# Elite Angler



## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

Texas Parks and Wildlife has an excellent Anger Recognition Program. There are categories for children and adults, public and private waters, rod & reel, fly fishing, bow fishing, and all-tackle. There is a special section for Catch & Release records, for both rod & reel, and fly fishing. In addition, there are "Big Fish Awards" for trophy class fish in both fresh and salt water.

TPWD recognizes anglers who, "catch trophy class fish of five different species", as Elite Anglers.

As of last week, I had four of the five necessary fish in the record books, and all that was needed was a rainbow trout at least 15 inches long.

My friend and CTFF president, Scott Henize, offered to take me along on a trout adventure on the Guadalupe river near New Braunfels. There was frost on the grass, and iced eyelets on our fly rods as we waded our way along the river.

Scott was the first to hook up. It was a big fish, so I took out my cell phone and shot a video of the fight. His rod doubled over as the fish made long runs in the current. We both broke out in laughter when we realized the big fish was a "golden trout", a.k.a. carp.

A few minutes later, my rod bent under the weight of a nice fish. This one came to the surface for an aerial display, and we could see it was a rainbow trout. When the trout came to the net, it measured at 16 inches. The required photos were taken and the fish released unharmed back into the clear cold water.

An application has been sent to TPWD for elite angler, I believe this is the first time for fly fishing.

More information about the TPWD Angler Recognition Program can be found at;

www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishawards

let's go fishing


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## daddyhoney (Dec 4, 2006)

Great photos and thanks for the info. Gary


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## Law Dog (Jul 27, 2010)

Great pics!


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## Xplorin08 (Jan 18, 2011)

Always enjoy your pics Mike! Thanks for sharing.


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## Boboe (Feb 11, 2009)

Congratulations on your accomplishment, Mike. There's one thing you could do to better-handle those fish in the future. That is, remove your gloves before handling them. I spend a lot of days fishing for trout in cold weather in Alaska every year, and have seen many hand-printed fish. That's from the slime being removed with either a dry hand or gloves. Surely you noticed your glove was pretty slimy after handling that trout. Rainbows aren't as tough as bluegills and bass, and stress much easier. It sucks taking your gloves off and getting your hands wet on cold day, but it's best for the fish.


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## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

Boboe said:


> Congratulations on your accomplishment, Mike. There's one thing you could do to better-handle those fish in the future. That is, remove your gloves before handling them. I spend a lot of days fishing for trout in cold weather in Alaska every year, and have seen many hand-printed fish. That's from the slime being removed with either a dry hand or gloves. Surely you noticed your glove was pretty slimy after handling that trout. Rainbows aren't as tough as bluegills and bass, and stress much easier. It sucks taking your gloves off and getting your hands wet on cold day, but it's best for the fish.


Good to know. There was ice in the guides of the rod, so gloves seemed like a good idea. Thanks for the heads up.

Here are the other four fish I caught to accomplish "Elite Angler". They have been certified and I received the award last week.

Redear Sunfish
Rainbow Trout
Smallmouth Bass
Long Nose Gar
Guadalupe Bass

The other fly fisher to accomplish this is Clifford Hilbert, who holds many Texas fly fishing records.

Let's go fishing.


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## BrandonFox (Jan 8, 2013)

Very nice! Im currently working on this aswell. Hopefully I can get it done this spring.


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## Boboe (Feb 11, 2009)

I just looked into the particulars of ether program. One of the "Big Fish" classifications seems pretty absurd, that being red snapper at 18". Consider that minimum size is 16", and that 10# fish are more common than undersized fish, and everybody who had ever caught a red snapper would qualify for this.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Congrats Mike. 

Being in the company of Clifford is an honor in itself and shouldn't in any way be diminished by anyone.


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## Justin_Smithey (Aug 26, 2011)

Cool Post Mike! Thanks for sharing! I'd like to learn how to fly fish one day


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## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

Meadowlark said:


> Congrats Mike.
> 
> Being in the company of Clifford is an honor in itself and shouldn't in any way be diminished by anyone.


Thank you. Coming from you, I consider it an honor. Let's go fishing.


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