Greetings, all from a crusty old timer

Hello everybody. I've found my way to this site several times but never when I had time to make a proper introduction.
I began fly tying and fishing in 1962 or 1963. I sometimes say I was self-taught as I had no instruction from another fly fisher nor fly tyer, in fact didn't even know another fly fisherman. But that wouldn't be entirely true; or at least not accurate. At that time there were no fly fishing and tying magazines, per se. But I sold OUTDOOR LIFE, SPORTS AFEILD and FIELD and STREAM subscriptions to family, friends and neighbors in order to obtain my own subscriptions for "free". And from the pages of these magazines, people like Lee Wulff, Joe Brooks and especially Vince Marinaro spoke to me of their experiences on streams and rivers, oceans and lakes and the catching of fish on a fly rod. This was exotic stuff to a kid and it's secretive, mysterious fraternity captured my imagination as surely as if they were standing over my shoulder coaching me on my cast.
I grew up in central Iowa where farm ponds with largemouth bass and bluegills were the standard. I pestered my folks for a fly fishing outfit and eventually was given a combo outfit containing a brown fiberglass Shakespeare rod, matching 1824 automatic reel and a level "C" fly line. This was advertised as being for "bass and panfish". It was a club 7wt. by today's standards but I was off and running.( With the advent of the internet and eBay I was able to locate and purchase an identical outfit, new in the original wrapping). Soon I was begging road trips to extreme NE Iowa where there were spring creeks winding their way through limestone bluffs and were filled with stocked rainbows and brown trout. My parents would drive me there (4-1/2hrs. from home) and drop me off, picking me up the following week end. By todays' standards I suppose it was child neglect. At the time it gave me week-long chunks of time to practice and hone the tactics espoused on similar limestone spring creeks by Vince Marinaro. 6x tippets and size 22-30 flies, tiny by the standards of the day.
Somewhere in that time frame I discovered that the local Army Surplus store had a small wooden nail keg sitting front and center inside their front door and it contained an assortment of cheap Japanese-made bamboo fly rods. Bamboo rods, the magazines said were the finest fly fishing tools to be had. I pored over these rods until I finally found one that was pretty straight and free of sets. It had chrome-plated guides and an ingenious chrome-plated reel seat which would reverse and make the fly rod into a spinning rod. With the sportsman's supply house Herter's just over the state line in Minnesota, I had frequent exposure to their catalogs filled with make-it-yourself equipment. I bought my first Herter's fly tying vise here for $1.35 (a Thompson knock off which I still own) and my other fly tying materials and rod-making equipment. I re-spaced and re-fitted guides to my bamboo rod and re-wrapped the entire rod in orange jasper thread, tipped black. I fished that rod hard for many years without problems and though these cheap, mass-produced bamboo rods had terrible reputations, mine gave me a life-long fondness for bamboo fly rods from which I have never recovered.
When it came time for college, one in southern Colorado was rated by one of the three sporting magazine issues as being in the "top ten trout fishing colleges in the nation". While my classmates were wearing black arm bands, protesting our involvement in Vietnam and smoking weed, dropping acid and flocking in droves to a place called Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, I was making plans to fish the watersheds surrounding Gunnison, Colorado.
Later, a career of 25 years raced by in Iowa which included developing and training the state DNR's fly fishing program and then retirement to southern Oregon and it's wild, coastal rivers with cutthroats, steelhead and salmon. There, I met and made good friends with many bamboo rod makers, bench-made fly reel makers and river guides.
And finally now, an unexpected move to central Texas where my parent's failing health requires some attention. I moved from snowfields in mountain elevations to the hot, steamy seam between the Texas Hill Country and the plains stretching to the Gulf where "reds" are a popular quarry along with tarpon on the fly.
My first fly fishing club meeting here included a presentation by a local fly rodder who specializes in BIG largemouth bass. He explains the criteria for selecting the proper fly rod for his purposes by saying, "tie a red shop rag onto your level 17lb. test leader and punch a cast out 70 feet. If the rod can't do it, you haven't found the right fly rod for the job"..
So I'm back to stock ponds, largemouth bass and bluegills. Somewhere along the way I seem to have developed an addiction to collecting fine bamboo fly rods, English-made fly reels and exquisite tying vises.
It feels as though I've come full circle.
So greetings to you all. I hope I am among kindred souls here.
salmonid

From one crusty old timer to another, welcome to smallstreams. I have known you for quite some time over on the realistic site. Nice to see you over here, and also nice to have you tying on Sno-Fly VIII !!!!
John (Alpinefly)

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