4/16/07  We've been long overdue in announcing the sale of Kingfisher Inn to Randall and Lydia Cawlfield, two native Texans who have returned home to own and operate Kingfisher. Randy is a minister by training, and has a master's degree in music history. Randy and Lydia have four kids, and will be living in Los Fresnos. He has recently completed his Coast Guard Captain's license training, and will be joining me on the water by the end of April as one of the few guides on the Texas coast specializing in fly fishing. Randy has been spending almost every day on the water on his new Curlew. He is committed to bringing a variety of services to Kingfisher's guests, including fishing/hunting packages in the autumn, and breakfast/lunch packages.

    Meanwhile, Kathy and I have been in our new home since Christmas. A new boat lift at the new house keeps my Curlew ready for action, and I am only about three miles from Kingfisher's dock. I will be continuing to guide almost as much as before, managing the website, and consulting with the Cawlfields regarding the future of Kingfisher.  Since Randy took over the lodge around April 1st, we have been busier than ever booking spring charters, and dodging the weather.

4/16/07  I (Capt. Scott) will be featured in Saltwater Flyfishing in the next issue. Look for a really nice piece on my flies and Kingfisher's guide services by editor David Klausmeyer.

Jack Berryman's review of Scott's book, Healing the Fisher King: a Fly Fisher's Quest, appeared in a recent issue of Southwest Fly Fishing.  If you are interested in reading it, we've posted a copy here.

A new book by Danny Hicks, titled Fly Fishing Texas (Amato Publications), will be out later this year, or early 2007. In it, Danny covers the Lower Laguna Madre, and features our work as guides on the Mother Lagoon. We look forward to seeing it, and selling it in our online store.

Some of you may have seen the lengthy write-up on Kingfisher in the November, 2005 issue of Angling Report. Our friend Joe MacKay is responsible for making us sound like angling saints. We didn't know that he had submitted the report until it was too late. If you find that we fall short of the mark (saintly mark, that is), you will have to take it up with Joe. This what he looks like (the one with the cool hat) when he's happy.

 

Most of the articles that we have published in national magazines can be found here, by going to  our Articles and Fly Patterns Page. Please feel free to print them out and share them with your fishing companions. Also, the flies that we have developed for the Lower Laguna -- and instructions for tying them -- can be found there, too. Or you may purchase them from us.

The new TFO Wide Arbor reels are here and can be purchased from our online store! TFO has hit a home run with these reels. Priced well below comparable mid- to upper-end reels, the TFO Large Arbor has everything you'd want in a saltwater reel. Kathy and I are on the Pro Staff for TFO, and have first-hand experience with all of their products, so don't hesitate to ask us questions about the TFO line.

We have added the Temple Fork TICRx line to our rod offering. I have been using the five-weight TICRx for the last two months, and I can't say enough about it: It is simply the best rod I have ever casted! Now, TFO has just released six- through nine-weight rods in the TICRx line. The six has already become my second rod for those windier days. I don't want to diminish the excellence of the TICR line -- the TFO "standard of excellence" which has taken the industry by storm -- but the TICRx adds a faster-action option to the TFO collection.

We have posted a new article titled, "The Dance of the Gulls: Fishing for Podding Redfish," that appeared in the Nov-Dec 2004 issue of Tide. It gives the reader a picture of the kind of action we have in the spring and fall, when the reds are podding, and the gulls are working over them.

We have entered into an agreement with FLY H2O, a company that now produces five flies that I developed for redfish, trout, and ladyfish. Troy Bachman, CEO of FLY H2O, says that the company will provide nationwise exposure and availability for the VIP, the Mother's Day, the Crimp, the Ladykiller, and the Kingfisher Spoon. Troy has already managed to get Cabelas the carry them!

Kathy published an article on fly fishing for ladyfish, titled "The Lady is Champ," that appeared in the August/September 2004 issue of Saltwater Fly Fishing. In the article, she dispels the myth about this so-called "trash fish," and reveals the ladyfish for it truly is: the hardest fighting, highest jumping fish on the flats. She also makes the case that the Lower Laguna is the only place in the US where fly fishers can stalk ladyfish in classic, bonefish-like waters, casting to world-record-class fish in a foot of crystal clear water. To illustrate:  Kathy caught a new IGFA 16 lb. tippet class women's world record ladyfish last summer, and I caught new 4-lb. (recently supplanted), the 8-lb.  and 12-lb. (tied) tippet world records in the men's division. A bit of "bad news," however: Skipper Ray beat out Kathy's state fly rod record with a 4 lb. 7 oz fish caught in the surf (Does that count?). It was poetic justice: Kathy beat Skipper's previous record only a year before. 

For an overview of the fly fishing available to you at Kingfisher, read "The Lower Laguna Madre: Salt Water Fly Fishing at its Best," an article that I wrote that has appeared in the fall issue Southwest Fly Fishing, and which can be read here, too. We believe this is the best introduction to the Lower Laguna that we've done thus far Here's the link to Southwest Fly Fishing, which is a great magazine with stellar photography.

We now have online credit card ordering for flies and the other items that we sell. Check out our For Sale page to see how it works.

We have installed a Message Board onto our site. This will allow visitors to post questions, receive answers, impart information, share fishing experiences, and generally become a part of the community of fly fishers who have visited Kingfisher, and/or who love fly fishing the lower Laguna Madre. The Message Board includes two forums: the Main Forum and a Items For Sale Forum. Visitors are free to post messages on either forum, but please sign in. 

A glowing review of Capt. Kathy's book, On the Mother Lagoon, appeared in the July/October 2003 issue of Fly Rod and Reel, and another review appeared in the winter 2003 issue of Southwest Fly Fishing.

You should know this: If you try to book a Southwest flight to Harlingen, you may be told, "We don't have service from (your city) to Harlingen." If you stop there, you might never find out that Southwest flies into Harlingen. For some reason, you have to book a flight into Houston, and then book a flight from Houston to Harlingen, but you can't book a flight directly to Harlingen. Strange, right? We've tried to get Southwest to change the way they respond to this question, but they're still doing it.
 

 

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