Baghdad School of Fly Fishing Periodic Update

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09 November 2006

This month marks the first anniversary of the Baghdad School of Fly Fishing. As I sit here on Veteran's Day, safe and sound in my home, I am ever so thankful for all those who have made this dream a possibility. I certainly never thought it would go this far and who know how much farther it will go. Today I my thoughts are will all my brothers and sisters in arms who are out on the tip of the spear in harms way. I salute you. I also salute those who have come before us and served. This country would not exist without the sacrifices of men and women who don a uniform and pickup a weapon. Happy Veteran's Day, enjoy it, we have all earned it.

//Joel

         Greetings from Baghdad.

                  I want to start this update by telling you a story. A long time ago a young man fell in love with flyfishing. He started tying his own flies and got very good at it. Now 90 years old, Willard McCroskey is still at it. He has been the most prolific contributor to our flyboxes. I have not kept an exact count but it must be close to 3 or 4 dozen dozen flies. Yes, that’s hundreds of flies. Nope, I’m not exaggerating. We had to buy some more boxes to hold them all. His flies are well tied and perfect in color and proportion. Below is just a sample of what he’s tied. I hope to be tying as well when I am 90. Heck….I hope to be tying at 90!

         Another great fly tier and contributor is Ronald Aston. You simply have to see his work to believe it (picture below). We had a lot of fun with the spider imitations. At first I didn’t even want to hold them (I’m not a big spider fan). But, the spirit of mischief got the better of me. A couple of shudders and screams later it was time to put them back in the box before somebody took a flyswatter to them. Yes, they are that realistic (as you can see in the photo).

         We have David Payne Sr. and the readers of the Parkersburg News to thank for this latest batch. They join contributors like Joe Smith, Chad Burrell, Bob McKinney, C.D. Shirk, Kim Stewart, Pete Isner and Dave himself as the primary source of flies for the BSFF (Dave, if I have missed anyone you know of…please let Joel know right away so he can add it before he posts this to the Web). Each graduate gets a box of new flies, courtesy of these guys. They are people who make a difference.

         BIG changes in the weather this week. Last weekend it was 99 degrees. Today it was 59. That’s a 40 degree drop in just a couple of days. I can’t get enough clothing on my body! Actually, the day temps are quite nice. It’s just that that morning run to the shower trailer has been pretty nippy. The cooler weather has made the fishing great! The water has cleared considerably. That makes sight fishing quite a bit easier. That is particularly important with the Asp. They are predators and seem to hit better in the clearer water. I’ve attached a photo of a pretty common sampling of what we have been catching. Joel and I have spoken a couple of times on how thrilled we’d be to catch a fish over 20 inches in the trout waters back home in Montana. Here, as you can see, it’s pretty common.

         Vance and I are going to try to put together at least one more class this month. The problem is neither one of us works regular hours and there are times we just can’t get away. Emergencies come up and classes get cancelled. That’s bad for people who are excited about learning to flyfish. It’s a bitch when a war intrudes on your fishing! But, I’ve resolved not to think about all the classed we missed. I’m going to try to focus on the positive: we are in a war zone. So, every bit of grace and beauty and sanity we can snatch…I’m counting in the “win” column.

         Thanks to all for your kind words and thoughts and prayers. Until next time…Tight Lines!

//Bill

Flies from Mr. Willard McCroskey.

Flies from Mr. Ronald Ashton.

Mr. Ashton's spiders. Yes, those are flies.

This is one of the asp Bill and Vance have been catching. 24in, pretty nice fish!

That is it for this update, check in again and see how we are doing.

Fish on! Joel