Question for the Texans

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Do any of ya know, or know of, a local writer/flyfisher named Steve Ramirez?

I just came across one of his essays. He seems to be a step above, or maybe a bit off to the side of, the run of the mill flyfishing writer these days.

[FishNoGeek]

That's actually an interesting question. I live in Texas now (didn't grow up here, and I've lived a bunch of other places as well), but I haven't run across him in the local community. Granted, I'm on the Upper Gulf Coast in the Houston / Galveston complex, and I spend most of my time in the salt; he seems to be based in San Antonio (about a three hour drive), and it sounds like he spends most of his fishing time in the Hill Country of Central Texas. We're not quite on different planets, but close.

For these purposes, San Antonio and Austin (and maybe even Dallas and Fort Worth) can be loosely lumped into a "Central Texas" freshwater region that focuses mostly on the Hill Country streams. That's warmwater, so it's mostly bass and panfish, plus gar and carp. There are also stocked trout in the Guadalupe River during the "winter" months, and a shocking number of fly anglers from all over Texas fixate on that one river. Me, I'll never understand it....but that's a whole different story.

A few of those Hill Country people venture down to the coast, but a lot of them never leave Central Texas. Distance is part of that equation. It's a solid 2.5+ hour drive from San Antonio to the closest saltwater spots; add an hour if you're coming from Austin, and it's more like 6-7 hours from the DFW complex. All of that is at interstate or highway speeds of 70-80mph (110-130km/h), and it ain't exactly scenic by my standards.

Anyway, if he's part of that Hill Country scene, it's not a big surprise that we haven't crossed paths. I have heard of him, and I may have run into him at one of the regional shows or events - can't remember actually meeting him or having a conversation, though. I have a copy of his book Casting Forward, but I haven't gotten very far into it yet. I haven't picked up either of his other books yet, but I've read a few of his articles in various magazines. I generally like his writing; I think it's on par with most of the better essay-ish fly fishing books that get published - thinking here of the more literary stuff that comes from the likes of Nick Lyons Press. It's a big step up from the tactical books, that's for sure!