Outdoors

By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Writer

ROCKPORT – It was a high school football injury that made Lefty Ray Chapa a fly fisherman.

A second operation to correct a damaged knee left him in a cast from his ankle to his ribs for months. Bored, he started watching fishing shows and became intrigued by the fly fishermen.

With no other available instruction, Chapa stood out on the road in front of his house and practiced casting.

That was in 1988. Twenty years later Chapa, who will be the guest speaker Tuesday at the Lone Star Fly Fishers meeting in Tyler, is one of the better-known fly fishing guides and instructors in Texas. He has been a certified instructor for 14 years, long enough to become the senior-most instructor in the state.

The Wichita Falls native, who now calls San Antonio home, started fly fishing at a time when top-of-the-line gear sold for about $300. The same level equipment today runs $600 and up and in Texas it was a foreign activity.

“We would come down here and fish off the jetties, and people would point at us and laugh. But we would catch more fish than they would,” he recalled of his earliest trips to the Texas coast.

Beginning in 2002, Chapa began guiding on Central Texas rivers, the Blanco, Nueces and Guadalupe. Although he stills enjoys fishing the coast, he stopped guiding there in 2006.

As a guide and instructor, Chapa is opinionated about the anglers he encounters and where they come up short. One of his biggest complaints is that they are seldom ready for a day on the water.

“They don’t practice,” Chapa said. “Baseball players go to batting cages and golfers go to the driving range. Fly fishermen watch TV. If they practiced once a month that would be great.”

And when it comes to practice, Chapa isn’t referring to another fishing trip. He suggests they find an open spot on dry land where they can work on their accuracy.

“When I give lessons I won’t go to the water. That turns into a fishing trip,” he said.

Chapa said fishermen need to be able to easily cast 45 feet and hit a target the size of a Hula Hoop to be proficient.

One trick he uses is to mark the line at 10 feet intervals. That way, when pulling the line anglers can tell how far they have cast. It also keeps the angler from pulling all the line back in because if they can cast 40 feet they can leave that much line out when throwing.

When it comes to casting a bug, Chapa said the biggest mistake anglers make is “trying to muscle it out there. When you throw hard you cast less distance.” The key instead is a steady motion, using the action of the rod for distance.

Accuracy is especially important when sight fishing a species such as redfish. Instead of throwing to a location, anglers are presenting the lure to the fish and only have one chance to hit the water correctly or risk scaring the fish off.

When planning a trip to a new spot, Chapa also recommends taking lessons specific to that area.

“If you are going to Alaska and have never been there, take a lesson. Everywhere is a little different,” he said.

A closer example is the Texas coast where fishermen have to keep the rod tip down and set the hook by pulling line when trying to catch redfish and speckled trout. If an angler gets the rod tip up, as is the custom when fishing for river trout, it creates an L-shaped hinge and leaves slack in the line at the beginning of the hook set.

When it comes to buying gear, Chapa is a proponent of buying the best available, but if money is an object he suggests putting as much as possible in the rod and cutting back on the reel.

“To me a reel is just a storage device,” he explained.

The Lone Star Fly Fishermen meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in room 134 at Tyler Junior College’s West Campus. For more information call (903) 510-2961.

DOING IT THE RIGHT WAY: Fishing guide and fly fishing instructor Lefty Ray Chapa weighs a redfish he caught last week off Rockport. Chapa will be the guest speaker at Lone Star Fly Fishers meeting at the Tyler Junior College West Campus.
((Courtesy Photo))