Until just recently I wasn’t sure why we’ve found ourselves resonating so keenly with the Southern Culture on the Fly guys and gals.
Sure, in part it has to do with our deep respect for any group that would proudly use grits so prominently in their promotional jargon.
In part it has to do with meeting and getting to know a real life, hard-core fly fishing North Carolinian, new friend Mary (fishing manager in the recently-opened Austin Orvis store), whose eyes light up when she talks about chasing wild trout in the NC hills and big reds on her ‘home flats’. (We’re pestering Mary to chat with us in more detail about fishing back home…..)
The SCOF guys hooked us with this one this morning….
Don’t get me wrong, we love looking at pretty pictures in magazines of exotic fishy locales, but for once it would be nice to see a place in a magazine that we could load the truck up and actually go fish. (Editor David Grossman)
Amen.
Southern Culture on the Fly’s issue #2 is out today. Their winter road trip edition highlights some destinations that probably aren’t on a lot of western fishers radar – Arkansas, New York, North Carolina and the Davidson – as well as the Keys, which a lot of winter-bound western fishers do think of this time of year.
Overall, we’d call the bulk of the images damned nifty (a notch below stunning, though there are a few stunners in the mix) and the mix of well-written (and actually edited according to linguist-editor She Who Must Be Obeyed) prose just seems to fit like a glove.
A couple of nice ties thrown in the mix too.
A great reminder to those fly fishers who (occasionally) posture that the quintessential fly fishing experience to be had in the continental US occurs only in the western third of the country.
Well done.
Once again, this ain’t a paid, requested, bribed or otherwise induced promotion, though we’re open to discussion of reasonable compensation. Looks to us like the South is rising again.
Tags: Culture, Books, Art
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
You chi wulff guys are a bunch of disambiguous assholes. How can you shower praise on a bunch of rednecks from the southeast and keep dissing the best trout fishery in the south BAR NONE the Guadalupe of central TEXAS. We have bigger fish right here than any they published today except for the salmons, and I don’t have to “get in my truck and go fish” driving hours to do it.
You need to get your asses out of Texas and go back and fish for all those precious wild and native fish up in Montana. You and your southern culture bubba buddies have no idea what fly fishing is really about.
Hey PTFF, I think the word you’re looking for is disingenuous (disambiguous doesn’t exist, at least in the dictionaries I’ve consulted today).
The CW guys can well champion themselves, though as a professional guide (Colorado mostly, summers when the term is out) who lived in Austin for nearly a decade, I can’t let your belch go unanswered.
My pseudo-educated guess is that this was just a confession/ reminder that there’s good fishing in most places if you’ll take the time to look around and explore, and that, despite what lots of lucky bastards living in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana might think, a day in the hills of NC or Georgia chasing wild ‘bows and resplendent brookies can be just about as good as it gets.
You’ve once again revealed the giant thorn-in-the-side of a large part of Texas fly fishing – the incessant need to tout the limited merits of an artificial fishery as being better than waters any where else. Just in case you’ve missed my point, I mean your precious Guadalupe.
As to your ‘bunch of rednecks from the southeast’ (the SCOF guys), my guess is they could fish your ass off, show you where the best ‘plain folk food’ is in town or along the river, drink beer with the best of us and not be a pompous ass in the process. I’d be happy to have them in my boat any day.
Time to realize it’s a big world out there that extends beyond the border of Tejas.
What he said. (And well done on the SCOF description. They’re welcome in my boat any day too.)
Wow, I have been called a lot of things in my day, but a “disambiguous” asshole.. Ouch. That stings. Not at all for the feeble attempt at an insult, but for the tenuous grasp Proud Texan has of the english language. It’s sad.
Maybe you’re right, PTFF, maybe we don’t have any idea what fly fishing is all about. My god, to think of all these years we’ve wasted chasing wild and native fish in beautiful rivers that can naturally sustain wild trout when we could have been fishing hatchery stockers on the Guad. All that time when the journey, the scenery, the company, and the fish themselves matter has been wasted. It pales in comparision to the pale and pasty, raw-finned stockers in your river.
To really get into the spirit of things, why don’t we all chip in to remove the river bed and put in a concrete bunker, just like the hatchery all these sad stockers are from? At least they might feel somewhat at home there. Or, since you are fishing an aquarium anyway, let’s go to Sea World. Better bring a 10-weight…
What you sadly do not understand is that the size of fish is not the only thing that matters. I know Texans have always been harping on the size thing (several interesting theories here..), and it must be hard to overcome that kind of cultural brainwashing. I am so glad and thankful that most fly fishers in Texas subscribe to your philosophy. Its keeps your kind from crowding the rivers where the wild things are.
Guide Jim; I owe you a beer, buddy.
Thanks again for the kind words. Once we get a payroll we’ll have to talk. Guide jim, same goes to you on the kind words…you make us sound way cooler than we actually are…but I can drink a shitload of beer…I mean a shitload…is that pompous?
Thanks again,
Dave
Our pleasure, Dave, and drinking a shitload of beer doesn’t make you pompous in my book. Go figure on the rant above….
Guide Jim is awsome and is a fantastic user of the English language! Generally, Texas’ outdoorsman ethic is disgusting. The state’s wildlife managment is a joke. The hunting and fishing culture should only to be used as an example to show the children of America how not to act in the feild or on the stream (with some great exeptions). Shoot some more baited deer on a “deer ranch” and fish your out of shape and genetically inferior hatchery trout PTFF. Hatchery trout not only suck, they destroy wild native populations and create shitty put-n-take fishermen.
(Editor – not ‘Chi Wulff Mark’)
Think I’ll start a new foundation…”Montanans for a better Texas”.
Tag line: “Keep them happy, keep them there!”
I see a shirt in the making…..
Damn, write a nice post about fly fishing in the southeast and get hijacked by an asshole. I agree wholeheartedly that the SCOF guys did a great job with this issue; I’d even argue the images are mostly stunning.
PLEASE don’t take PTFF as the face of Texas fly fishers. Most of us understand that the local rivers hold nice native bass and panfish but werent created to hold trout even with an almost cold flow out of Canyon.
Most of us also understand that the local hatchery rainbow fishery isn’t reality even if it can be fun to fish. Most of us understand that access to the really decent water on the river is controlled by what amounts to a private club with a mean streak – we just cant say that out loud in earshot of certain people.
Would love to see you guys do a program at a local shop or one of the club meetings before you go.
I know its not much but at least its an apology from one of us.
Hey, no sweat; we’ve been called much worse and understand there are some good folks who understand the fly fishing game down here.
“the best trout fishery in the south BAR NONE the Guadalupe of central TEXAS.”
LOVE IT!
PTFF = Troll? No way…
I have mixed feelings about the underlying topic. On one hand, the Guad is a mildly entertaining diversion when I can’t find any sticks in my backyard to poke in my eye. So I have to chuckle along with you at how quickly some people get their backs up when they hear disparaging comments about the rubber trout fishery. On the other hand, I’m a little disappointed in the not-so-subtle Texas bashing. There are clowns and assholes are everywhere – even in Montana. Let ‘em go, and go fish – float the Llano, dream of a Devil’s River trip, mount an expedition on the Pecos, slide down to Arroyo City to experience the Lower Laguna, go hunt down some chopique in East Texas – hell, come on to Houston and I’ll show you some crazy bayou fishing for grass carp. Enjoy Texas, we’re glad you’re here.
JB
Woohoo on the grass carp fishing – hear that’s a hoot.
It is, but given the choice you should opt for the Devil’s River.
Devil’s for sure!
You f-ing Chi Wulff guys just keep stirring it up down here, don’t ya?
HAHA!!
Keep up the great work! Oh definitely need some shirts made…I’ll rock one. If they could appear before Trout Fest that’d be even better. If not I’ll pull out some puffy paint and make my own.
Amanda – I may just have to go to Trout Fest to rock a CW shirt. Brilliant!
Jess – They won’t know what to do with us down there!
{ 3 trackbacks }