Texas Tournament Trail 2019
FLY FISHING TOURNAMENTS TEXAS
This is running a couple of days behind! Wild art Wednesday will run next week. Our first regular Tournament Tuesday report on the Lake Fork Bass – on the fly – World Championships will appear here next week.
Did you ever wonder where you could go to try and do a little competitive fly fishing? Yes, competing in fly fishing initially sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, but I have been in a few tournaments myself over the years. I can honestly say I remember them well, and drank a pitcher of humility at just about each and every tournament.
Well, we are in a true renaissance of tournament fly fishing here in Texas right now. We have new and old tournaments to talk about, and perhaps even get excited about these days.
It’s easy enough to rattle off the Texas tournaments that are exclusively fly fishing, and with a lot of help from the internet, I plan to dig up contests wherever I can find them — for the benefit of the wider audience that could appear here at any given time (take note Conway).
GIVE CREDIT
Be I ever so humble, I want to give some credit, and take some too. Certainly, the tournaments I have covered here over all their years have benefitted slightly from the extra FREE coverage from this website’s firm place in the digital landscape. They have grown even larger through the efforts of their actual founders, volunteers and participants who, setting aside all fly fishing logic, choose to COMPETE in this most gentlemanly sport. Setting all that aside, it is pretty difficult (for many reasons) to get organizers help themselves by responding to my e mails asking for more information – AGAIN AND AGAIN. But, if you fine organizers are reading this? It’s time to set your dates, plant your flag on your chosen date, and let US know all about it. Don’t make me call your Mothers!
LOVE – HATE Relationships
I’ve documented my own LOVE-HATE relationship with tournaments over all these years. In all honesty, that sweet testosterone makes me LOVE winning and HATE losing. I have explanations and excuses for all variations of the two. And as I age, the testosterone wanes … you’ll probably notice there’s not a lot of old guys out there competing are there?
But I know there is a younger generation who wants to take measure of their skills, and what better way than to go head-to-head against their family and friends in a gentleman’s fly fishing tournament? Who says millennials aren’t competitive?
Remember though, this is fly fishing in Texas, and tournaments struggle like no other region. Budgets, sponsors, longevity — all the odds begin against success, yet the founders and supporters continue to spend their valuable time and effort to keep these things going. (Reminds me of this website.) Yet, I believe that during the heat of the action, you will enjoy the tournaments and updates I bring to you here.
NEXT TUESDAY – The Longest running freshwater fly fishing tournament in Texas – the Bass World Championship at Lake Fork Texas. It’s a fine tournament, on a tough lake that receives tournament pressure almost every weekend during peak season. It’s tough. I know. I have competed in that tournament more times than any other – from a personal weight of 180 pounds to 135 pounds – and never, ever done any good. Maybe I could have placed if they had weight divisions for the competitors!
Category: Adventure, Tournaments and Contests
