Whoa Says Me!
Monday Came Too Soon Today
The cup overruns with all the primetime needs of Texas Fly Fishers this Monday Morning July First! While I can slam my calloused little fingers on this keyboard all I want, more often I actually HAVE to get out in the field and report.
And the past week has been one of those weeks – reports coming from Lake Tawakoni, Lake Bridgeport and yesterday? Yesterday I was on a beautiful little river south-southwest of Fort Worth, Texas, near Glen Rose. That last one is the the straw, or I will now rename for myself the *Straw River.
The River With No Fish And No Name
How can I not report, and let you decide what to do with my reports? That is, after all, what I do and have done for almost two decades now, right? How long are we supposed to go blindly into the bright burning sun, looking for that place where all the right things happen … and can’t find it? I think have figured out a few things in the post-pandemic life of the fly fishing world, some of them I believed before and some I believe now, to be changed forever.
I am here to show and share the love of the sport of fly fishing. It’s a tiny little sliver of the fishing business, something like one percent of industry dollars. Startling, but a fact. Now that Lefty is gone, and he missed the window (by age) of the social media revolution, where do we go for a true leader with a cohesive message and leading role in the fly fishing cult? We know big businesses, like Orvis, didn’t waste any time in throwing Tom Rosenbauer out in front of the mule team, right? And we have people I would have as leaders, like Andy Mill, but they have so regionalized their influence that they are hardly viable heirs. And guess what? Those guys are F’n OLD!! From where I sit, I have no sight of someone who unites the Country in interest, like Lefty Kreh did. He is our Michael Jordan. He changed the game forever.
Obviously, I am nowhere near the caliber of any of the people mentioned above. But, I determined in the last few years to do what I can do with what I have from where I am, and let the chips fall where they may. I call my simple attitude, “Floating Everybody’s Boat,” and while I may be a simple person, and this attitude may be called simplistic? That is what the remainder of the time I have to devote to this sport will be – my attempt to float everyone’s boat, and bring more people into the sport of fly fishing – by hook or by crook. By building fly shops where there were none, or by showing my neighbor down the street how to cast a fly rod. Of course, I have MY “life–boat” too, and I would like it to quit bailing water out of it someday!
IF I hear about a hot spot? With proper logic-based clearances (NOT SOMEONE’S GPS Coordinates!), YOU will hear about a hot spot. If I have FOUND a hot spot, you can bet on some kind of exposure from me – PERMISSION GRANTED. What the hand wringers of the fly fishing world worry about is? They worry about floods of people showing up at the hot spot, “their” hot spot, and blowing the lid off of it. To that I say, “GIVE ME A BREAK!” *Can you tell my camel-shaped back has been broken by a straw – The Straw River?
BLOWBACK CONTINUES over SHOWING and SHARING
No matter how I explain my “… float all boats,” philosophy – I still get grief of grief from fly fishers and guides who think wrongly that a little positive exposure means hoards of fly fishers showing up at their fly spot, their guide spot, and blowing it up, ruining it for their personal fun, ego or God forbid – financial gains. Once again, for the hundredth time, I comfort the souls of all who are reading today:
No matter what I tell these people who want to enjoy the fly life, the odds of them showing up in numbers, and blowing up someone’s secret fly world? Well, don’t hold your breath. You fail to realize: My influence in these things does not register on any scale. And even for those who might take this information with intent? The odds of measurable follow-through are slim-to-none. The huge majority of fishers and by association – FLY FISHERS – live vicarious lives they enjoy (a whole lot) more than; bad food, sleeping on hard decks, sweat, sunburn, wet stinky clothes, cramps in hands and feet, gas pumps, cracks of dawn and sunsets in rearview mirrors – on the way back to what they hope are still loved ones at home. They just don’t do it. And I bank on that FACT. I have taken bets on that FACT. I have yet to lose. It never happens that a spot I have featured, whether in detail, or in vague terms, has been blown up – NEVER. What I hope my EXPOSURE really means is – it floats a GUIDES boat, or a newbie who is just getting into this sport – falls all the way into it! I am here to draw you in.
TO BE CONTINUED … READ PART 2 HERE
Category: Adventure, Body-Mind-Soul, Causes, Central Texas, Culture on the Skids, Fishing Reports, Industry, Life Observed, Soggy Bottom Boys
