Hand tied, and they worked!
Having watched the flow charts carefully for quite sometime i was prepared for the worst, but it was still amazing to see the small trickle of water moving from pool to pool. Deep pools that were normally my favorite to fish were only a foot or two deep while some areas i’ve fished recently were nothing but sand banks. The largest pools were cloudy from a combination of stagnant water and the Carp stirring up trouble with their bottom feeding habits. After quite a bit of hiking, especially considering it was 101 degrees, i settled on a three foot deep pool with clear visibility. I saw a small Guadalupe in the 12-14″ range and cast my weighted Olive Wooly Bugger with silver ribbing to his left. Two quick strips and the fish was on the hook. I’ve read before that fly tiers never forget the first time a fish took their fly, and now I understand why that is. The magic of taking a bunch of inanimate objects, melding them together into art, throwing them into the water, and having them be perceived as living / breathing things by another living creature is quite powerful stuff.
1st fish caught on my own hand made flies.
When the fish came to hand i was still in such shock that i had a hard time getting the hook removed from the deep set that it had made in the fishes mouth. Weighing the fishes struggle of having a hook in it’s mouth or excessive handling which would further tax an already exhausted fish, i snipped the line and wished the fish luck while thanking it for the fight. So if you see a beautiful fish with a Bugger in it’s mouth, take it easy on him. He’s just a connoisseur of the arts.
Cacti 30 feet up in a dead tree. Only in Texas.
