There will be a Dave Whitlock fly fishing seminar at the Gaston Visitor’s Center at Bull Shoals State Park on November 1 and 2. The event will begin at 9:00 AM and run until 4:00 PM both days. This event is open to the public and admission is free. The Dave Whitlock seminar is sponsored by our local fly fishing club, the North Arkansas Fly Fishers (NAAF). To me, this is a rare opportunity to spend the day with one of the most influential gurus of the sport at no cost. Anytime you are looking at NAAF and wonder where your donations or dues are going, this is the answer.
When you look at all of the titans of this sport, none has made more of an impact on our fisheries than Dave. He began his love affair with the area in the nineteen fifties when he was one of the first anglers to discover and write about the spectacular trout fishing on the White. He moved here and did some his best writing and research in the area first in Norfork and then in Midway. He has recently retired to his home state of Oklahoma.
We reserve the most respect for teachers, in our sport, and Dave is a consummate teacher. He has always taught through his writing and art but when you get into a class situation there are none better. I attended my first Whitlock seminar over thirty years ago. It was on fly fishing for bass and I still think of it fondly. I learned a lot and still remember it like it happened yesterday.
During this two day seminar, Dave will hold two sessions on fly tying. For those of you who do not know it, he is one of the most innovative fly tyers in the sport. His patterns cover a variety of species and all catch fish. There are two that I carry with me every day. One is Dave’s hopper. It is a spot on imitation of a grass hopper that has been my go to hopper pattern for three decades. The other is the red fox squirrel nymph. This has been a favorite of mine every since my brother introduced it to me over twenty five years ago. It is a great caddis larva pattern.
Dave’s writing has always been a draw to me. I always read his column in Trout magazine, the Trout Unlimited publication. He has written or illustrated several important fly fishing books. One of them, Dave Whitlock’s Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods, is a classic and should be in every fly fisher’s library. One of the things that are scheduled is a book signing on both days.
If you have never seen Dave sign a book, you are in for a treat. He takes a page and illustrates it with a drawing of a trout taking a fly along with his signature and a message to you. If you don’t own a book by Dave, buy one and have him sign it at the seminar. I am sure that he will bring some books with him for sale. He always brings some of his art and flies also. My Dave Whitlock illustrated coffee mug is my favorite and somehow it makes my coffee taste a little bit better.
Dave is an incredible fly fisher. Several years ago I was fishing at Rim Shoals and found Dave there with Flip Pallet filming an episode of the Walker’s Cay Chronicles, which was Flip’s fly fishing television program for many years. They were fishing a hatch in a spot that I had walked by to get to other water for years. I took care to not interfere with the filming but took special care to remember where it was. I now include it in the water that I fish. I put a client in it a couple of days ago and he caught several nice fish there on a soft hackle.
If you want to be entertained and learn something about fly fishing you should attend this seminar. This is the best deal that I have seen in a long time. I am guiding on the first but hope to be there on the second.
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