Speech Professor Also Fly Fishes

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Speech Professor Also Fly Fishes

Dr. Bob Pryor

Bobby Ozment
Outdoors Writer

     I was walking through Sorrells Hall the other day and just happened to glance to my right and that’s when I saw the most spectacular fishing flies I had ever seen in my life. So, I stopped to see whose room it was.

   Well, the room belongs to Bob Pryor, assistant professor of speech. So, I tracked him down and to my astonishment he is a professor of speech. He also was the president of the Bainbridge Island Toastmasters from 2004 to 2005. This, I gather, is something like a speech club in Bainbridge, Wash., near Seattle.

   Pryor has just come to the University of Arkansas at Monticello this year from Bainbridge. So, we got on the subject of flies after, of course, he give me a lesson on the Bainbridge Island Toastmasters. It turns out that he has been making flies for about 10 years now.

   Now in my book that is pretty cool! You know, him being a speech professor and all. I mean who would have ever thought that a speech professor would be a fly fisherman?

   Turns out, he grew up on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state and one of his favorite rivers to fish on was the Sol Duc River, which flows out of Olympic National Park.

   He also mentioned a few rivers he would like to fish on here in Arkansas. He said that the Red River, the White River and the North Fork River produce some of the biggest trout a man could catch. One reason he said, is because the water is cold and it has an abundant supply of freshwater shrimp, also called Sow Bugs.

   After learning this about the rivers, I asked him what kind of fly would I use to catch one of those big whoppers and he said it all depended on what kind of bugs were hatching in the area. When the caddis are hatching, you would use a elk hair caddis fly, which is good for catching trout. When the damsel flies are hatching, you want to use a damsel fly, which is also good for catching trout.

   He also told me that fly fishing was invented in Scotland around 1840 to 1850 and that a Spey Fly was the first fly ever invented. It was used to catch salmon.

   I was looking at his fly collection, when I saw the most beautiful fly I have ever seen and I asked him what kind of fly it was. He replied, "My favorite."

   This particular fly is for catching steelhead and it is called Winter's Hope. It is made of four goose feathers; two yellow ones and two orange ones. It has a gold piece on the back that comes from the head of a pheasant and blue feathers that come from a blue heron.

   Well, at this point the interview was over, and I was running late for an appointment. But before I left, Bob gave me one more tip. He said, "You can't catch any fish if your line's not in the water."

Hmm ... now where have we heard this one before?

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