1002 | The Clouser Minnow Story with Bob Clouser: Fly Tying, Smallmouth, and Lefty Kreh

WFS 1002 Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: At eighty eight. Bob Clouser is still learning, still tying flies and still thinking about what make fish eat. Today we’re going back through the patterns, the people, the fish, and the stories behind a lifetime at the vice and on the water from the Susquehanna River and the origins of the Clouser Minnow to a friendship with Lefty Kreh that took Bob around the world. This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast, where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip, and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. The great Bob Clouser is here today, and Bob is going to take us into the development of the Clouser Deep Minnow, including why those famous eyes were originally about weight rather than appearance. Bob tells us how Lefty Kreh named the Clouser Minnow, and how he helped carry this fly pattern around the world. We’re going to get a bunch of stories on species and lefty and Bob and the whole crew. Bob also talks about the Clouser Suspender and some other great flies he loves and how he developed those. Plus, we get a behind the scenes story on Bob’s father, his friendships, and how he grew up around fly fishing. It’s all here today. You can check in with Bob. You can actually get a signed fly as well at shop dot com. All right, let’s get into it. Here he is, Bob Clouser. I think we’re just going to start off with a little bit of your background. You know, kind of how, you know, you got into fly tying and the clouds and all that. And then we’ll just, you know, the best podcasts are always casual conversations about fly fishing. So it makes it pretty easy. 00:01:29 Bob: I got started because of my father. Every Christmas we would get some kind of a either a baseball bat. Next year we get a ball, get a baseball, basketball, you know, one year or something like that. And then one year he bought me a fly tying kit. Uh, the reason he bought the fly tying kit was that he loved the trout fish and, and fish on the Susquehanna for smallmouth bass. and. And he bought this kit and looked at me and he says, Robert, you’re going to make me fly as at work work out here just like the Jews do. So I started tying flies from that kit and he started being real successful with them. And then a long, long way down the road, I met a fellow called Lefty Cray and lefty says, Bobby, uh, you know, you can make some money off of this. I said, what do you mean, make some money off of this? He said, you can sell your flies and you can take people fishing on the Susquehanna River. Uh, they will pay you good money to catch them. Nice baskets out there. I said. Oh, I didn’t know that, you know. So anyhow, uh, it all started then, and, uh, that was back in the early seventies. I started getting together with these guys and, and fishing more with my dad because I was not too old at that time. And, uh, lefty got with me somehow, and we connected with each other, and. And he took me around the damn world. How can I? Can you imagine that? 00:03:06 Dave: He did. So you you traveled with lefty and fished around the world. 00:03:09 Bob: Oh my God. Yes. I mean, he, uh. I don’t know if he liked me or what he did, but anyhow, we became super friends. Uh, get a phone call every couple of days from him. And when I would pick the phone up and I would answer, I say, This is Clouser. He said, you don’t need to say that anymore. He said, I know who this is. 00:03:31 Dave: Yeah. 00:03:33 Bob: Anyway, uh, that’s how we got started on this. And we got, uh, flies that were pretty well got their cells, uh, worldwide known. And the first fly that left my place, uh, was because of lefty was the Clouser minnow. Uh, lefty took this fly, I don’t know. I can’t remember how many places and how many things. But but he caught. He came back home one day and called me and he said, I got eighty four different species of fish on your flower meadow. 00:04:08 Dave: Wow. 00:04:09 Bob: And I said, how many? He said, eighty four. I said, oh my God. I said, you must have been all over the place. He said, I, they take me anywhere. Okay. I said, that’s pretty good. So anyhow, we started the conversation on this species deal and I said to him, I said, I know you can catch number eighty five here on the Susquehanna River. I said, you and I have talked about this before about the carp fishing, and we talked about the bait fishing for carp and how you make your dough and stuff like that. And he loved the carp fish, but he never caught one on fly. So I told him, I said, you know, I’m pretty busy this summer. This was like July thing. And I said, uh, my son can take you fishing. And, uh, he said, oh, Bobby’s good. He said, I like Bobby. I’ll go with Bobby. So he went with my son Bobby, because I had clients that day. And to try to keep things a little bit straight here. Lefty came up, I took my had my clients on the river already. Lefty came up somewhere around at nine, ten o’clock in the morning stuff, and my son brought him down to the river and they got in my son’s boat and I seen him coming down river together. And you could actually hear Lefty’s laugh. He had a special laugh, and you could hear that any place. Anyway, he coming down, he and Bobby came up to our boat. He started talking to my clients and and my clients were were so elated that he came over and said hello to them and stuff like that. And, uh, the one guy said, what are you going to do today? Lefty says, well, he said, if it goes away, we’ll have it planned. I will catch my eighty fifth species on a clouser minnow. So they left and went down the shoreline, and they were a couple hundred yards below us. And I seen the water fly, and I seen the rod bent over and I could hear his laugh. He was laughing out loud. I said, uh oh. I said, he’s got his eighty fifth species on the fly rod right now. And anyhow, the guys wanted to run down there quick. I said, no, I’m not going to interfere with them. I’m going to let them have it the way all the way the day falls, and that’s how it’s going to work today. So I seen Bobby get the net out. They netted this fish and Lefty’s laugh. You could hear him two hundred yards away having a ball. And he, like, I could see him turn on Bobby’s boat seat, face us with the net and hold this humongous carp sticking out of the bottom of the net. And he put both hands up at his mouth and looked it up to our boat. And he said, Bobby, number eighty five. And I’ll never forget that sound and that laugh from that day in July, at that time when he got his eighty fifth species. 00:07:10 Dave: Yeah. Eighty fifth on your fly. Right on the Clouser minnow. 00:07:13 Bob: Yeah. One on the Clouser fly made from red fox tail. 00:07:19 Dave: So how did you, when you made the original one take us back there? When did this fly? How did you come up with this idea? 00:07:25 Bob: Well, this all started, uh, I had a good friend. His name was John Lowell, and he fished with me, traveled with me to and went different places together. And I’m sitting at home putting these things together. And John came up and John says, what have you got for me to try today? I said, here, I take these couple of things along. We’re going to call them about lefty named them I had. 00:07:50 Dave: Oh he did. So lefty named him the Clouser Minnow. 00:07:52 Bob: Yeah. Clouser deep minnow. He’s a guy that named these. I got ahead of myself there. Anyway, I give a couple of them to John. And, uh, John says, well, you got eyeballs on them. I said, well, they’re it’s weight. It’s not the eyes that I’m putting on its weight. I said, you know how good our jigs are that we are catching bass after bass, after bass on a jig that’s made for spin fishing. I said, these are kind of doctored up. They’re going to fish that probably, if you learn how to manipulate them, they’ll fish the same way and be a very same effectiveness. So John takes a couple of them and goes out in the river, comes back in the shop and he said, uh, Bob, your flies are coming apart. I said, they’re what? He said, I got fifty six smallmouth on this one fly and they’re still hitting it. I said, gee whiz, John, we’re putting too much on the hook. 00:08:53 Dave: Yeah. 00:08:54 Bob: And he kind of just laughed a little bit. You know, at that. Anyhow, the laughter went from my shop down, down to the whole town, and people come up on my shop and looking at these things and stuff like that. And, and I said, let me name this and I’m going to keep the name because he made a statement. When I asked him, I said, what, what can we call these? He says they’re tied by clauser. He said, they got weight on. They go deep and they look like a minnow. He said, how about Clouser deep minnow? I said, that satisfies me. That’s what we’ll call him from now on. So that’s how they got their names and stuff like that. 00:09:37 Dave: Yeah. Clouser Deep Minnow was there at the time. Other flies. What were the flies that were doing similar. What were you using for bass before you tied this? And other species. 00:09:46 Bob: A fly called a zonker and a Muddler minnow. Those two were our our most successful bass flies that we used on the river. We learned how to fish them. Of course, sometimes slow, sometimes a real erratic retrieve. Uh, retrieve was the key factor in a lot of this stuff because it made the fly looked like it was injured. And I don’t think any hungry smallmouth will let something go that hurt. Especially a hurt baitfish or a crayfish or something kicked up. Getting back a little bit in some more history. On the carp, on the carp stuff. I observed these carp for a year or two. Me and my son and John Lowe would fish for them, and I had another friend, Scotty Lochner, come down from the upper part of the state. Fate broke him in on that and he loved it. Where we would watch these carp, you had to have some kind of an inlet on the shoreline, and we would watch the carp with their tails out of the water and making a mud streak. Okay, so now here we go again. Here we go. We got tailing fish. 00:10:59 Dave: Yeah. 00:11:00 Bob: Well, they’re doing it for a reason. They’re hungry. So we’ve been observing these things and watch them. And wherever they got their tails out. And there’s a mud streak coming off of the fish. There was always a smallmouth bass laying in the mud streak. Whenever we would cast a fly to that carp, the bass would take the fly first. So we were catching smallmouth off a carp. And of course you could see them laying on them. Now to try to make this little easier. We tried all different kind of fly patterns. They all. And just about every flight pattern that I have, including a Clouser minnow smallmouth bass imitation, which is brown, green, and white. Even that has caught the carp. So we’re kind of studying this, that, you know, it doesn’t matter what this thing looks like. It’s what it acts like. 00:11:59 Dave: Yeah. When you first tied it, did you use the same materials just change the color or were you using different types of material? 00:12:06 Bob: Well, we were using red fox tail hairs. 00:12:09 Dave: Red fox, that was the original Red Fox. 00:12:11 Bob: Yeah, that was called the Fox. Red. I called that the fox red has some people from this, I guess the eastern part of the state also using it. And wherever he was fishing and wading that he was catching fish on it too. So anyway, this thing started to get pretty popular around the red fox went and by golly, I had I had a trip out west. I took the fox red minnow box. Different sizes in that thing. It’s the only Clouser minnow I took along. I got out there to the to Colorado, I guess. I think it was in fished the, uh, a couple other. I can’t remember everything anymore. My brain is. 00:12:54 Dave: Yeah. Me too. All good. You’re in Colorado. We’ve talked a lot. We could probably guess which one you’re fishing anyhow. 00:13:01 Bob: Uh, we we went out to Colorado, to the Motherwell Lodge. That was a lodge that was like eight thousand feet in the air. Wow. On a mountaintop. And you could not walk and talk and breathe at the same time. Huh? You got you had to kind of slow down. Anyhow, at the lower section of that, they had this this river. I walked up to the river, tied the foxy red minnow, and caught one trout after the other. And all three species on this one fly. And I had them. I had them tied. Oh, in like size six eighths and ten different different lengths from one inch up to three inches. The three incher was deadly. Because why I often say that you used to say, give him groceries, Bob. They like bigger stuff. That’s always stuck with me. So anyhow, we’re getting all these trout and a fellow said to me, the guide, I never seen anything like this in my life out here. He said, this is the first I’ve ever had a client on a boat fishing streamer, flies that are catching every species of trout. I felt pretty good about that. 00:14:17 Dave: Yeah. No kidding. 00:14:19 Bob: I was feeling good about that. We’re going down this little river and I said to him, I said, is there any fish living in that tributary? He said, you mean the one we just went by? I said, yeah. He said, how come you didn’t let me fish in there? He said, well, nobody could ever catch anything out of that. He rowed that boat back into that current, dropped an anchor where that river comes out of that come out of the of the side of the hill. I threw that fly up in that river. Caught seven trout on one on every cast. 00:14:56 Dave: On the little guy, on the little minnow. 00:14:58 Bob: Yeah. I could see his eyeballs going like, this never happened before. I said, well, it never happened to me before either, so that’s amazing. 00:15:07 Dave: Why do you think why do you think the fly works so well for those trout? Or just in general, what makes this fly. 00:15:12 Bob: More or less a color combination? If you would look at that in the water when it got wet, it reminded you of a crayfish. If you moved it like one, it reminded you of one. And it looked so much like a, a nymph that was ready to hatch. It had some black and red brown, reddish brown in it. Uh, the, uh, nymphs like the brown drake nymphs and stuff like that. Whenever they had, they hatch, their casing gets dark on the back. This had some of that in that. I’m trying to figure out why it’s working too. But but lefty used to say, Bob, if it works, don’t change it. 00:15:54 Dave: Right. Then you also had I mean, when you think of iconic flies, your fly is out there. There’s a few. You mentioned the Muddler, the Zonker, some other flies that have been around for a long time, but also Lefty’s deceiver. Right? 00:16:06 Bob: Well, my God, that was one of our lifesavers. 00:16:09 Dave: Yeah. How was the Lefty’s deceiver similar or different from the Clouser Minnow? Does it fish? Does it catch as many fish? 00:16:15 Bob: Well, it it had no weight to it when we could see, especially on the Susquehanna River or the bass where the bass were attacking bait schools. And you could see the minnows skipping across the surface trying to get away from it. I would tie a deceiver on because it had no weight, and throw this deceiver where I would see these fish skipping and we would just change three trees. We had to pull it pretty fast and erratic and we got them, got that down. And that’s the time we got the deceivers out of the box when we could see the smallmouth and stuff, eating other bait, chasing bait. That fly was, I could say, one of my best in my box. 00:17:05 Dave: Check out Montana Fly Fishing Lodge, a twenty twenty four Orvis endorsed Lodge of the year finalist, where luxury meets adventure on one point five miles of private, wild and scenic East Rosebud River frontage. Experienced world class fly fishing on numerous Yellowstone Basin streams. Gourmet cuisine made from locally sourced ingredients and rustic luxury accommodations surrounded by breathtaking wilderness. You can book your all inclusive Montana fly fishing adventure today and discover why they are the premier destination for unforgettable fishing experiences. Head over to Montana Fly Fishing lodge dot com right now. Pescador on the Fly offers a full range of fly fishing gear for any angler at any budget, with premium raws delivered directly to you. The El Rey G6 is the most packable, high performance fly rod on the market, performing like a four piece rod but with unmatched portability in six pieces, and you can get ten percent off your next order. Right now, if you use the code Wet Fly, swing at Pescador on the fly dot com. Never fly without your G6. Discover the El Rey series and more at Pescador on the fly dot com. Did lefties. Was that fly out there before the germino? 00:18:12 Bob: Yeah, yeah, he even had a postage stamp with it. 00:18:16 Dave: Oh wow. Yeah. Because by the time you met lefty in the early seventies, he was already a bigger than life guy. Right person out there. 00:18:23 Bob: Oh, God. Yeah, yeah. In And my my family felt that too, because every time Lepi would come up, my, my wife and my kids would go to him and shake his hand and give him a hug. Every time he came, they would do this. And I knew the guy was bigger than life, actually bigger than life. And and he did. He we were at a little outdoor show in Wisconsin, I think it was one year and a very, very nice young man came up to me and he said, uh, me and my buddy are watching you and lefty. And I said, what? What do you mean you’re watching us? We would like to know how you guys got to the top and stay there. And the young fella is still around and he he’s up on the top chain in his area. 00:19:20 Dave: Oh, yes. 00:19:21 Bob: Oh, yes. And he’s is still taking fishing people. Muskie fishing. 00:19:27 Jackie: His name is Chris Wilhelm. 00:19:28 Dave: Yeah we know. Yeah, Chris. We know Chris. 00:19:30 Bob: Yeah. Chris. Wilhelm was a gentleman. A wonderful, nice young man. Uh, I got to be kind of pretty close with him. And we would chatted a while about things, and, uh, I think I, I can remember, uh, his friend owned a fly shop up there and, and I fished for smallies with him and we had a super time. There was a one day affair or two day affair. And it didn’t last too long, but, but it actually brought two more friends into my realm. 00:20:01 Dave: Yeah. Chris. William. That’s awesome. So you mentioned Muskie, some other species. What is the, the, uh, craziest fish you’ve caught with the, with the, your minnow? Have you caught a few different ones? 00:20:11 Bob: Yeah. Yeah. I think I was up to like sixty some species just around here, uh, on the Chesapeake Bay and, uh, you know, little short jaunts and stuff like that. But I caught everything from chubs to carp to smallies to trout. Now there’s four different families of fish that were succumbed to my my claws or imitations. 00:20:40 Dave: Did it evolve over the years or. I mean, it’s pretty basic, right? The fly. That’s the amazing thing about the fly. And really a lot of good stuff. The basics sometimes is the best. Did it change? Materials change? 00:20:52 Bob: Yeah. I think the only thing changed is that you can put that on a five volt hook or a size ten. Size ten would be about one inch long fly. And then as you increase hooks, it gets another half an inch longer. 00:21:07 Dave: Yeah. And a five aught. So what is the biggest fish that’s been caught with yours is probably I’m guessing tarpon have been caught. 00:21:14 Bob: I would probably say tarpon, but the striper bass fisherman would probably argue and Argument that a little bit. 00:21:21 Dave: Oh, right. Right. 00:21:23 Bob: With these big stripers, I mean these big things that are up to sixty pounds. But tarpon. The tarpon over one hundred hundred pound. I actually caught one like that on the cloud. That was over one hundred pounds. 00:21:36 Dave: Yeah. Where was that at. 00:21:38 Bob: In Costa Rica. This was very comical. This fish, I hooked this fish and he’s jumping out of the water. And I said, look at that lefty. Look at him coming out of the water. And he says, just shut up, boy. You’re going to lose that fish if you don’t be careful. So I kept my mouth shut. Anyhow, they landed the fish. I have pictures of it. I think you can see on some of my website pages where the fish is. The guy gaffed it right alongside the boat is holding it up on a gaff. The fish is bigger than me. 00:22:14 Dave: No kidding. 00:22:15 Bob: I’m telling you, this was the biggest excitement that I’ve had in years. And I’m looking at lefty and we’re fighting this big tarpon. And I said, lefty, there’s something wrong with this reel you give me. And he went, what do you mean? I said, it’s starting to jam up. I said, whenever the tarpon takes off, the thing is, is missing a beat. I said, I can feel it in my hand. And he said, there’s nothing wrong with that reel. I caught hundreds of fish on it. I said, that’s what’s wrong with it. 00:22:50 Dave: It’s worn out. 00:22:52 Bob: I said, it’s coming apart. God. Anyhow, we landed the fish, got the pictures that we needed and stuff like that, and he took the reel back home, called me on the phone and he said, Bobby, you were right. He said the internal screws that allowed the spool to spin are coming loose. And he said, there’s actually two of them laying loose in the reel now. So the. The little tiny screws weren’t much. They put a watch together with, I guess were laying loose inside the reel, and whenever they turn they would catch in air and jam jam it up. But that was, that was only after a couple hundred. Jack Crevalle. 00:23:35 Dave: Yeah. 00:23:36 Bob: A couple more hundred tarpon and the one I caught. 00:23:39 Dave: That’s amazing. Are you still located near the Susquehanna now? 00:23:44 Bob: No, I’m in Florida. 00:23:45 Dave: Oh, yeah. You’re in Florida? That’s right. When did you make the move down from the Susquehanna to Florida? 00:23:50 Bob: I met this lady at a renzetti get together a couple of years back, and then on, on, uh, twenty nineteen, I called her and I said, Jackie, I’m buying a one way airplane ticket to Florida. I’m coming down to see you. At that time, she was single. Her husband had passed away. I didn’t want to interfere with any kind of family affair, so I. I called her and told her. I said, Jackie, I’m coming down about a one way ticket and if I like it, I’m going to stay. If I don’t like it, I’m going back home. Well, I stayed. 00:24:28 Dave: Yeah. You stayed. That’s amazing. And that was in twenty nineteen. 00:24:32 Bob: Yeah. And then. Then I married her, too. Wow. Made everything legal. I give her my heart and soul, and I. You don’t believe this? But I still do today. 00:24:43 Dave: That’s amazing. 00:24:44 Bob: I have the same feelings for this lady today that I’ve had then, or I just wouldn’t be here. 00:24:49 Dave: Yep. That’s amazing. And, Jackie, you’re there. Uh, do you want to just jump on and give us a. I don’t know if you want to say a couple words. I’m kind of curious on this is amazing because I didn’t know this story. Did you guys meet you met at a fly tying expo? 00:25:04 Jackie: Yeah, it was the, uh, renzetti. They were having a rod building and fly tying fair. And so we met there and I actually had my book and I wanted him to autograph it. So I found him after the show when he signed the book and everything. And we just got to talking about life, you know, and he was telling me about, you know, how his wife had recently passed away and my husband had recently passed away too. And so we were just talking about things like that. And then he asked what I do for a living. So I told him I work in the IT field and then I work on websites on the side. 00:25:39 Dave: Oh wow. 00:25:40 Jackie: So he said, well, and I don’t know if this was just like his way of getting my phone number right. I really need help with my website. 00:25:48 Dave: That’s right. There you go. 00:25:50 Jackie: So I took over the website and we’re running the business, and I’m actually sitting here tying Clouser minnows and putting weed guards on them. 00:25:58 Dave: Oh you are? Oh, wow. So you guys still so somebody orders flies. They’re coming straight from you. 00:26:03 Bob: Oh my God. Yes. 00:26:04 Jackie: Yeah. 00:26:05 Dave: Yep. Oh that’s great. That’s really cool. 00:26:07 Jackie: Yeah. We we tie almost every single day. And then of course, I work full time to. Yeah, we just we love it. 00:26:13 Dave: That’s so cool. What would somebody do if they’re listening now and they wanted to get some of your flies tied. How would they do that? 00:26:19 Jackie: Just go to our website shop dot com. And, uh, we even have an option in there if they want an autograph card and a fly hand-tied by Bob. 00:26:30 Dave: So should they just contact you or is there a sign up form or how do they do that? 00:26:34 Jackie: Uh, they would just go to, to w w w dot dot com. And then when they go into the like the Clouser minnows section, we have the option there. Also, his swim and nymph is a great pattern and is free from crayfish. He’s actually bringing back his suspenders, Clouser suspenders, um, especially for down here in the saltwater because they’re really effective like on the the black drum and the red fish. It’s just the color patterns and it’s, they’re a great fly because that’s a subsurface fly. 00:27:08 Dave: Perfect. Yeah, I see it. There’s a yeah clauses. I’m on the website and you can see the fly and they can order right there, add to cart and go for it. And you have a bunch of different colors chartreuse baby smallmouth, river shiner, different sizes six all the way down to three. Okay. 00:27:22 Jackie: So yes, and then I’ll mention one other thing too. And I actually did this to the website yesterday. It’s down on the bottom. I’m adding photo galleries of customer submitted photos, but also that tarpon that Bob was just telling you about. I just put that picture on the website yesterday. 00:27:39 Dave: Oh, where is that? Where can we see that? 00:27:40 Jackie: If you go down to the bottom, I think it says photos of Bob fishing. 00:27:45 Dave: Okay. Photos of Bob fishing. Yeah. Oh, classic photos. 00:27:48 Jackie: There you go. 00:27:49 Dave: Yeah, yeah. Classic photos I see. Okay. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, we got some old some good old photos. Cool. Oh yeah. There’s the tarpon I see. Yeah. He’s got an old. What is that gold reel. Do you remember what that reel is? Is that a fin or. I’m looking at an old. 00:28:01 Bob: Yeah. Fin. 00:28:02 Dave: Ah. Oh that was a fin. Yeah. My dad had one of those. Those were great reels. 00:28:06 Bob: Yeah. Uh, lefty and them guys were such good friends. This was before they knew me. He got free reels. 00:28:13 Dave: Oh, yeah. Right. Of course. I’ve never seen a photo of lefty with his wall of reels. Like he had hundreds of reels on the wall. Right. Are you kind of. Are you at the same level with all the gear? Do you have all that? You know, just tons and tons of everything. 00:28:26 Bob: Oh my God, I got so much stuff. It’s incredible. And you know what? It all works. If you got something that doesn’t work, it’s usually your fault. 00:28:36 Dave: Yeah. You can’t complain about the gear. It’s. It’s about as good as it gets. 00:28:39 Bob: No you can’t, not today anymore. I mean, it’s things come a long way from the first time we pulled a boat. 00:28:46 Dave: Right. What was the when you tied that first fly as a kid? Uh, I’m guessing it was like a model, a vice. What was the vice you used then? And what do you use now? 00:28:55 Bob: Uh, a Thompson a and then, uh, the, uh, next vice. Uh, I actually got some good advice from some people up in the northwest part of the state. I was talking about the Regal Vice at that time, and he said, Bob, all you got to do is squeeze the handle, put the hook in, and it’s ready. So I bought a couple of them and I had a tan one. Now I want to say something that most people probably don’t know. The Clouser Minnow was born on a regal vice. 00:29:28 Dave: Oh. No kidding. 00:29:29 Bob: Yes. 00:29:30 Dave: Oh, that’s pretty good. 00:29:31 Bob: Then, since that, Andy Renzetti has made a vice called the Clouser Straight Arm. And it’s basically the same style and the same lockdown as what the Regal has. So. So he made that specially for me. 00:29:48 Dave: Oh, really? So you can’t buy those out there? 00:29:50 Bob: You can still buy them? Yes. In fact, I can get them and sell them. But anyhow, the the actual truth. The fly was born and even the crayfish fly. They were all born on the Regal, because I was told that that was the best advice in the world, so I bought one. 00:30:08 Dave: Yeah, they’re still going strong. I still have my regal I. Yeah, they’re that’s the great thing about good gear, right? It lasts forever. It seems like. 00:30:14 Bob: Yeah. They’re very, very fine tool. 00:30:19 Dave: Yeah. That’s it. So when you started tying your fly, that first fly when your dad got you. It’s a great story. Your dad gets you this kit. Do you remember what your first fly was that you tied, that you fished? 00:30:29 Bob: Of course, a woolly worm. 00:30:30 Dave: Oh, woolly worm, not a woolly bugger, a woolly worm. 00:30:33 Bob: Yeah, the woolly worm. I know the guy that invented the woolly worm. 00:30:38 Dave: Oh. It says uh. I think the modern day woolly worm was developed by Don Martinez. 00:30:42 Bob: Yeah. And then, uh, the, uh, fella showed us the woolly worm with a marabou tail, and his daughter said it looks like a woolly bugger. And that’s how it got its name. 00:30:57 Dave: Oh, Russell Blessing’s daughter. 00:30:59 Bob: Yes. Russell Blessing’s daughter is a responsible person for. 00:31:03 Dave: Oh, cool. Yeah, because it’s very similar, right? I mean, the flies are almost identical. It’s just one has a long tail and one doesn’t. Right? 00:31:10 Bob: Hey, I’ve caught every species of fish swimming. Everything is anywhere. Will eat a woolly bugger. 00:31:18 Dave: If you had to take a woolly bugger versus a clouser minnow. 00:31:21 Bob: Oh, I would, I would take the Clouser. 00:31:24 Dave: Yeah. Of course. Yeah. 00:31:25 Bob: You know me. 00:31:26 Dave: Oh, yeah. You take the Clouser. That’s right. Well, it’s amazing because we’ve had a few of these flies on and of course the woolly bugger. You know we’ve talked a lot about that. Right. If you had to pick one fly. But there’s a few of these out there. You know another one we’ve talked to you know Jim teeny has the teeny nymph, right. This fly, it was very basic. He kind of fished it with a lot. Yeah. Right. 00:31:46 Bob: Yeah. That has something to do with the tail feathers of a pheasant. 00:31:50 Dave: Yeah. It’s all pheasant tail. It’s so basic, right? It’s just literally wrapping pheasant tail. 00:31:54 Bob: It’s basic. And I spent some time with him at some of the shows. 00:31:59 Dave: Oh, right. Yeah. You know. Yep. 00:32:01 Bob: And he’s a good fisherman. 00:32:03 Dave: Yeah. He is. Well, now, are you more a fly tire or a fisherman? 00:32:07 Bob: Well, I’m at my age right now. I tie more flies. 00:32:10 Dave: What about in your prime? What about when you’re in your prime? What were you more better at? Or what did you like doing? 00:32:15 Bob: More in my prime. I’m still in my prime. 00:32:19 Dave: That’s right. 00:32:20 Bob: I, I still do the same thing. I’ll fish out here in my backyard. I’ll catch a couple largemouth bass. And every now and then, uh, there’s some new fish around out here that are, are, uh. 00:32:35 Dave: Oh, cichlids. Yeah. 00:32:36 Bob: Mayan cichlid. Hey, honey, I’m looking out your window. Look at the alligator. 00:32:40 Dave: Oh, wow. There’s an alligator out your door. 00:32:41 Bob: Oh, my God, he’s over across the pond here. Oh, he’s about twenty foot long, at least. 00:32:47 Dave: Are you serious? 00:32:48 Bob: Yeah. 00:32:49 Dave: You’ve got a twenty foot alligator out, out the back door. 00:32:51 Bob: Well, we we got them. We got two of them guys that I don’t want to say this, but there was years ago when I first came down here. There was some baby alligators and they were like three or four feet long would come up along the shoreline. And I’m sitting out on my bench, and I got rabbit pellets in my hand because I’m feeding sunfish. And these gators would come in and eat these rabbit pellets. And now since then, that’s been a long time ago. There’s two here that’ll reach twenty foot. And then there’s three more that are right now between ten and fifteen feet long. 00:33:28 Dave: Oh my gosh. 00:33:29 Bob: They work our shoreline and they they eat big carp. Uh, I’ve seen them eat a white a white heron one day. 00:33:37 Dave: Oh my gosh. 00:33:38 Bob: Where he came out of the water, tilted on his side, grabbed this big white heron by the wing, shook it like a dog, shakes the stuff. And he swallowed the heron whole. 00:33:50 Dave: Oh my God, that is so cool. 00:33:52 Bob: I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that we watch here every now and then. And then the other thing we enjoy is the deer coming out of the jungle. 00:34:00 Dave: Oh no kidding. You have whitetail or those whitetail deer. 00:34:02 Bob: Yeah. Whitetail. Yeah. And they’re small, but there’s some big ones here too. Jackie has started bow and arrow hunting them. 00:34:10 Dave: Oh, nice. 00:34:11 Bob: Yeah, she takes me hunting. Makes me sit underneath the thing and watch. 00:34:16 Dave: Yep. Sit on the stand. Wow. Are you ever worried? How do you stay safe with a twenty foot alligator out the back? 00:34:22 Bob: I guess I’m kind of careless. Maybe, if you want to call it that when it comes to the gators. 00:34:27 Dave: Right? You’re not swimming out in the water out there. 00:34:29 Bob: If he’s laying up on the bank at my bench. I’ll open the back screen door, open up my shirt, hold it wide, and stand there and holler at him. And he scares and he goes away. 00:34:43 Dave: Oh he does. Oh. Right. So they’ll go away if they see. They know. 00:34:46 Bob: Yeah. Only if you got to charge em. But now they’re trying to tell us there’s some crocodiles around. Uh, crocodile kind of doesn’t look like a gator, but he’s similar to it. But they’ll chase you. 00:34:58 Dave: Yeah, the crocs are the real mean ones, aren’t they? 00:35:00 Bob: Yeah, I was in, uh, I guess it was Costa Rica or somewhere down in the tropics one year, and I was with a group, a camp, and they made this little announcement that if you want to see some crocodiles coming in, go down to the village at the dock and you give a you buy a frozen chicken for your ticket. So I did. I bought a chicken and give it to the kids, and they put a rope around the chicken, stood on the bank and slapped the water with this chicken tied on the rope. And this was unbelievable. A good two miles away from that dock. There’s islands out in the in the in the bay two miles away. The crocodiles over there could hear that. 00:35:49 Dave: God. 00:35:50 Bob: You could see them swimming towards the noise. They would come in and eat that chicken off of that rope and turn around and go back home. And I said to the kids, aren’t you scared of him? He said, we don’t let them bite us. 00:36:05 Dave: Right? Oh man, it’s different in Florida, right? You’re in an area that’s, uh, you know, it’s a little bit different than growing up where you grew up, right? There’s a few more dangers down there. 00:36:15 Bob: Yeah. It is. It’s there’s water moccasin snakes here. There’s a cottonmouth here. Jackie sits in a deer blind. She’ll tap that whole blind before she gets in it, because there could be a rattlesnake in there. 00:36:32 Dave: Gosh. 00:36:32 Bob: So you got to be careful what you do. And actually, I think the more careful you are, the better you can get around anywhere. And also, don’t be foolish, right? 00:36:44 Dave: Yeah. Don’t take chances. 00:36:45 Bob: Yeah. Don’t think you can walk up and say, oh, nice alligator and pet him on the Yeah. 00:36:50 Dave: You don’t want to do that. God. That’s crazy. Well, so you’re in a cool place now when you grew up. You mentioned your dad back in the day. So was he a did he kind of do everything or was he mostly fly fishing when you were a kid? 00:37:01 Bob: My dad was a airplane mechanic out at the Olmsted Air Force Base. And of course, he built this big home and he started to be what they called a huckster. He bought a pickup, a pound truck. He fixed up the cellar with cement blocks and bins, and he started selling groceries. 00:37:24 Dave: Oh, really? Now, a huckster, that’s a person that sells groceries. Or what is a huckster? 00:37:29 Bob: Yeah, well, they called him a huckster. He sold anything you wanted. 00:37:33 Dave: Okay. 00:37:33 Bob: But he at the house, you could come and get your celery and lettuce. And he has stockpiles of that in the cellar and a cold. 00:37:42 Dave: Oh. No kidding. So he basically started a grocery store in the house? 00:37:45 Bob: Yes. And he also peddled. We called him a peddler with his, uh, truck. 00:37:51 Dave: Oh. Oh. So he’d have his truck and he’d peddle stuff around town with the truck. 00:37:55 Bob: Yeah. See, he went around town and sold out of the truck. 00:37:59 Dave: Oh, man, that’s so cool. Yeah, I’m looking at it. It says a huckster. The definition is, um, a peddler hawker, aggressive salesperson who sells small items at low quality goods around using pushy, noisy tactics. That’s interesting. 00:38:13 Bob: I guess he called that. 00:38:14 Dave: I’m not sure if that was. That’s probably more of a general. I’m your dad probably wasn’t like that, but. Well, you know what I love about the sales? Because we do some sales. You know, I do some sales. And it’s one of those things where when you think about it, before you become a salesman, it seems like that job that’s like, oh God, I don’t want to be a salesman. But the cool thing about sales is that once you get into it and you have a good product like your flies, you know, it’s easy to sell something when you know the product’s awesome, right? So I feel like that’s a big part of sales. I mean, how do you feel about sales? You guys are selling your stuff to, you know, in a way. 00:38:44 Bob: Well, hey, my dad raised a family of five. All. All for his job and his his extra job, right? 00:38:53 Dave: He put in time. He was a worker. He. He was like a back in the days. Right? 00:38:57 Bob: Oh my God, he wouldn’t stop. He he could not you know, he actually built boats. He built these wooden. They called them a bateau. At that time. He, uh, went over to the lumber yard, bought lumber, come home and took a couple of weeks. He would build a boat and he sold that boat for forty bucks. 00:39:18 Dave: Really? What was that used for? What was the what would people buy then use it for? 00:39:22 Bob: Uh, used on the Swatara Creek and the Susquehanna River. 00:39:25 Dave: Oh, just a fish out of. And just to float. 00:39:27 Bob: Actually, we hunted, uh, snapping turtles with it too. 00:39:31 Dave: Oh no kidding. 00:39:32 Bob: I’ve eaten so much. Wild game. I had the doctors tell me to stop it because there’s so much acid. 00:39:40 Dave: Oh, wow. 00:39:41 Bob: We lived off of deer muskrats. Raccoons would not eat opossum. 00:39:47 Dave: Did you eat the snapping turtles? 00:39:49 Bob: Oh, yes. 00:39:50 Dave: What did turtles are? They just taste good? Turtles are good eating. 00:39:52 Bob: Yeah. My dad used to bring them home, and I used to help him hunt for him. And he’s a man of few words. He kept telling me, let’s go out, out in the creek and get some snappers for dinner, and I’ll sound for him. That was his only, only word to say sound. So I went along with him, and he gets out of the boat with his stocking feet, and then picks up the boat pole and puts it right in front of him and taps the bottom. He actually taps down into the mud, and you could hear when they hit a turtle shell. 00:40:31 Dave: Oh, right. 00:40:32 Bob: You could feel the difference between a rock and a turtle shell. And then he would take this pole and he’d say, I gotta find out where the head’s at. Can you? You imagine reaching down there and the sniper’s got your whole hand in his mouth? 00:40:48 Dave: Oh. So he’d reach down with his hand? 00:40:50 Bob: Yes. 00:40:50 Dave: Oh my God. And then the turtle. Then what would the turtle do? 00:40:53 Bob: Slide the hand down the pole and feel which way the turtle’s lumps went. He took my hand and pulled it down the pole, and the first thing I felt was them sharp things going back. And he said, uh, you’re all right, Robert. You’re ahead of his head. You don’t have to worry. So he would reach down and follow that turtle shell back to the tail, put his hand around that tail and pick that big goddamn thirty, forty pound turtle right up out of the mud. 00:41:24 Dave: No kidding. With the tail. By the tail. 00:41:26 Bob: By the tail. 00:41:27 Dave: Wow. 00:41:27 Bob: And then he had a bucket that he would throw him in, take him home and take the garden shovel and cut their heads off. Then he would say, if you ever have to do this, you bury that head because it’ll bite you. Two weeks later. 00:41:44 Dave: No kidding. Oh, wow. It’s like a snake. A snake will do the same thing. It’ll. It could still. 00:41:48 Bob: Yeah. Uh, well, it’s a prehistoric brain. I don’t know how that works or whatever. 00:41:55 Dave: If Belize is on your bucket list for a flask trip, take a look at blue Bonefish Lodge. English speaking guides who grew up on Ambergris Key. 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And then he killed that stuff and we ate it. 00:44:02 Dave: Yeah, you ate it. You ate everything. It sounds like pretty much everything. 00:44:05 Bob: Everything. I mean, I’ll tell you one thing. That muskrats. Delicious. 00:44:09 Dave: Is it? Oh, muskrats. Good, huh? 00:44:11 Bob: Oh my God. 00:44:12 Dave: Yeah. What about snakes? Did you ever eat any snakes? 00:44:15 Bob: No. That was beyond my. 00:44:17 Dave: Yeah, I know. 00:44:18 Bob: Beyond what he needed to do. 00:44:20 Dave: Yeah, snakes are extreme. My dad had used to would kill snakes. And I remember I heard some stories. They’d eat them. I’ve eaten rattlesnake before. It’s. Yeah, it’s not the best. 00:44:29 Bob: Oh, that was one. That was one animal I’d never eaten. 00:44:33 Dave: Yeah. Yeah. It’s not worth. It’s not worth the effort, I don’t think that’s great. Wow. So your dad was a big. It sounds like your dad was a big influence on you. Did he did all that influence? Yeah. Later in life. Did you think about that? 00:44:44 Bob: Yes. 00:44:44 Dave: Because you got into fly fishing, right. And you traveled the world and went around. What do you think your dad would think if he looked back at your life and saw how you you know, how it all turned out? I asked that because, you know, my dad just passed away this year and he was really a big influence on me. You know, he was a guide on the Deschutes. And, um, you know, I start to think I’ve talked to a lot of his friends. I’ve been interviewing some of his friends, people, you know, to hear about his life and stuff. And yeah, it’s amazing, right? Because you don’t realize it until you think about it. You’re like, wow, that person, you know, they’re never perfect, right? Nobody’s perfect. They had some. But I look back at my dad and I think, wow, he really was a good person and, and influenced me in a lot of ways. Like I’m doing this now. I’m sitting here talking to you about fly. I would have never done this if it wasn’t for my dad. You know what I mean? 00:45:28 Bob: Yeah, I can, I, I, I don’t think today they know how much of an impact they have? 00:45:35 Dave: Yeah. That’s true. Yeah. Like I said, I mean, it’s, um, you know, and some of the people you mentioned today, you know, on this episode, you know, lefty Krey a person I never met, you know, I think that’s what’s amazing. You were fortunate enough to spend many years, right, with one of the biggest people, maybe the biggest, right? I think about people in fly fishing, some of the people that have been there, um, Joe Brooks, right. 00:45:57 Bob: Left me lefty was a lot of mentors to everybody. 00:46:01 Dave: He was to everybody. It seems like everybody I’ve talked to about lefty, the common thing was he was like your best friend. Like he could be around anybody and make you feel at home, right? 00:46:10 Bob: Yep. I had a hell of a life. I don’t know why, but I’ve had some of the best life ever. And then when I came down here, it was just a big enhancement to me. Jackie. 00:46:26 Dave: Yeah, well, maybe. Jackie, you could jump in here and, and I would love to, you know, I feel like there’s always I’ve done this a few times where, you know, the wife of the person I’m talking to was there nearby. And I feel like that’s always a huge part of it because most of the time that person is a really big part, right? They wouldn’t have been to where you know, where they are. Talk about that a little bit for you. What was it like meeting Bob? And really now as you look back where you’re at, like, is this is this surprise you at all? 00:46:56 Jackie: Yeah. Every day, every day, it’s like you wake up and it’s like, oh my gosh, this is real, right? 00:47:03 Dave: Yeah. Bob. I mean, because I think of like we mentioned, lefty, you know, and some names, but I mean, Bob, as far as names, Bob Clouser is, you know, it doesn’t get any bigger than that name, right? This fly, the thing that that Bob’s done is, is pretty amazing, right? It’s like probably one of the biggest flies in the history of fly fishing. 00:47:21 Jackie: Yeah. And what’s amazing too, and I sincerely appreciate Bob sharing his knowledge with me and teaching with fly time. You know, with the materials and why you should, you know, using the materials to tie it this way or that way, or even with thread and the tools and how to, to properly use them to get the design that you want and to where we’re, you know, I’m creating fly patterns and submitting them to Raney’s. And that’s all credit to Bob because I would not know what I know now had it not been for him. 00:47:56 Dave: Yeah. I’m glad you mentioned Raney, because we had we talked to them on the podcast and they have a pretty amazing story as well. Right. Raney’s. And, and the original founder, that’s quite the story. How did you connect? Well, Bob probably knows this. Um, the connection to Raney’s. Has that been going for a long time or I can’t remember. 00:48:12 Speaker 4: Oh yeah. 00:48:13 Jackie: Him and lefty both. And I guess they had met Raney and Ellen, uh, personally. And they just got along great and hit it off. And with Jesse, who, you know, just a great a great family. 00:48:24 Dave: Yeah. It is. It’s a great story. Wow. So. Well, amazing. Well, yeah, maybe we could check back in on. You know, I’m always thinking again. You know, flies like we’re always thinking tips and tricks, right? How to how do people get better at fly tying? What would you say, Bob, is your, you know, advice to somebody who’s sitting here thinking like, man, I would love to create a cool pattern, maybe something that becomes, you know, something like the Clouser minnow. Do you teach people fly tying? Do you talk to people about this ever? 00:48:50 Bob: Yeah, a lot. I always I think if you could keep on going, don’t stop. 00:48:56 Dave: You never stop learning. Right. Just keep going. Yeah. What’s been your what’s been your secret to that? You’re still going now. How have you kept it going. 00:49:04 Bob: Honey? How old am I? 00:49:05 Jackie: Oh, you’re going to be eighty eight in November. 00:49:07 Bob: I’ll be eighty eight. And I’m still learning. 00:49:10 Dave: Well, it’s good to hear that you’re still learning. So are you still tying flies to Bob? Are you still actually behind the vise? 00:49:17 Bob: Oh my God. I sit here and tie a hundred of them every week. 00:49:21 Dave: You do? So you still fly. What are you tying? If you sit down your vise today, are you pumping out clouser minnows Are you? What are you tying? 00:49:27 Bob: Uh, right now I’m making suspenders that fly has. I guess you want to call it a whole package of flash out the back end. I don’t mean it’s all a whole package, but there’s a couple hundred strands of flash. 00:49:42 Dave: All right. Is it flash or crystal flash or what kind of flash? 00:49:46 Bob: Well, both makes some times too. And then there’s another good, good product that came on the market a couple years ago is, uh, the flash that I’m using. 00:49:57 Speaker 4: Oh. 00:49:57 Jackie: Uh, polar flash, polar flash. 00:50:00 Bob: That’s probably the best flash around right now. And I use about three or four layers of that in my fly because I like a lot of flash out the back. This fly has a story. 00:50:11 Dave: Let’s hear it. Yeah. This is the fly. This is the, the fly you’re talking about is the clouser, the suspender. 00:50:16 Bob: The suspender has a lot of flash out the back. It was born on the Susquehanna River. It was actually born on my real voice to where the front end has a wool head. Now, when I’m talking about wool, I don’t mean you’re rapping on the hook or anything. It’s pulled over the hook, pulled back, and it has like a bubble head. And it’s, uh, so deadly that I, I had four or five people claim it was their fly, right? And lefty lefty had a note out that, uh, the guy that’s claiming he invented this is full of clouds. Clouds showed it to him first, right? Anyway, it’s been it’s been his favorite fly. My favorite fly. And there’s been more big smallies caught on this fly than actually caught on the Clouser minnow. 00:51:16 Dave: And it’s marabou. Right. It’s a little different. The the Clouser minnow is more of the a little bit stiffer. Right. Is that the biggest difference? 00:51:22 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:51:23 Bob: It’s the deer tail fibers for the body. This has marabou and wool head. Yeah. That’s all this is. 00:51:31 Dave: Would you fish it differently? Would you fish that? Uh, you know, the way you would actually fish it. 00:51:36 Bob: I can tell you a couple of little stories about that. One of them was on the Susquehanna. When October gets here, which is the time. Now, if you look at the size of big rocks that are buried underwater, maybe a foot under, you will see the black image of a smallmouth laying either in front or on top of that rock. And he’ll be dark. That means show me your fly. I’ll eat it. Because the way he was there, collared up, I would take this one here. And my first one that I used was all white had had silver and pearl flashing the fly. All everything was white on it. The the marabou and the bullhead. When that fly hit that water and I would strip it one time towards me. The bass would just leave that rock and come out and eat it. You can see them sucking it in. That was my best ticket yet for I have a client on a boat. Cast a fly to a fish land air and a fish just comes out and eats it. So that was pretty cool. So anyway, I went down to Louisiana one year and took took some of these along. Showed them to the guide and the guide says there’s a little, little bit too much flesh in that fly. I said we’ll see. So he’s pulling the boat along and back inside a cove of grass beds. We see this big red drum digging. I mean, digging, making mud fly. He was by himself. He was about seventy feet away, which was pretty easy cast for me at that time. I threw the fly. The fly dropped about six feet in front of that fish. I dropped the rod tip down, put the rod tip in the water, stripped it one time, and that fish came like a barracuda. I mean, as fast as you could see. He came and ate that fly before I pulled it the second time. 00:53:41 Dave: Wow. 00:53:41 Bob: That was my introduction to using the fly for about everything. 00:53:46 Dave: So you used it for everything? 00:53:48 Bob: We took it to Costa Rica, left, and I caught Snook. Tarpon. 00:53:53 Dave: When would you decide to use the suspender versus the Clouser Minnow? 00:53:57 Bob: When they were feeding on the top. 00:53:59 Dave: Okay. Oh, right. It’s more of a top. Yeah. That’s right. Because it doesn’t have any weight on it. This is more of a higher. 00:54:03 Bob: And you got to understand it’s easier to cast to. 00:54:06 Dave: Yeah. It’s easier to cast. Right. How do you decide the flash in the back. How do you decide how much flash to put. You know what’s too much? 00:54:13 Bob: Well, I’ve never had anything that had too much. 00:54:17 Dave: Okay. Really? You like flash? Yeah. Flash is good. 00:54:19 Bob: I got one in my hand here right now, and there’s probably a hundred strands of flash sticking out the back. So it’s a pretty good clump of flash. And I tie it on staggered. One length is longer than the other. What that does is in the in the water, it’ll show the ends of the flash thrown off light better than the whole thing. 00:54:42 Dave: Oh, so you staggered a few different layers of it? 00:54:46 Bob: Yes, yes. 00:54:47 Dave: That’s great. What are some other. So you mentioned two. These are two big ones. What if you had to put together a half a dozen flies? What would be some other ones? That would be your top flies. 00:54:55 Bob: Yeah. Crayfish. I want to see one. 00:54:57 Speaker 4: It’s called the crayfish. 00:54:59 Dave: Yeah. Furry foam crayfish. There it is. That’s a good looking fly. 00:55:02 Bob: Well, the fish thinks so. 00:55:04 Dave: When did you create that fly? Was that your pattern? 00:55:06 Bob: That was in the eighties. That was another. Another one of them things that I wanted to be able to cast a single line on my fly rod with maybe a four foot leader. And as I were drifting, the boat drifting by itself, cast this thing towards the shore line, let her sink down, and then strip it back to me. Ninety percent of the strikes came on the fall. Before I could strip it, I even I had bass. 00:55:36 Dave: So they’re waiting for it to kind of drop and not run away necessarily. 00:55:39 Bob: They like to see it drop. Now you got to understand something. This came from my son Bobby. He said, dad, look at the difference, how we were catching them fish all winter. We’re catching them on the sinking fly that when you strip it, it rises. Now you got a fly that doesn’t rise. It sinks. They they’re not used to taking it that way. So they eat it. I mean, that was that was an easy solution that I kind of laid on to my clients. But this one we’re going to show, show them these fish, a different use of a fly, but that after a while that was not the eye. Whole. Total reason. Total reason that looked so damn good that they. They just swim up to it and eat it right. 00:56:25 Dave: And I’m looking at the one on your website. It’s really cool. It’s it’s kind of yellowish. What type of wool material is that for the body? 00:56:31 Bob: They call it furry foam. 00:56:33 Dave: Okay. That’s the furry foam. Yeah. And then you have it wrapped with some what grizzly hackle or is that just brown or what is the hackle. 00:56:39 Bob: Yeah. It’s brown dyed. Grizzly dyed. 00:56:42 Dave: Yeah. Dyed grizzly. It’s great because you know a lot some of these patterns of this, they’ve got foam and all sorts of stuff. This is like really cool because it looks natural, right? It’s hackle. 00:56:53 Bob: Yeah. Well, you don’t stick a whole pile of stuff on the hook. Some of these guys had so much stuff, it’s actually hard to imitate it. 00:57:01 Dave: Yeah. Your fly is actually yeah, it’s imitative, but it’s more suggestive, right? It’s not like an exact imitation of a crayfish. 00:57:08 Bob: Yeah. Right. That’s right, that’s right. 00:57:10 Dave: Yeah. And the cool thing on your website, again, you’ve got the autograph card so somebody can pick up a hand-tied fly by you, right? An autograph card. 00:57:17 Bob: Yeah, yeah, they can get one for me. 00:57:19 Dave: That’s awesome. Nice. Well, and you’re still going strong. That’s the other thing I love about this, Bob, is that you’re you’re not slowing down, right? You’re still tying every day. You’re still going for it. 00:57:28 Bob: Well, how how I quit. Yeah. 00:57:31 Dave: Exactly. That’s right. Well, tell me this. We mentioned Raney’s. We talked about lefty. Is there anybody else out there who had a big influence on you? Maybe just take it away. I’m not sure if there’s. I mean, it doesn’t get much bigger than lefty, but did you you must have connected with many people over the years. Are there anybody that influenced you more than others? You know, as you look back. 00:57:51 Bob: There’s a lot a lot more people I met. Uh, I’ve learned just so much off of everybody. My brain capacity doesn’t allow me to remember all this. 00:58:03 Dave: Yeah. You’ve connected with probably everybody right over. And how many years has it been you started? When was that first fly that you tied or what year? That was early seventies. 00:58:11 Bob: Yeah. Late seventies. 00:58:13 Dave: Yeah. Late seventies. So since that time, yeah. I mean, you’ve been around and. 00:58:16 Bob: I opened my fly shop one year after the Haywire at Three Mile Island. 00:58:22 Dave: Oh. What year was that? 00:58:24 Bob: Well, the island went haywire in nineteen seventy nine, I guess it was. And I opened up in nineteen eighty. 00:58:30 Dave: Oh, wow. Yeah. Nineteen eighty. So. And now did you open a a physical brick and mortar shop or was this. 00:58:35 Bob: Yeah, it was physical, but it wasn’t brick and mortar. It was plywood. Yeah. 00:58:40 Dave: Right. You had to shop at your house. 00:58:42 Bob: Yes. 00:58:42 Dave: Yeah. Three Mile Island accident was March twenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine. 00:58:46 Bob: That’s the year we were going to open. And then I postponed it till the following year. 00:58:51 Dave: Right. Wow. So was that. And that was near. Near where you lived. 00:58:55 Bob: How about two miles? 00:58:56 Dave: Wow. Two miles. So this was a nuclear power plant accident. 00:58:59 Bob: You could go out on my back porch and look right down the stacks. 00:59:03 Dave: And was it something? I don’t even know the whole story. We’ll have to look up a little bit there. It must have affected everybody in that area. 00:59:10 Bob: It affected everybody and it seemed to affect the newspaper people as they came to town. We have a near Lancaster, PA, which is only a couple miles different from Three Mile Island. We’ve had, uh, I don’t know how to say this experimental livestock hospital where they had, uh, cows walking around with the plexiglass sides that you could see their heart beating. 00:59:37 Dave: Whoa. 00:59:38 Bob: And, you know, when the Japanese newspaper people come into town, they added all this into what’s happening, right? You know, they had I guess they had to tell people there was a along side of Three Mile Island, there was an inlet going into the Three Mile Island disaster, but we called it the disaster area where this this waterway went into the island. And they used that to cool the reactors. The. The newspaper people called me on the telephone and said, do you see that glow in the air around that reactor? I said, what glow? Glow? And here, here it was how they had the lighting set up during the foggy mornings. How the fog made everything glow. Look down, down there. So I went. I went over to the police department and I said, here. I said, I’m going to put my boat in. If you got anybody interested in going down taking pictures, I’ll take them down. I said, but it’s going to cost them one hundred dollars a trip. And the cop said, well, hell, Bob, that’s pretty cheap. He said, how about two hundred dollars a trip? I said, hell, I get three hundred eighty five for guide fee. And he said, okay, it’s three eighty five a trip. He said, because you’re you’re not going fishing or anything. He said, you’re taking people to make money. So they were sending these Japanese reporters over and all kind of shit from all over the country, and they’re wanting to see what this wonderful glow looked like, man. 01:01:15 Dave: Well, and it sounds like it was a major. Yeah. Biggest event, you know, but it didn’t. You know, a lot of people weren’t hurt. There wasn’t a lot of cancer from that. Right? I guess it didn’t release a lot of radiation. 01:01:25 Bob: Yeah. I had guys call me that worked down there and say, Bob, look, if we gotta leave, we’re calling you first so you can get your family out of here. He said, otherwise, don’t get too excited about this. And we got her under control. 01:01:42 Dave: Yeah. You were ready to leave? 01:01:44 Bob: Yes. 01:01:45 Dave: Gosh, that’s a I mean, well, I guess that’s not a natural disaster. That’s a just a disaster. But, you know, it reminds me of a story and I want to take this away today with a lefty going back to him because I know flip pallet, which I’m sure you know, he was on the podcast and this was a while back, but he talked about this story where he was in, I think he was in the South somewhere, and there was a hurricane that went through and it it wiped out his town. And you probably remember this, right? And. Oh, yeah. But Philip stayed there. Philip stayed. He didn’t leave because he didn’t want to leave his house. And literally the story went that, like, the hurricane blew away his entire house around him. And he stayed. And people couldn’t even get in there for weeks to the town. It was so torn down. But but what happened was his lefty apparently had some money, like tens of thousands of dollars, and he somehow made his way in all the way through the disaster area to meet with Philip and give him like thirty or forty thousand dollars and said, here you go. You’re going to need this more than me. I’m not sure if you’ve heard that story before. Does that ring, uh, make sense to you from a lefty story? 01:02:43 Bob: Uh, yeah, but it came from another another place. 01:02:47 Dave: Oh. It did? 01:02:47 Bob: Yeah, a guy had a grocery bag full of dollar bills. Ted driscoll. 01:02:53 Dave: Okay, so you know the story. 01:02:54 Bob: Yeah. 01:02:55 Dave: Oh, good. Okay. Yeah. So basically, was lefty involved? 01:02:58 Bob: Uh, kind of Into it, just like we all were. We all donated, all donated some stuff in that. But Ted Jurafsky had a brown grocery bag. I think it was sixty thousand dollars in it. 01:03:11 Dave: So it was a true story. 01:03:12 Bob: Yeah. 01:03:13 Dave: When I look back at that story, what it reminds me of is the fact that we’re in this community, right? Fly fishing. And I feel like people support each other, right when stuff happens. 01:03:22 Bob: Hey, I have never been in a group that helps each other out like we all do. Well, one of my best friends ever and I traveled the world with him was Bobby Popovic’s. 01:03:34 Dave: Oh, yeah. Right, right. 01:03:36 Bob: He was the smartest in the salt water fly fishing Marina of a man that I’ve ever met. He had it down pat. He had a flipped pallet come over a couple of times. Actually taught flip a lot. The guy was amazing. He could stand on the beach right outside of his door and tell me where the underwater holes are so I could cast my fly into them. And he. He could read the surface of the water and tell you how deep it was under it. 01:04:08 Dave: We’ve heard I didn’t interview him, but I’ve interviewed people that knew him really well. And yeah, he was also a big fly designer. Right? 01:04:15 Bob: Oh my God. Yeah. Oh, him and I worked on a lot of stuff. Uh, this, uh, fly that I showed you here a couple minutes ago. The, uh, suspender has a lot of him in it. 01:04:26 Dave: Yeah, it does suspender. Wow. So I’m glad. Yeah. Bobby popovics. And, uh. And I’m sure there’s lots of other people that, you know, maybe if we could follow up with you down the line, we could talk more stories, you know, and today. But maybe take us out of here today with we talked early on in your life and all that. Maybe give us another lefty story as we take it out of here. Anything. You know, when you think back to the lefty, is there a trip that you guys did that you really remember still to this day with lefty somewhere? And did you travel all over the country, all over the world with lefty? 01:04:55 Bob: Hey, I went wherever he, when he called me, told me where he’s going, and I said, I’ll get an airplane ticket. So our most trips were South America. Costa Rica was one of the places that we visited a lot. We caught giant snook. We caught big tarpon, all kinds of stuff down there. Uh, it’s hard for me to single out one thing because the whole entire thing was was different in that when we were together, we were I staying at Casimer and Casimer was Bill Barnes’s. I guess you want to call it a retreat. 01:05:34 Dave: Oh, okay. Where was this? At what state or Costa Rica? Oh, this is Costa Rica. Okay. 01:05:39 Bob: And anyhow, Letha and I are sitting in a little thing right outside of the lodge, and we see the boat coming, and then we see the boat coming with a with a canoe on the back end, tied fast. That was full of suitcases. And I said, gee, I wonder how many is coming. Well, here are the suitcases where one woman. She brought a change of clothes for every hour that she was there. High heeled shoes and all kind of stuff like that. And then lefty knew the doctor that this girl was with. And he looked at me and he said, I wonder if he brought her here to get rid of her. And I said, I don’t have no idea what’s going on anyhow. That night we were up in the lodge getting ready for dinner, and about maybe ten minutes before they served dinner, we heard this screaming going on. 01:06:33 Dave: Oh, geez. 01:06:34 Bob: Help me! Help me! Why did he bring me to this godforsaken place? 01:06:39 Dave: Oh. 01:06:40 Bob: When she come out of their cabin, she had six inch heels on, tramped on her mother toad. Now, I don’t know if you know what a mother toad is, but it’s the biggest goddamn toad you ever seen? Looks like a size of a house cat. 01:06:55 Dave: Oh, wow. Okay. Big toad. 01:06:57 Bob: She stepped down off of this porch. On top of this toad, the high heel penetrated the toad and killed it. 01:07:04 Dave: Jeez. 01:07:05 Bob: She’s laying on the sidewalk, kicking, screaming. We all run out. The guy grabbed a hold of her and he said, don’t you touch that. They’re poisonous. 01:07:16 Dave: Oh, wow. 01:07:17 Bob: Oh, that set her off. That was the end of it. She lost it right there. 01:07:21 Speaker 5: Oh my God. 01:07:22 Bob: So he pulled her shoe off and the toad and I, I kind of said the toad was doing this. I was waiting my feet up and down. 01:07:31 Dave: Wow. 01:07:32 Bob: While he was shaking the toe to toe was dead as a doornail. But she was not. 01:07:37 Dave: And was the doctor there to fish? 01:07:39 Bob: Yeah, he was already there. And anyhow. But they looked at him and he said, uh, is she going to be all right? I don’t know, he said, I hope she goes back home. 01:07:49 Dave: Yeah. 01:07:50 Bob: So anyhow, they got together and they called an airplane. In the next morning the airplane was there. It took five guides to carry her luggage out of the hotel room. 01:08:02 Speaker 5: Oh my gosh. 01:08:02 Bob: That’s how much she had left. She looked at me and he said, I wonder if a guy brought her here to get rid of her. And that’s I mean, it wasn’t much conversation about this, but that was that was some of the highlight anyhow. 01:08:16 Dave: That’s pretty funny. 01:08:17 Bob: She got on the boat and they had the canoe tied in back with all this stuff heading to the airport. Somehow the pilot of the airplane heard about this. He come in front of that lodge with her in the airplane and did a complete roll of his wings. A roll like a victory roll. 01:08:39 Dave: Oh, yeah. Like a lap. Like came back around. 01:08:41 Bob: No, he turned the damn airplane upside down. 01:08:44 Dave: Oh, wow. He rolled the whole plane upside down. Oh my God, what kind of God? That’s nuts. 01:08:50 Bob: Nothing’s God. Here he comes up the lake. He had steam coming. He got out in front of the lodge and rolled his airplane around the whole way. 01:08:58 Dave: Wow. Imagine what she was thinking then. 01:09:00 Bob: And I’m going like, I bet she’s in there screaming her damn head off. 01:09:03 Speaker 5: Oh my God. 01:09:04 Bob: And he. He opened that airplane up and you could hear that bastard roar. And then he took her to the airport and it was about maybe half an hour or maybe forty five minutes longer. We see the airplane coming back and the guy come back, touch the water with his water skis, got the airplane airborne again and did a complete roll and went past us, and then came back about a half an hour later and ate dinner with us. 01:09:30 Dave: Oh he did. He came back. 01:09:31 Bob: He said I was doing a victory roll. 01:09:34 Dave: Oh my God. So you talked to him after he dropped her off? 01:09:38 Bob: Yeah, I know, but we got more fun out of their marriage right here in the air. The pilot, than we did her her. 01:09:45 Speaker 5: Oh, my God, that’s classic. Wow. 01:09:47 Dave: What a story. 01:09:48 Bob: Yeah, I got some good, good stuff that we were. Him and I were on an airplane together, and we were going in, flying into Costa Rica, and there was a red headed woman on the airplane. And I guess he could hear us talking back and forth. And and then she this was before the airplane landed. She kind of got out of her seat, walked up and leaned down beside a lefty and she said, are you lefty cray? Yeah. Uh, where’s Bob Clouser? Sitting right here. You are the two. And I’m on this airplane for. I live in California. I wanted to come out here to Costa Rica to fish. And I heard you guys were going to the camp, and I thought, well, if I’m going to learn something, I’ll probably learn from the best right there. Anyhow, left to kind of giggle a little. So we actually got into camp. She comes to lunch and she was really a nice lady. I mean, tried to help us as best we could, I guess best as she could, trying to impress as I had that that that too. You would have thought. But anyhow, it wasn’t that. So she said, uh, which of you two guys are going to teach me how to fish? Lefty says, both of us, you come here tomorrow morning while we’re eating breakfast, and I’ll arrange the airplane. I’ll arrange the places for the boat. I’ll arrange everything we need. So let me get. And all he did was he got two for the guide. The guide’s name was called him Sorto. That’s lefty in Spanish. 01:11:23 Dave: Oh, really? Sorto? 01:11:24 Bob: Yeah. We got in his boat and Sorto took off. He went up a little canal. That’s sort of what we called a lake, but it wasn’t really a lake. It was a decent indent. And inside this canal had to be five hundred snook, the biggest Cool a snook lefty and I ever seen. Sorto says we fish here. I had a. I had a clouser minnow on a tan and white. I guess with a size like one or two hook. Lefty says, get out of here. He looked at it. He. He stripped a line off the reel. One cast, one snook. He give the lady the rod and. She never even had a casting lesson. She flopped that fly down and got a snook on it. Flopped the fly again. Got another snook. She made five casts, landed four snook. Lefty said Sorto, you got a better place and I’m. I’m kind of giggling like hell, Sorto says. You know, like this. I’m fixing you guys up. He said, that’s amazing. 01:12:37 Dave: And she had a good day. It sounds like. I’m guessing she had a good trip. 01:12:39 Bob: Oh my God, she got up at night at suppertime there and give a big speech about how we how nice we were and all that. 01:12:47 Dave: That’s awesome. Well, I think Bob, I think we could probably leave it there until the next one. And um, you know, this has been amazing. Today we can send everybody out to, uh, Klausner’s fly shop dot com if they have questions or want to connect or get some of those signed flies in the cards as well. But, um, I appreciate all your time and all your stories today and all the, everything you’ve given to fly fishing over the years. I definitely appreciate everything you’ve done. And Jackie, thanks for helping put this together today. This has been awesome. I appreciate your time. 01:13:14 Bob: Hey, everybody, take care of yourself. Thank you. 01:13:18 Dave: All right. Hope you enjoyed that one. Uh, if you had a reminder, the advice from Bob today is never stop learning. We talked about that today. Keep experimenting, keep testing new things and stay in touch and connect with people, uh, like lefty and Bob and all the great names. We got some good stuff coming this year. We actually have the fly fishing boot camp is right around the corner. You can go to wet fly swing dot com slash bootcamp. And if you sign up there for free, you’re going to get access to one of the largest boot camps in the country. We got some of the best speakers that you could have. We’re covering everything in trout. It’s all trout focused. So if you want to up your game and listen, ask questions directly from some of the best speakers out there in fly fishing, go to webflow dot com slash bootcamp. All sorts of good stuff. We’re focusing there though this month and, and hope to see you in the bootcamp as well. And as always, I hope you’re having a great morning, a great afternoon or evening. Wherever in the world on this planet you are, and look forward to talking to you on that next podcast. We’ll see you then. 01:14:16 Outro: Thanks for listening to the Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Show. For notes and links from this episode, visit Wet Fly swing dot com.