I started flyfishing thanks to Ike.  Yes, the Hurricane. I know that may seem a little lousy but that's how it worked out.  My old college roommate (Jeremy) and his wonderful wife took shelter for a week in Austin to get out of the mess Ike left behind in Houston.  While they were in town we took a day and be-bopped around our old college stomping ground  and then worked our way to a Bull Creek for a little hike.  Jeremy had brought his fly-rod out just in case, he thought there maybe an opportunity to do some fishing.  Well, sure enough about a mile in we came onto one of the first pools and in he went. With in a couple of minutes he had caught a nice little, I mean LITTLE panfish.   I had a good laugh and we moved up creek to deeper waters.  The second pool we stopped at he started pulling in much larger panfish, on almost every cast.  He had gotten my attention at this point and I was ready to give it a try.  

I grew up on the coast and had never really gotten into fishing.  The times I had been were mostly spent on all night trips with my dad or on stinking charter deep sea trips.  The charter trips had really put a bad taste for fishing in my mouth, with the push button reels and I felt  there was little skill in the fishing.  They would just  stop the boat over a school and you would drop your line in.  Not too much fun for a kid with a huge imagination.  

Back to the pool.  Jeremy handed me his fly-rod and showed me kind of how to cast.  After a couple of really bad tries, I got the feel for it just enough to get the line out.  I didn't catch anything that day, but I liked it so much that I went down to Academy and bought a Fly kit that only cost me 40 bones. Later that week I went back with out Jeremy to try my hand at fishing again.  On my second attempt at what might be called a cast wonder of wonders I landed one!  I was hooked (pun intended).

Now I have been getting out at least three mornings a week to work on a better understanding of the true art behind fly fishing.   While in the local Austin creeks I have mostly landed panfish,  yet I have had the joy of landing a nice little nine Bass as well.

( Just to be true to the reality of my fishing past, I do have to thank Dr. Costa of Harlingen for a Wonderful day of deep sea fishing on his boat right before I moved to Austin.  I landed a really nice Mahi-Mahi that day.)