I finished reading Rick Passek’s The Freshman FlyFisher Book today. He’s taken a very different angle to helping introduce fly fishing to new anglers wanting to join the club of obsessed fly fishing folks. He doesn’t write like a quote “writer”. He writes like an extremely knowledgeable friend or fly shop owner would. It’s a very casual style that is easy to follow and read.

The book consists of 126 pages which makes it not too short to desire more substance but also not so long as to intimidate new anglers. It’s not full of fly fishing history or details about knots or types of fly lines… its full of useful, practical information. He also references videos on his site at http://www.rp3flyfishing.com/ when the instructions are a bit too difficult to portray in writing. This is a nice touch.

The chapters are:

• Rods, Reels and Fly Lines
• Flies
• Boats
• Accessories
• Locations and Basic Lake Biology
• Skills to Master

He also includes a Recommended Reading section and some Fishing Log Pages.

So, who is this book for? I think it’s an excellent book for any new fly fisher. Although I’ve been fly fishing for 8-ish years, I picked up some great advice as well. It’s compact and easy to carry around. When I first started and was out by myself on streams in GA, I tried carrying a couple of books to use as references. I wish I had this book with me. If you are a newbie in a northern US state or likely anywhere in Canada, this book is a must. If you are teaching a fly fishing course, you should definitely consider this book as a possible textbook.

One note, although I mention that the book would be great for all new fly fishing students, it targets the British Columbia province of Canada. He gives specific fly fishing shop info along with lake and river advice for BC. The book reminds me of all the fabulous fishing opportunities in our northern neighbor country. I’m so ready to take another trip up North.

Next up, Rick’s The Freshman FlyFisher’s Insect Guide. I’m ready to get down and dirty into the bugs. Review coming soon….

Wow, couldn’t believe the turnout at the Austin edition of the Fly Fishing Film tour at the Alamo Draft House. Phenomenal. There are a ton of angler and angler wannabes in this town.

So, flicks I liked:

• Eastern Rises
• Nervous Waters
• Hustle and Fish – though the trailer they showed didn’t sync up with what I know the subject of the film to be.

Things I didn’t like:

• Bison Burger at Alamo Draft House- I could smell it on it’s way down the isle to my seat, and not in a good way. I guessed it would be like buffalo burger or hamburger… nope.

Overall, excellent evening. The video of Leslie (Austin’s celebrity cross dresser – yes, Austin is wierd) fly fishing/ballet/fencing/?? was hilarious. And his warning to the audience to turn off your cell phones or he will sit in your lap was very effective. They should start all movies at your local theatre with Leslie’s warning.

Got here a bit early. Looking forward to the start of the show at 7:00. Enjoying a Shiner Bock in the meantime.

I was hoping to post a fishing report about my incredible Guadalupe trip on my birthday but I’m afraid I can’t do it due to a boneheaded move on my part. At the end of the fairly uneventful trip, I was carefully pulling the two sections of my favorite fly rod, the Favorite from Headwaters Bamboo, apart with the tip waving madly inside my SUV. Just as I thought to myself, “it sure would be awful to break off a guide at the end of the trip by yanking too hard”, I successfully separated the two sections as I noticed the tip slapping the inside of the car, breaking off cleanly. Enough said… broken tip… crappy day. I did find out what a red horse sucker is though.

I love to support local companies and products. If you do too (and I’m sure my readers fall into this category), take a look at these very affordable lanyards from Water Walker Custom Fly Fishing Lanyards. Here’s a custom one that he did for Michael Gracie.

Rick Passek was kind enough to send me a couple of his The Freshman FlyFisher series of books to review – The Freshman FlyFisher – A Beginners Guide for a New Generation and The Freshman FlyFisher’s Insect Guide.

I’m finishing up At the Rivers Edge by Jerry Kustich right now but am looking forward to reading them. I quickly paged through them and they look very well made with beautiful photography (my type of book).

Speaking of entomology, two items of note. First, there is an iPhone application to help people identify flies and help them retain the information by giving them quizzes. It’s called North Woods Fly Fishing Guide and is available through iTunes (or your iPhone) here. It’s $0.99. It’s not super comprehensive but I was just excited to find anything for my iPhone remotely related to fly fishing. Now if someone would create a casting simulator for the iPhone, I would be set.

Second, the author of the two books, Rick Passeck, will be on D. Roger Maves’ Ask About Fly Fishing show this Wednesday at 8:00p CT. They have a bunch of giveaways including a copy of the Insect Guide book, a FFF membership, and a subscription to Fly Fusion magazine. So, DVR American Idol and listen in to learn about bugs and get a chance to win some of the goodies.

Someone got to my site yesterday by doing a search on Google for “April Vokey boyfriend” Dude (I’m pretty darn sure it was search by a male), I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.

If you haven’t heard of April Vokey btw, check out her site. She’s very talented, and um… quite attractive, and really nice from my limited email correspondence with her. She has some great Spey casting videos up on You Tube if you are interested in that type of thing.

Purpose of the trip today was to start teaching my son, Parker how to fish with a fly rod and flies instead of frozen hot dogs which was his primary bait up to now. Although he’s only 6 (almost 7) he is extremely interested in fly fishing and watching me tie flies so with my crazy passion for this rod waving sport, he’s bound to be an Anglerwannabe Jr soon.

After church, we packed up the Pacifica (or ugly boat as my 18 yr old calls it) and drove the 15 minutes over to Reimer Ranch to practice on the Pedernales River. The weather was sunny, a bit windy and in the high 70’s. Absolutely beautiful Sunday for spending time outdoors.

Parker did great learning to rollcast. It won’t take him long. We used a 5′ 3wt rod that I picked up in VA years back. It’s not the easiest rod to cast but the length was ideal for his height. Here are some pictures of the lessons (taken by my lovely wife, Brittany).

He lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. After that, he was a bit more interested in finding things in and around the water.

Brittany gave it a shot a few times, but with the mismatch of the conehead wooly bugger I tied on after Parker’s lessons, and the gusty wind, she had a difficult time casting it more than about 15 feet. Although I tried to help, she’s a bit stubborn and claimed she already knew how. Best to let her think that and go get my Headwaters Bamboo rod and my newly arrived classic reel and have fun myself.

Did I mention it was sunny?

Brittany took some pictures of me casting the rod, but the loop / casting form is soooo bad that I’m embarrassed to post them. Here is the result of one of the casts…….

A complete and total, um, windknot.

We had a good time and I’m so thrilled that Parker and I can share this sport and obsession. BTW, if any of you have little ones who are interested in fishing or better yet, fly fishing, check out the new site for kids by Trout Unlimited. I just signed him up for TU Stream Explorers membership. I think he’s going to love it.

I have lot’s to blog about coming up in the near future as I’m almost finished with At the River’s Edge book and I also picked up “The Drift” last week and have watched it 3 times already. Reviews are coming soon. I also went in to Sportsman’s Finest on Saturday and picked up “The Fly” which is a book about fly fishing history. I’m a sucker for fly fishing history.

Have a great time on the water this week.

David at Headwaters Bamboo informed me today that my Classic Fly Reel is in the mail. I’m very excited as I’ve been waiting since December to get it to round out my Favorite Series rod I got for Christmas. I’ll take some pictures of it on the rod next time I go out to the Pedernales (which should be soon).

On Saturday morning, I stopped by Sportman’s Finest for the Casting for Recovery benefit. I was just running by for a few minutes to sign up for a raffle to win an overly excellent handmade wooden fly tying material box or a TFO rod and give my money to a good cause. I also put the DVD Drift on order with Ted. I can’t wait to get it. I’ve heard it’s excellent. Anyway, I’ll review it when I get it later this week.

I then ran out to Reimers Ranch for some quick action. The weather was pretty crappy (by Austin standards) so the family didn’t want to do anything other than stay inside so I took the opportunity to get out while I could.

I got there around 10:30. Nobody was there on a Saturday due to the overcast skies and low 40 degree temps. No problem to me I thought. I’ve fished in conditions where my fishing boots have actually frozen to rocks that I stood on. 43 is nothing compared to that.

I brought my Headwaters bamboo rod and some Cypher’s Minnows that I tied up a couple of weeks back. The water was much higher than my last trip and the flow reminded me of the Guadalupe. I was alone on the river.

After a few casts, the serenity was broken by automatic weapon fire. I’m guessing one of the many huge ranches surrounding Reimers Ranch was being used as a shooting range. Not too calming. After I determined I wasn’t in imminent danger, I went back to trying to work a deep hole that I caught the respectable bass in last time. I didn’t have a lot of luck unfortunately. I caught an 8 or 9 inch largemouth bass but that was it.

I think I must have acclimated to the normal Austin climate because after about an hour, I couldn’t take the cold any longer. The wind was blowing right through my longsleeve Sage tshirt and my toes was froze. It wasn’t fun anymore. I decided to get back to my family back at the homestead and wait for a call from the flyshop telling me about the new rod I won. Well, I didn’t win anything but I did have a great day supporting a good cause and spending some time out on the river. Hard to beat that for a weekend morning.