Ever see “The Big Year,” the Steve Martin movie about the quest for birders to document seeing as many species as possible in a single year.
Martin’s character won. If memory serves, he crossed our country and others, and ID’d more than 900 species. Don’t know anyone who knows 900+ birds. Do you?
Like most of his fly fishing brothers and sisters, Chris Williams would have trouble hitting that number, but it didn’t keep him from trying.
And while the 45 different and unique species he caught in 2021 — all on a fly and fly rod — didn’t top the birders, Williams won a special award, the Red Stick Fly Fishers’ Jambalaya Challenge.
“I’m fortunate to live in a place where there is so many places to fish,” Williams said from the environmental lab he runs in Baton Rouge. He manages another lab in Dallas.
“I’ve been a member of Red Stick since I moved to Baton Rouge 15 years ago, and I’ve learned a lot here,” he said.
Maybe because his marine biology undergrad degree helps, but contacts across the country helped, too. While he caught the majority of the 45 in Louisiana’s fresh, brackish and saltwater environs — he began Jan. 1 and ended Nov. 29 last year — he won the title with trips to visit a cousin in Rhode Island where he added species there and in New York. Trips to Florida and California also contributed to the list.
“Well, the largest, definitely, was a tiger muskie (muskelunge) in New York, but the common carp, the grass carp and the spotted gar in Louisiana were big, too,” he said.
The smallest?
“Either a golden topminnow or a blacktail shiner,” Williams said. “Both are 1-2 inches long, and they will hit a fly. But there was a guy in the club who caught a mosquito fish, and that’s smaller.”
Like most anglers, Williams had to wait out the pandemic to get to far-away fishing holes, but put the down time to good use.
He set up a blog — The Fat Fingered Fly Tyer — with tutorials, and it’s become so popular that a group meets once a month, on a Wednesday at a local brewery, Rally Cap.
“We spend 2-3 hours having a beer, telling stories and tying flies, probably my most favorite is Lefty Kreh’s Deceiver, a cream-and-white streamer,” he said.
Like most all fly fishers, Williams honors Kreh, a legend in the art, with more than a single fly for both freshwater and saltwater species.
“I tend to target more freshwater species just because of the proximity. I can get to local ponds or rivers during the week, then get to Venice and Grand Isle. All places have lots of fish, and there’s such a great diversity in south Louisiana,” he said.
“Species vary from stream to stream and you can catch species most fishermen never have heard of. And, you can have big challenges, too. Both common carp and gar are, pound for pound, the hardest fighters,” he said.
And, Williams credits his wife, Maedbh (pronounced Maeve in the Gaelic spelling of the name) for advancing his sport.
“She fishes with me on occasion. She’s a vet and a nature photographer, and has won first places in the Orvis photo contests,” he said. “She won a nive fly rod for me and several other top-10 finishes.”
So where does he go from here. Can he repeat?
He’s got a good head start: Williams recently returned from a Rhode Island fly tournament. He and his Rhode Island cousin caught 18 species over two days outpacing 25 other teams from across the country.
“And I had a chance to go to Costa Rica earlier this year on vacation and caught 12 new species in May in Rhode Island,” he said. “I’ve got 33 different fish so far this year, including a sea robin one day when we were fishing for stripers.”
To learn more about Red Stick Fly Fishers, go to the club’s website: rsff.org.
Williams’ 45 species
Chris Williams’ list of 45 species he caught to win the 2021 Jambalaya Challenge listed by state and in the order of the catch:
Louisiana: Bluegill, spotted bass, striped mullet, redfish, black crappie, largemouth bass, bowfin (choupique), longear sunfish, warmouth (goggle-eye), redspotted sunfish, redear sunfish (chinquapin), green sunfish, speckled trout, Rio Grande cichlid, common carp, spotted gar, grass carp, white bass, dollar sunfish, golden topminnow, bantam sunfish, orangespotted sunfish, ladyfish, redfin pickerel, shortnose gar, flier, blacktail shiner & striped shiner.
New York: Rock bass, pumpkinseed, tiger muskie, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, fallfish.
Rhode Island: Brown trout, rainbow trout, brook trout, chain pickerel.
Florida: Leatherjacket, hardhead catfish, Atlantic croaker, mangrove snapper, pinfish, Gulf kingfish.
California: Walleye surfperch.
Credit: Source link
