Ben Levin was born and raised in rural Arkansas and has been fishing the bass streams and trout tailwaters of the Ozarks since he was old enough to walk. His passion for fly fishing began when he first picked up a fly rod at age 10. Ben has over 25 years of experience across a wide and diverse range of the fly fishing industry and typically spends well over 200 days a year on the water. A life-long fishing guide and instructor on his home waters, Ben has also spent over a decade of his career guiding many other destinations including Chile, Alaska, and Louisiana, as well as the Henry’s Fork and South Fork of the Snake River, the Madison, and the greater Yellowstone region. Arkansas has always been his home base though, where he has a deep personal connection to the Ozarks rivers and streams. He owns and operates Fly South Adventures, a full time guide service that specializes in guided trips for all species across the Ozarks as well as hosted travel to fly fishing destinations across the world. Ben is also a fly designer, accomplished photographer, and writer, whose work has appeared in Fly Fisherman magazine and various publications focused on fly fishing the American South. He has worked extensively with conservation organizations in the White River watershed to preserve and promote water quality across the Ozarks. In his free time Ben enjoys chasing tarpon in Florida, permit in the Caribbean, and just about anything else that swims in saltwater. When he has time, Ben also likes hunting in the spring turkey woods, or hiking, floating, and camping on wilderness stretches of river in Arkansas as well as the Rocky Mountains with his family and his chocolate lab, Bug. 

1. Home water? The Whiter River watershed in Arkansas. Trophy browns in the White River get most of the attention but smallmouth bass in our smaller, lesser-known rivers are truly where my heart is at because it’s where my earliest memories of fishing were formed. 
2. 2-3 lines most used and why:   For throwing big streamers on the White I would choose the 8wt Sonar titan i/3/6 because it casts easily like a weight forward line and sinks fast, handles big flies with ease, retrieves without a big belly in the line, and provides great contact with the fly. For smallmouth bass on our smaller creeks and rivers I like the 6wt Amplitude Bass Bug line because it can handle everything from big poppers and surface bugs to midwater column streamers to heavy crawfish and clouser patterns and other heavy bottom bouncing flies. For redfish I like the Amplitude smooth Redfish coldwater in a 9wt. It picks up quick and is accurate at short range but shoots easily for longer shots and can also handle bigger redfish flies.
3. Top of my list for places I haven’t fished yet are the Seychelles because of the incredible variety of species plus it would be really cool to catch a milkfish, and New Zealand because its rivers are so incredibly clean, pristine looking, and clear that they look like something from a dream. And also because my buddy Dave Whitlock says ‘New Zealand is where all brown trout go when they die.’ It definitely looks like the most pristine form of brown trout heaven.
4. Two truths and a lie: I’m known for my strict showering regiment. Questionable food never stood a chance against my cast iron stomach. My dog thinks I’m a god.