Dallas Fly Fishers Present Bob Clouser

First they had Lefty Kreh. Now his pal Bob Clouser. These are huge names in my pantheon of fly anglers. They had Tom Nixon some years back as well and I'll always remember that event.

Charlie Ducote posted the details here on Texas Fly Report

The Addison Conference Center is here

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Here's Bob tying his Deep Minnow
PART I

PART II

Keeping It Real With Old Southern Fly Fishing

In the days before spinning reels and inexpensive baitcasting reels, most folks ran trotlines or used cane poles or fly rods. The other gear was simply too costly. There was no supercilious attitude, fishing was fishing. I could go off on a philisophical tangent on the evolution of tackle but that is a subject for another post.

I imagine that folks would have used things such as this

to hook a fly to. I know that I surely am!

Keeping Up With FlyFishVideo - Everett's Bluegill Fly

Buddy Price has been steadily building a wonderful YouTube channel FlyFishVideo over the past few. I tend to stray off and then return to find more delights. This latest is a favorite of mine, beginner simple.

Everett's Bluegill Fly

SeaducerX

A fellow blogger and south Texas fly angler Luciano Chavez, posted this great pattern on his blog Tales from a Texas Fly Fisher.


Here is his experimental Seaducer

Toys, Toys, Toys

A few weeks back I got a deal that I couldn't pass up on a Scientific Anglers' 7 weight Striper line. It's been sitting on my table of lingering decision ever since.

Well, I got a big fat bonus at work so I spent a smidgen on some new toys.

Prestige 2 reel and some backing to load that line up


Something really nice about how Cabelas presented this reel was the inclusion of a handy-dandy tool to remove the main reel bearing. Removal/reversal of the bearing must be performed in order to switch from left to right hand retrieve. They didn't have to do that but did and it's a nice touch


I have started seeing more and more the benefits of flourocarbon over monofilament. So I experimented and bought a couple spools of Maxima leader flouro leader building material to try as tippet. We shall see and I shall report.


Mucelin! Why in the..? What the...? Well, its very useful for greasing up thread leaders for ought and one weight angling with itty bitty flies.So I broke down and bought a can.


Unrelated to this order but a new toy nonetheless, made a furled leader out of ten pond test PowerPro. Its two pound test diameter. Looks like it will work out well. Another field test a-brewing.

Yet Another Ultralight Session on Duck Creek

Today I was headed down to Dallas after work and had an hour or so to kill in between. So what with three fly rods and my tackle sitting in my truck I called Don with an invite and headed to Duck Creek.

I am finding more and more that this little one weight is about my favorite. It's plenty light and gives a good fight with smaller fish but I can still toss a small popper or a Cap Spider without too much cursing and ducking at all.

Don brought his bespoke one weight bamboo that he built out some time back.

Right off the bat I got into a mess of sunnies right where the neighborhood rainwater drain empties into the creek. captured the first two on my new phone's camera (whoo hoo!). 1.3 megapixels sure beats 0.3 any old day! Never buy any product with a VGA camera if you are at all interested in any quality photos.



Here are some shots of the rods


I finally worked my way down to what I have come to call "the cheating hole". Way on down at the bottom right next to the Jupiter Rd. bridge is a large pool. One side has a storm drain inlet and a small tree growing over it. It's tantamount to the old saw about shooting fish in a barrel. Bass hang out in there as well. I may do a wee hours popper session some time soon.

Here is what an simple elk hair bream fly looks like before and after about a dozen bream
BEFOREAFTER

Bream Bumming

That is the front seat of my little truck. No room for passengers, just my tackle. Ready to hop out and start fishing. Now all I need to do is go somewhere distant and exotic like Glen Rose or Spring AR to fish.

I'm embarrassed to show any photos of my closet.

Casting Clinic Update Al Crise Casting Clinic in Glen Rose

Al Crise, Ol' Al as we all know him, will be hosting another casting clinic. The original date of 13 September was a bit blown out of the water so to speak by Ike's arrival. But it's back on! If you are at all interested in gaining more skill as a caster this might be the best $100 you ever spent. Plus the fellowship of other fly casters and a chance to fish the Brazos and/or Paluxy Rivers quite nearby Al's place.

Al's website is Hawkridge Tackle

I've taken the liberty of pasting Al's updated schedule below. Hope you can all make it!

November 1, 2008 Saturday General Clinic from just starting to advanced casting.
November 2, 2008 Sunday Special for CCI Candidates


The Clinics is held at Hawk Ridge Flyfishing School near Glen Rose. TX. 50 miles southwest of Ft. Worth (Ol' Al's place)
Here is the 'plan of the day' for clinics. We will make some small changes as needed.
This time I hope to have some special casting with the Spey Rods.
The problem is it would be nice to have some water. Pray for rain. We missed all that Ike dropped.
**************************************
Saturday 7:00 AM
Coffee and sweets.
Introductions of Instructors and Students.
Why and how this Clinic is set up
What you should get out of this training
7:30 Evaluations of the students
8:00 Bill's essentials. /Bruce Richard’s 6 steps
9:00 Casting
10:00 Terms of the fly Caster [new changes.]
11:00 Casting
12:00 Lunch Chicken BBQ
1:00 Different flies and how they are fished.
2:00 Spey casting demo
3:00 Casting
4:00 Loops & control slack line casting / Casting in the wind
5:00 Distance & Saltwater Casting
6:30 Dutch treat at Loco Coyote restaurant. Caravan over there.



Sunday
7:00 AM
Coffee and sweets
7:30 What is a CCI
8:30 Casting
9:30 FF ethics
10:30 Casting
12:00 Lunch Burgers
1:00 Cast required for the Test
3:00 Tips on teaching.
4:00 Open casting if you have any questions now is the time

The charge for this clinic is $100.00 for students 16 and over, Free if under.
8+ hours of Casting and Class.
Certified Casting Instructors (CCI) has to give a one-hour classroom talk on some part of casting. Outline required before the clinic, so I can set up a schedule. They should be on-hand to help with the casting class. No charge for them if they do.
The idea is to help the CCIs to become better instructors by learning from other instructors. The 'CCI Candidates' will have Sunday for Teaching tips. We will cover much that is on the CCI test. The charge for this is $50.00
Glen Rose has many Motels, State Park nearby If you are on a "Casting Junkie budget" Camp on the Ranch for free.
Contact Allen Crise MCI flysoup@itexas.net, Ranch 254-897-2045 or Cell 254-396-1574

Cool Weather Fishing

The weather has been delightful since Ike blew through. Highs in the low 80's.
So after I left work I went to Serenity. Wished I'd taken a photo of the first fish, a dark, thick deep water bluegill hiding by the pilings of the pier. Here are (most of)the others

"Ah Wont Thayut"

In Napoleon Dynamite uncle Rico pulled out the model sailing ship which the lady of the house could not resist.

I had a similar feeling when I saw this little gem of a knife


Marble's Cutlery FLy Fisherman's Knife

Texas Fishing: An Angler's Guide by Russell Tinsley

Not too long ago my dear aunt Laura sent me a book that she'd come across some while ago and had had stored away. My late uncle was a passionate angler and I was fortunate to spend some wonderful fishing times with him, out on the lakes around Fort Worth night fishing with minnows.

So when she gave me this book those memories came rushing back. The book itself is beautiful in it's own way as well as practical - spiral bound and laminated pages. Took a few shots of the book that fail to do it justice. However I was unable to resist sharing it with my readers.

Book Cover
Title Page and Front Plate
This fella was fly fishing before it was "hip" Check out the canvas float tube. That is almost certainly an inner tube from Pep Boys holding him afloat. I covet that hat.

Table of Contents (apologies for the flash washout. I am not a professional!)

The World's Fair Knot and the King Sling


Now follow a series of prints that I'll leave uncommented upon, they speak for themselves.










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