February 17th Chapter Meeting: Chris Baumbach - Fly Fishing the Guadalupe River
by Javier Trevino, AFF Vice President
Our February speaker is Chris Baumbach. Coming from Iowa, educated in Texas, he now is a loan officer with a major mortgage banking company and guides flyfishers on the Guadalupe using his flyfishing boat – a style foreign to us. He likes to czech nymph and wet fly fish. Now residing in New Braunfels he is never far from trout waters in south central Texas.
His two children surely keep him busy but he still finds time to fish, guide and teach as he recently participated in Casting for Recovery and Project Healing Waters.
His Iowa homewaters was where he learned the craft of flyfishing for trout and panfish during the hatches of big yellow mayflies where the swarms painted the waters with a dense fog of buzzing fish treats. His father gave him his first flyrod (which he still owns) at the age of 12– a fiberglass Shakespeare with a plastic flyreel which he used to cast yellow poppers to the hungry Iowa trout and panfish.
His education brought him to Texas where he earned his degree and found employment in his field. During this period, he used to go to his aunt and uncles house in Vail during the summers. This is where had gained his passion for guiding while fishing the Eagle River and the Yampa River. He quickly adopted this drift boat style and nymphing techniques to our local waters.
He started guiding in Texas and Colorado where his tenacity in this sport drew the attention of Redington/Sage/Rio who now sponsors him.
His tying focuses on flies not found in catalogs which he learned while guiding in Colorado and Texas. Flies he ties are the: PW Midge, Quick Nymph,
Bleached Pheasant Tail, Clouser Crawfish, and others…….These flies have been found to work in our local waters and he’ll gladly show guests and clients the techniques of using these flies effectively to entice our local trout. He also enjoys tying saltwater flies…especially for bonefish and barracudas.
Please welcome Chris at our February meeting where he will present and speak about how his home water tactics that work in Texas.
His website is www.redflyguides.com. Please contact him for details about bookings and you’ll too learn the drift style to be effective and addicting in our waters.
Fish on…