would not have enough butt to handle a 30+” redfish when you got into one. So in 2020 I began building my own rods and rods for friends. I continued to learn and refine the craft and in 2022 Spartina Flats Custom Rods opened for business.