Susan Thrasher

Susan Thrasher, born in Mobile, Alabama in 1962, spent the majority of her childhood in Bristol, Virginia. She graduated with a civil engineering degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin and Knoxville. Her engineering career was spent with the Manhattan based engineering firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff, working in various offices across the country including San Francisco, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, and Nashville.

In 1998, Susan picked up a fly rod for the first time, and she is quick to recount that it was life changing. She had always been an avid sports enthusiast, as a member of the volleyball and tennis teams in college, a bogey golfer, and fullback for the Shehawks rugby team in San Francisco. But all this gear was retired when she fell in love with fly fishing.

She started on a journey to learn all she possibly could learn about this intriguing art form. In 2015, she left her engineering career to follow her passion and started working with her guide and instructional school, Southern Brookies, on a full time basis.

In addition to guiding and instructing throughout Middle Tennessee, she is an instructor at the Joan Wulff School of Fly Fishing. This year will mark her 15th season at the school, which is located in the New York Catskills on the Beaverkill River.

Susan is the co-founder of the Music City Fly Girls fly fishing club in Nashville, which was formed in 2007. Today, the club has over 70 active members who enjoy monthly outings and an annual trip. Susan plans and hosts these trips, which have taken them to great fly fishing waters in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, California, and Colorado.

A volunteer effort, which she proudly hails as one of her most grateful opportunities, is the position of Retreat Leader for Casting for Recovery in Middle Tennessee. Casting for Recovery is a non-profit national organization that provides a weekend of fly fishing, bonding, and healing for survivors of breast cancer.

She credits her success in life to her wonderful upbringing in a Christian home and continues to rest heavily on her faith. Susan currently splits her time between East Nashville and Lancaster, Tennessee on the banks of the Caney Fork River.