Our Team
Dave Rocke (Uncle Dave)
When people ask me where I grew up I usually respond, "I don't know". Either I don't feel that I grew up or can't really pick the place where it might have happened. My junior and senior high school years were spent in a small dairy farming community in upstate New York called Cobleskill. College years were misspent in Cobleskill and Albany, New York. In 1975 I moved from New York City to Port Orchard, Washington and then to Bainbridge Island, Washington.
In 1982 I wrote some resumes (mostly fiction) and convinced a fishing lodge in Alaska that I would make a good fishing guide and worked the next eight summers guiding in Alaska and goofing off in either Florida, Mexico or Washington during the winters. One of the lodges had airplanes and I saw that the pilots lazed around, drinking coffee, while directing us guides to do their work, I thought, "I like coffee".
In 1986 - 1988 I obtained my pilot's licenses to start what I thought would be an easy and carefree existence. Unfortunately I have never found any guides or anyone else who was as easily hornswaggled as I was and so have never realized the life of leisure I aspire to. I worked another two years as a pilot/guide and then nine years for Taquan Air in Ketchikan, Alaska, first as a line pilot, then as Chief Pilot, then as Director of Operations.
Jim Davis
Loxahatchee, most people cannot pronounce it right the first couple tries but it is the formerly small cow and orange town I grew up in. I started my fishing career harassing large mouth bass and blue gill in the canals that keep the swamp from swallowing Lox. I didn’t get into fly fishing until my early twenties when I was flying guys with fly poles out to the Bahamas in small float planes. After a few post bar fly casting lessons I started to carry a generic brand 8wt in the plane. My first fish on a fly was a decent sized bonefish that showed me what was what on the southside of New Providence Island.
I took my flying skills and burgeoning fly fishing abilities up to Ketchikan for my first summer in 2017. Moving from a place that is flat with perpetual heat to a mountain scape shrouded by mists and waterfalls had quite the enduring affect. Most of my time flying here has been in Ketchikan, but I have gone off island and flown in both Bristol Bay and the Yukon Delta, you truly do not know cold until you’ve worked a winter in Bethel! l had a wonderful opportunity working at a lodge in the summer of 2020 that never actually opened, I had four months of summer to explore, fly fish, and learn to drive jet boats. Many of the lessons I learned in that summer have stuck with me and influence the decisions I make every day. In 2021 grew rather tired of the gypsy lifestyle and returned to my friends and family in Ketchikan to join up with Dave and help operate Family Air Tours.
Hailing from the hills and hollers of Appalachia, I grew up hunting whitetail deer and small game, trapping, and fishing for largemouth, trout, catfish, and carp in the lakes and rivers in and around Greenbrier County, West Virginia. My abundance of enthusiasm for the pursuit of fun in the outdoors eventually took me on various adventures- ski resorts in West Virginia, Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks, Glacier National Park in Montana, and in 2016, to Southeast Alaska to work as a rainforest ecosystem and bear guide.
I worked for a few tumultuous years as a seasonal employee before deciding that I would make Ketchikan my year-round home. My first excursion into town on my second night in Ketchikan, I met a float plane pilot named Jimmy Davis, who worked for Taquan Air at the time. Fast forward a few years and Jimmy introduced me to a new outdoor pastime that would ultimately consume almost every waking moment of my life- catching fish on the fly. Equipped with a new passion, a new rod, and a lot less money, I endeavored to learn everything I could with a vim and vigor approaching obsession. I was hired as guide for The Hook Up Fly Shop and the rest is tight lines and tall tales!
Cyrus Daniell
Dave Smiley
Born in Fairbanks, Dave has always felt a connection with Alaska. As a teenager he was fortunate to spend summers with his uncle, Alaska Master Guide, Leroy Shebal, #17, who owned airplanes. While Alaska was still a pristine territory, he was blessed to visit remote areas and cast for Sheefish, Lake Trout, Arctic Char, Rainbow Trout, Grayling, and a variety of Salmon. By 13 he was obsessed with throwing dry flies to hungry Grayling.
After a 27-year career in Southern California as a junior and senior high school teacher, Alaska called his name. In 2004, he settled in Ketchikan and fell in love one more time with fly fishing. The scenery for him is always a treat. Southeast Alaska is a vibrant rain forest. For him fly fishing here, at times, feels like a communion with nature. Nearly every time he takes someone to the rivers or lakes, people are in awe of the beauty that extends throughout the Tongass Natural Forest. It’s not just catching fish, but a for few hours being part of something much greater. Sometimes people are standing knee deep in water with spawning salmon before their feet; Bald Eagles pass over looking for stray fish. Edible berries line the river.
When Dave is not wearing waders, he might be found guiding a small group of tourists watching bears catch wild salmon on remote rivers—available through Family Air: July,August, and part of September.
Join The Team
Have you always wanted to guide in AK? Do you want to become a guide? Do you have good customer service skills? We hire seasonal employees every year to be van drivers, shop workers, dock staff, and fishing guides. Send us a message and start a conversation, we are friendly and outgoing…..sort of.