Hello there, my name is Jake Allen, and I’d like to emphatically welcome you to the Shenandoah Valley Angler! I’ve been an avid outdoors man and angler for just about all of my life. Like most of you all, I feel very strongly about my way of living, and despite my professional career as a Human Relationship Specialist, my purest passion doesn’t comes from the love of understanding humans, but from understanding nature and enjoying her beauty. Some of the fondest memories of my life have been spent navigating the channels of the Tennessee and Cumberland river valleys with my dad and my brothers, and I’ve never seen anything as pure and beautiful as watching the sun set in the background from atop a ridge between Watts Bar and Melton Hill.
So a little bit about me, and about this website. I caught my first large mouth bass when I was about 6 years old, the picture still sits above my parents fireplace in their Den. I went on to school near Chattanooga and grew up with Lookout Mountain literally right outside my window. I went on to graduate with a degree in Communications from the University of Tennessee, and now I have a handsome husband and 3 girls, who are everything to me. Our favorite time of the year is spring, we all love to go camping near the Mammorth Caves, even though they’ve since shut down the exploration of the caves themselves.
The reason I’ve created this website, is because I wanted to help inform others and give them the information they need to purchase proper fishing gear. Between me and my large circle of friends, we’ve used just about every lure, or read just about everything there is to read on angler gear. From kayaks, to fishfinders and reels, we’ve tested out enough equipment to know what you should consider, and quite frankly this is just about the only thing I can do to spare my husband from yacking his ear off. I’m also hoping that with a bit of luck I can help grow a fledgling community of “yakanglers”, basically people who use kayaks to go fishing. This is definitely the most exciting thing to hit the outdoor world in quite some time, and if you haven’t tried it yet, you’ll have to at least rent a kayak and give it a shot. Happy angling!