Announcements, Events, and Classes

Caption Contest

Are you sure the drain plug is in?

Bring your caption for the photo above to the club meeting. Winner will be acknowledged and caption will be posted on the website. I've provided an example.

posted 25 June 2009 - Harry

June Meeting

Join us on the 30th for the June meeting. The main focus of the June meeting will be election of officers. We have incumbents for all positions except the Secretary. If you are interested in a leadership role in the club contact David Lemke.

"Ray Crawford, the guy we were supposed to have at the May meeting, will be our speaker" according to a recent phone call from Clarke. Ray, author of Wade and Kayak Fishing the Coastal Bend of Texas will discuss coastal fishing hotspots.

Where's the meeting?.

updated 29 June 2009, posted 4 June 2009 - Harry

July Freshwater Outing - Brazos River below Lake Whitney

Join us on the 25th of July for this joint outing with the San Gabriel Fly Fishers organised by David Lemke. This isn’t the same muddy Brazos River that we cross in the Houston area. For about two years, the fishing on this stretch of the Brazos has suffered from too much generation by the Army Corps of Engineers, which made it just about unfishable. According to local guide Chris Shafer, the fishing in the past year has really picked up. You will have the opportunity to catch largemouth bass, Kentucky spotted bass and smallies – no Guadalupes in this river. Drift down the river, casting close in to the banks, to the brush piles and submerged stumps and branches and to the submerged grass lines. Structure, structure, structure is what it’s all about. While the bream fishing is good in here, the greatest attraction is large bass. The record smallie in the river is 7lbs; largemouth over 4 lbs are not uncommon. You should plan on casting large deer hair poppers and Boone Spoon Fat Frogs, which means you’ll have to leave those 3 and 4 weights at home.

View or print out the PDF version of the July Brazos Freshwater Outing Details .

Sign up here.

Print out, complete, and bring the TFF Waiver with you.

posted 16 June 2009 - Harry

Fall 2009 Fly Fishing Academy

Due to its popularity, and the continuing inquiries about when the next class will be held, it has been decided to hold another course in the fall of this year. Registration will be held on Monday October 5, 2009 at 6:30 pm at the Bethany Christian Church, located at 3223 Westheimer. The church is directly across the street east of Lamar High School, and one block east of the traffic light at Westheimer and River Oaks Blvd.

There will be four 2 hour classroom sessions on Monday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, with 2 hour casting sessions on the following Saturday mornings. Class dates are Oct. 5, 12, 19, 26, and casting class dates are Oct. 10, 17, 24, 30. There will be a $50.00 registration fee for the course, which is payable at the time of registration.

If you do not already have your own equipment, we strongly encourage you to wait until after the course to make the investment. The club has loaner equipment for the casting classes.

For more information, or to reserve a place in the course, contact Frank Schlicht at 281-392-5296 or at: aged_sage@hotmail.com .

posted 4 June 2009 - Harry

Virtual WindKnots Vol 1

Olympic Peninsula Steelhead by By Nick Somogyi

Romantic as hell is how I would describe it. The conditions favored die-hard winter steelheaders only, rotating between hail, snow, rain, sunshine, wind, and more rain. The rivers were also cold, as in 38®F, yet fishing the Hoh River within the largest temperate rain forest remaining in the lower 48 left us with a sense of awe, a feeling of serenity, and .... Read the rest of Nick's article .

posted 5 May 2009 - Harry

Free USGS Topos as PDFs

From Arron and Ryan - "Don't know if you've seen this, but this is a pretty neat site from USGS where you can download topo maps (as .pdf) for free." USGS Topos .

posted 3 April 2009 - Harry

Fish Montana in September

At the March club meeting Jim Heimer described a trip to Montana in September that he will facilitate. The details are in this September Montana Trip Flyer . Contact Jim by e-mail for more details.

.

posted 3 April 2009 - Harry

Other Stuff

Texas River Guide from TPandWDTexas River Access

"There are 3,700 named streams and 15 major rivers that meander through 191,000 miles of Texas landscape. These vastly important aquatic ecosystems play a major role in protecting water quality, preventing erosion, and providing nutrients and habitat for fish and wildlife. Along the way, water that eventually flows into seven major estuaries, supports over 212 reservoirs, countless riparian habitats, wetlands, and terrestrial areas. Each year Texas rivers and streams provide recreational opportunities to millions of Texans and visitors from all over the world.
The Texas River Guide provides river enthusiasts with an evergrowing source for internet based information related to Texas Rivers. However, rivers are a natural resource that can be dangerous. When planning to recreate on rivers your individual skill level or the skill level of the least experienced person in your river party should dictate the level of river activities you should participate in."
The guide provides information on access to the rivers in Texas but it is not yet complete. Check it out at Texas River Guide .

posted 25 May 2008



About the Club

Mike giving back

The Texas FlyFishers of Houston was founded in 1976 by a group of avid fly fishermen. Their objectives then, as ours are now, were to share their knowledge of fly fishing with one another and others who wanted to learn, to help in conserving our natural resources, to enjoy the camaraderie of fly fishing, and to have a good time doing it.

We have an active club with a full range of activities. There is something for everyone, from beginner to expert, from the very young to those who remember when all fly rods were made of cane, and for all skill levels, from those who haven't yet held a fly rod to those who can cast more fly line than you can buy.


Texas Fly Fishers

Outing Reports

June Llano Float and Fish Weekend

On the river Saturday morning The trip to the Llano saw a lot of fish caught, no donations of fishing gear to the Llano river gods, one first aid case, four swimmers, and only one 'exploded' paddle (might need to ask about that at the next meeting). Some club members arrived as early as Thursday to get an early crack at the river. Ten club members and guests showed up at the rendezvous point, Peacemaker's Canoe, on Saturday at 7am. Shuttle service As the kayaks were loaded discussion focused on how the river was flowing and how great the fishing could be. Once loaded, and barely down the road, we were chased down by a couple of young men, yelling out their window, "Are you the Texas FlyFishers?" We pulled back to the loading point to let them load their kayaks before getting the story. They had spent the night hanging out with the Texas Womens Fly Fishers (might need to ask about that at the next meeting), who had an event on the South Llano the same day we did . They only realized their error at about 7am that morning, and decided to madly rush down the road looking for kayaks on a trailer.

The river was slightly lower than last year. We launched from the second crossing at about 8am and floated down to KC-150. This was a 5.2 mile trip in mostly fast water. Because we had all day, we took our time and fished all along the stretch. Rarely were we bunched up. The big fish of the day was not caught on a Miss Prissy, but on a size 10 yellow spider. Everybody caught fish on that first day. Jay, the proprietor of Peacemaker's, picked us up right on time and we were off back in town early enough to meet at a locally owned eatery.

What they were after On the second day we launched at the park at 7:30 and fished downstream to Flatrock. This was also a 5 mile run, but the water was deeper and, in places, faster. The fishing was good, but we had to rush through a lot of the "fishy" water, since we planned to be off the water by 1pm.

content from Don posted 24 June 2009 - Harry

Sunfish Spectacular

John Scarborough - Weigh Master Supreme under an appropriate sign The annual Sunfish Spectacular was a bit of a rainfest although Damon was spared the heavy rain until the midafternoon. Nineteen club members participated despite the weather. Mike, Matt, and Smilin' Pete Arnold once again hosted the event and this year included a catfish fry to complete the lunch offering.

One of the highlights of the event was the participation of John Scarborough as honorary 'Weigh Master'. Dave Lemke presented a plaque to John from the club members acknowledging his many contributions to the club and the fact that he created the Sunfish Spectacular. A proclamation will be read at the next club meeting stating that from this day the event will be called the John Scarborough Sunfish Spectacular.

John provided us with some background on the Sunfish Spectacular and some of the principles that guided the hosting and judging for the event including:

  • The Spectacular was modeled after the 'Perch-Off' held annually by Robert McCurdy of the Austin Angler. McCurdy would not allow anyone in the room where he weighed the fish. McCurdy's gamesmanship allowed him to win the first and any other Perch-Off that he wanted to win.
  • One year John chose not to announce the location of the outing. If you wanted to participate you had to ask someone that knew the location to get the location. Not too tough as you just had to ask John. But it worked out to be too hard to figure out for a few unnamed club members.
  • John confessed that he had abused his office, but only once and for good reason. It turned out one year that his grandson had the leading fish with about an hour to go. So John did what any self respecting Weigh Master and grandfather would do; he called the contest and announced his grandson the winner.

In keeping with John's admonitions that the event should always have some twists and turns, the winner of this year's Sunfish Spectacular will be announced at the next club meeting and you should all take that as an opporunity. It's not too late to try to influence the decision of the 'Weigh Master'.

David presents plaque to John

posted 21 April 2009 - Harry

Lower Mountain Fork with Rob Woodruff

Rob sharing the knowledge
Our annual trip up to Broken Bow was a great success. Twenty-four club members fished Spillway Creek, Lost Creek, Zone 2, and Zone 3 during the three day outing. The weather was mixed and saw some chilly starts after a front came through but the fishing was great. My good friend Herve joined us and caught his first trout on fly.

Eight club members participated in the "Day on the LMF with Rob Woodruff". Rob, an Orivs endorsed guide known for chasing trophy bass on Lake Fork, took members new to the LMF through the key presentation issues for the different fishing opportunities. He took everyone to the different Zones and shared his views on the best tactics and stressed safety issues on a tailwater. All the particpants thought that this was a great introduction to the LMF and based on that feedback the club will be looking for similar opportunites on future outings.

Landed

posted 22 January 2009 - Harry

Gaudalupe One Fly

2009 One Fly Winner
The annual Guadalupe One Fly competition was held on Saturday the 17th of January. Alex Blaque, pictured above, was declared the winner at the Gruene Hall judging table . Alex attributed his success to a klinkhammer that he ties and he promised to provide the details to any member that wants them. Alex gets bragging rights for the year so ask him about his winning techniques and fly at the next club meeting.

Eight club members participated and the outing included an on-stream presentation class in the morning by David Lemke. The class focused on getting the drift right, whether for dry fly or nymph fishing. I can only assume that Alex listened.

posted 22 January 2009 - Harry