Volume 12 • Issue 1 • January 2006

Changes and Challenges

"If you’re not getting any action, change something, anything–a different fly, the depth, stripping action, location–but change something." That guideline of basic fishing advice pops up during almost every fishing outing that I take. Harry Lane was the source of this advice. Many of us know Harry from his past visits to our club as speaker or as a guide for some of our anglers on both the San Juan River in New Mexico in the summer months, and during the winter months, on our own Guadalupe River. For sure, many successful angling adventures would have been less rewarding if this gem of wisdom that is so simple to follow and to remember had not come to mind.

In many situations, your editor has found a metaphor connecting fly-fishing to life’s other daily challenges. Harry’s words really add up to an ability to adapt to a set of circumstances by putting into action available alternatives in order to accomplish positive results. I suppose changing flies is the most common act if the fish aren’t responding. That’s rather like talking to someone and getting only a blank look in response. What do you do? Just as if tying on a different fly, you might change the subject to something that could jump start the dialogue. Another example would be like if you took a Sunday drive to view some pretty scenery, and all you saw were plowed fields, you would change to another road that offered better prospects.

Both in fly-fishing and in life in general, being able to adapt to circumstances by making changes that lead to better results is a skill worth cultivating. So here we are at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006. It’s a time for assessing mistakes of the past and projecting a view of the future that will bring positive results. By all accounts so far, our Hill Country Fly Fishers have concluded 2005 on a number of uplifting experiences. Coming together for our Christmas Dinner meeting turned out to be a jolly good success with fine food, flowing conviviality, abundant door prizes, special certificates of recognition, and about the funniest Jim Kuper performance anyone could have imagined. Quickly following that success was the big turnout for our annual trout stocking, this time adding Camp La Junta to our other treasured places to angle during the winter and early spring months. And, of course, we have the highly successful endeavors in conducting fly-fishing instruction to both youths and adults ongoing during most of the year in one way or another. The most ambitious project has been the solid advance in initiating the stocking of pure strain Guadalupe bass to Texas Hill Country rivers, beginning with the north and south forks of the Guadalupe River.

The new year will encourage us to keep the things that are working for us, yet at the same time, to adjust to new circumstances as they arise. We have a rather impressive list of activities that are indelibly associated with our club that will call for a continued effort. But there will be fresh opportunities and challenges as the new year unfolds. We’ll be fishing in an unfamiliar hole of water. In this situation, we will try to utilize the ability to adapt to circumstances. Our effort will require good leadership combined with a vigorous response of support and participation from within the membership. In other words, we need to be prepared as if we were going fishing. We need, a variety of flies, some good waders, sufficient wading shoes, along with a good rod and reel if we hope to catch some fish. We need to set our goals and decide on what we need to achieve them.

Among the areas of change that come to mind in this new fishing hole named 2006, several items come to mind. First, are some new officers both in the positions of president and that of the secretary. At our January 19^th meeting we will vote on a slate nominated by the board of directors as follows: president — Danny Wheat, vice-president — Bill Elgin; treasurer — Dick Koon; secretary — Roy Hickman.

With regard to the secretary’s office, Mike Andrews has agreed to keep putting out the newsletter until someone else eventually replaces him as editor, but until that time the editorship will be separated from the secretary’s responsibility. Your editor has held the combined office since 1995 and feels that a change would be especially beneficial to the club by introducing new energy into the office of secretary. While continuing to edit The Back Cast, Andrews suggests that each committee chairperson contribute a bit of news each month in writing related to his or her committee’s plans or activities to be published in that month’s issue. If this can be accomplished, it would not only assist the editor but also add more variety and input concerning the club’s various activities. When an opportunity presents itself, it would be appropriate for someone else to take over the newsletter, and the job will be easier if committee chairpersons are used to making contributions to the newsletter.

Continuing with new prospects calling for adaptation in our "new fishing hole", 2006, there will be new chairpersons appointed for some of our committees, and all committees will be setting some fresh goals. We will be fishing deep water and using a sinking line to hook up with the right individuals to serve on these committees. With a little luck and a few good flies, we should pull in some rewarding results.

Already, a goal is shaping up to establish a relationship with Schreiner University in a fashion that will enrich both our club and the University. This should be an exciting new endeavor that may lead to some rewarding avenues to further the progress of both our club and our sport. We’ll be doing some sight fishing and trying our best to make skillful casts toward the fine prospects resting well within our range.

There will be other opportunities, changes, and challenges in 2005. Let’s enter the new year with enthusiasm and seize each challenge with gusto. If we aren’t satisfied with results, we can always follow Harry Lane’s advice for catching fish–change something!

–M.A.

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December Meeting Brings a Time to Celebrate

Marking the December calendar with the meeting being our annual Christmas Dinner Meeting comes with some anxiety. The third Thursday arrives at a time when many of our members may be traveling to see loved ones, or they may be swept up in one of many events that occur during that busy season. And then there is the matter of making a calculated guess as to how many are willing to shell out $ 20 or more to attend. The setting must be worthy and the program enticing. The possibility is that the event will either be a special success or a dismal flop. It could be something in between, but anything less than the first category would result with some degree of disappointment.

The first step was to nail down a facility within the city that would be a convenient location and also provide a suitable atmosphere, good food, and reasonable prices. With these factors in mind, the Inn of the Hills seemed perfect, and, indeed it was. It was elegantly decorated with facilities that seemed custom-made for our gathering. Tim Lafferty, Convention and Services Manager for the Inn, along with all of the Inn’s staff did yeoman service in working with the planning for our December 19^th event. The results could only have been better had we reached the goal of forty persons in attendance. As it was, we had just shy of thirty, but, boy, did we have a good time!

The preceding article briefly described what took place. Anyone who attended will fill in details if you happen to ask. It seems fitting that some brief comments are appropriate to give you a hint of Jim Kuper’s presentation. Thus, it shall be. The guy seems so unassuming that if you haven’t met him before, you might think that he had lost his way and just wandered in from the farm ( It just so happens that he does live on a farm). He carries on a good conversation in any company on just about any topic that drifts his way. You may think that it’s just an accident that he undoubtedly is well informed. Believe me, it’s not an accident. This guy is the closest thing to being a modern Renaissance man that may come your way. But let’s just focus on what he talked about at our Christmas Dinner.

Underlying almost anything that Jim talks about is a subtle bit of philosophy. His theme touched upon how, for most individuals, there is a beginning for almost any endeavor that may be rather basic and uphill but with effort leads to a reward that represents success. For example, he told of how Donald Trump started out as a rather ordinary guy but followed the pattern mentioned above and ended up a millionaire who could stand among the rich and famous with a strong wind blowing everyone’s hair all over the place while his would stand as firm as a brick building. This was just one example illustrating his point. He went on to tell about how upon reaching a certain level, a fellow deserved to wear a suit. He recalled how some did not fare so well with the old Robert Hall suits, and he actually showed in pantomime about how the pockets on the coat ended up being about chest high.

Jim remembered how in his youth almost every comic book had a Charles Atlas ad showing a small, skinny fellow about 5'6", 120 lbs., having sand kicked in his face by some muscular beach bully. He was tempted to send off for the packet that would turn a fellow from a featherweight into a hulk within a very short time. Jim thought he might be able to achieve the same thing by doing some lifting exercises to avoid the cost of the Charles Atlas stuff. "Well," he said, "I’m still about 5'6"and 120lbs." He’s really not, but he’s trim enough to give the illusion.

You would have had to be there to fully appreciate the timing and expressions Jim used to deliver his message, which called attention to the fact that in reality, we aren’t always rewarded for our efforts, even when we try hard, and there’s something funny about the whole thing.

The short snippets above don’t really do justice to Jim Kuper’s side-splitting humor. The irony is that Jim is hilarious--surely, he must have to work at it. . . or does he? This fine chap, by the way, is a top-notch fly fisher and knows more about our sport than most of us could hope to learn.

An apt ending for this summation of our Christmas Dinner is simply to say, "You should have been there."

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From FFF ClubWire. . .

Success
Submitted by Daryl Crowley–
FFF member of West Michigan Hacklers

I have a friend that lives in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina who is a habitual fish counter. At the end of the day he can tell you exactly how many fish he caught. Now this is usually a pretty easy task for me, as it doesn’t take a lot to stick the number two or three in my head. But if the number gets much over five, I’m usually lost. Granted I’m getting old but I never set out at the beginning of the day with the intent of keeping a score on how many fish I’ve caught. My hillbilly buddy on the other hand can have a fantastic day and will reveal at the end of the day that he caught exactly fifty-seven fish. I do have to admire the fact that he can actually keep that straight. Don’t get me wrong; he’s not a fishmonger. He’s a great fly fisherman and an avid catch and release angler, but he still has the vestiges of that "ruler of success" that we all were brought up on. We all learned to measure success in quantity, inches, and pounds. These were the rulers by which we compared one day to another, one river to another, as well as our prowess as anglers. After all if we were racking up numbers, we were having a successful day. These can still be valid measures of success. Who can argue that those rare days when fish are coming on every other cast are not successful days? But how many fish does it take to have a successful day? Ten? Twenty? Does it depend on species, or on the river? Certainly ten fish on a hot summer day on a local river that gets a lot of pressure is pretty good, but does that same number equate to a bad day on a remote Alaskan stream? A three-pound beauty from heavily fished local waters might constitute a successful day but would that same three-pound fish make your day on a western spring creek?

It becomes obvious that there is no formula into which we can plug numbers, inches, or pounds and pull out an answer that either equates to a successful day or not. For me a successful day is probably any day I don’t fall in, or drop an open box of flies into a fast riffle. Certainly doing either of those thins could be the catalyst for an unsuccessful day. If you catch fifty fish but break your leg a mile from the car then that certainly would equate to an unsuccessful day. So it seem evident that numbers of fish alone cannot be used as a ruler for success. Quality is a tenuous benchmark also. While a five mile hike and eight hours of hard fishing with on five-pound trout to show for it might be success, how would that compare to catching ten two-pound fish with a walk of only a few yards? How do you compare the success of twenty fish caught in a miserable cold freezing rain vs. ten fish on a warm spring day when the air smells sweet?

A lot of factors go into our own personal formula for success and as we get older it seems that the quantity and quality of the fish become smaller variables in the equation. This becomes self-evident when you stop fishing in the middle of a good hatch just to watch the fish taking flies. Their success becomes your success. Lying on a grassy bank and feeling the first warm rays of early summer, or watching big snowflakes falling on a December steelhead stream could certainly be a formula for success. Sharing a hot cup of coffee with a good friend while admiring the autumn leaves and the cool nip of an approaching winter can also make for a successful outing. Fighting but losing a large steelhead from a dark run on snowy winter’s day can also be called a successful day. One thing that becomes apparent is that how many fish you catch in a day is not the measure of success.

While the task at hand is to catch fish it is not the only goal. A day of fishing is a package deal. It’s a trip to the river; a hike; the changing of seasons; wildlife; a shore lunch shared with a friend; maybe even a fish or two. In the end it doesn’t really matter how many fish you catch. Whether you catch a lot of fish or get blanked, at the end of the day it is the sum of all the factors that will dictate whether the day was successful or not. If fish were the sole measure of success then dynamite would be the tackle of choice. But most of us would quickly agree that would not be very satisfying and the certainly is an indication that success is not purely in numbers. If we were just after fish we could buy a lot more fish with the money we spend on this sport than we could ever catch with all our fancy gear. Perhaps there is more to this game than just catching a lot of fish.

Henry David Thoreau summed it up pretty well: "Some men fish all their lives and never realize that it wasn’t fish they were after." To fall under the edict of that quote would be a sad thing indeed, to waste a whole life chasing the wrong goal.

In case you’re wondering how many fish I caught the last time out, let’s just say it was a real successful day.