December 13th is our annual fly shop Christmas Party

This Saturday, December 13th is our annual fly shop Christmas Party, a festive come-and-go shopping event featuring our famous Christmas Prize Drawings and secret sales throughout the store!

CHRISTMAS PRIZE DRAWINGS
For every $10 that you spend with us (in store or by phone) on December 13th, you will receive a FREE raffle ticket to enter into the drawing(s) of your choice! This years’ prizes include:

  • Full Day Guide Trip for Two
  • Scott Fly Rod / Ross Reel combo
  • Fishpond Shopping Spree
  • Scientific Anglers Fly Line 3-pack
  • Whiting Hackle 
  • Simms G3 Waders
  • Smith Optics Polarized Glasses

Tickets have no cash value and cannot be purchased. You do not need to be present to win. Winners will be notified by phone on Monday, December 15th.

SHULA WELLNESS POP UP
We are excited to welcome Shula Wellness to the fly shop for a pop up market at our Christmas Party this year! Shula Wellness is a garden to market brand of homegrown and handcrafted products to nurture your health. From medicinal, herb-infused soaps and salves that pamper your skin to fermented immunity boosters for strengthening your defenses and delicious pantry treats like sourdough chocolate chip cookies and Texas bourbon vanilla, each item is lovingly made in small batches with care. Plus, you’ll earn a raffle ticket for every $10 you spend with Shula Wellness too!

We look forward to celebrating the season with you all. See you Saturday!
Take care and God Bless!

Tight Lines,
Living Waters Fly Fishing

P.S. If you picked up a Brushy Creek trash collection bag during Black Fly Day, be sure to get it filled and document a photo of the FULL bag along the creek to get your #ticketsfortrash at the Christmas Party! 

NBFF Fly Tying this Thursday Dec. 11th from 6-8:00 pm

This is your chance to help the NBFF tie some Fly’s for the GRTU Youth Camp.  Each year we help support this effort in teaching the younger generation about the sport of Fly Fishing by supplying them some of the materials used for fly fishing. We will help by tying some basic Flys to be donated.
We will meet this Thursday (Dec 11th) from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Westside Community Center, 2932 South IH 35 Frontage Road in New Braunfels.  We will meet in the main Library meeting room this month.  We will try to tie several fairly simple varieties of fly’s since there will be approximately 28 students involved.   The club will supply the needed tying materials and have several sets of fly-tying tools available if needed, but please bring your own tools if available.  We will start promptly at 6:00 pm with a fly-tying skills video followed by videos of the fly’s we will be tying.
Hope to see you there, come out and help,
Gary

January Events & Education

Greetings Fellow Fly Fishers!

What a year! In 2025, Living Waters funded the first Rio Grande Cichlid (Herichthys cyanoguttatus) genome project and conducted an historic Guadalupe Bass Repatriation on Brushy Creek. It will be hard to top that next year! We also expanded our class topics, heard from new guest speakers, and incorporated more online education.

In 2026, you can expect a mix of familiar favorites as well as plenty of fresh topics and events. As always our in-person shop events will take top priority. We will continue to release new tying tutorials and fly fishing classes on our YouTube channel every month; however the release dates will be less structured than before. If you enjoy our online content make sure you are subscribed to our channel and have notifications enabled for alerts about new video releases! Unless otherwise specified, classes listed are in-person only and do not require registration.

The biggest change to note is that Fly Tying Nights will move back to the old Instructional-only format, with an occasional Roundtable Night if we get a fifth Wednesday in a month.

Wednesday nights are Fly Tying NightsFor Beginner tiersregistration is required. We supply all instruction, materials, and tools free of charge. Over the course of four weeks, you will learn fly patterns that will introduce you to core tying skills that you will build on as you grow in your tying journey. For Intermediate+ tiers, there is no registration required. Materials and instruction are provided free of charge, but please bring your own thread, vise and tools. Each month, the fly patterns you will learn will focus either on a specific material or skill to increase your fly tying mastery. The focus for the month of January will be jigged streamers using squirrel zonkers. 

As always, we welcome your feedback on topics and requests for guest speakers. Reply to this email to share your ideas!

For more event details head to our Events & Education page!

Take care and God Bless!

Tight Lines,
Living Waters Fly Fishing

Jan 1 – Fly Shop Closed

Jan 3 – Guadalupe River Tactics with Capt. Cody LaCroix
Capt. Cody LaCroix will kick off our January events by sharing his keys to success on the Guadalupe River. Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of our go-to guides, who has his oars on the pulse of how our local tailwater is fishing this season!

Jan 7 – Fly Tying Night

Jan 10 – Chasing Native Trout with Seth Davis
Artist and Wildlife Biologist, Seth Davis is passionate about pursuing native trout in their native waters. In his class he will define what it means to be a “native” trout, the tools you can use to find them, and how to plan and execute trips to pursue them for yourself!

Jan 14 – Fly Tying Night

Jan 17 – Introduction to Fly Fishing
New to fly fishing? Register for our beginner fly fishing course! During this FREE event day, we’ll take you through the the fundamentals of fly casting, tackle and rigging, as well as access points and fly selection for the Texas Hill Country. All equipment is provided! 

Jan 21 – Fly Tying Night

Jan 24 – Favorite Flies for Texas
Mark your calendar for the launch of Chris Johnson’s first book, Favorite Flies for Texas! Chris will share details about the history and design behind some of Texas’ most iconic and productive flies. Purchase your copy of Favorite Flies for Texas at the event to have it personalized by Chris!

Jan 28 – Fly Tying Night

Jan 31 – Water Off a Duck’s Back: A Masterclass in CDC
Cul De Canard (CDC) feathers may very well be one of the most versatile materials in all of fly tying. Many use them for dry flies, but the feather has many uses below the water’s surface as well! From mayflies to mouse patterns, Chris Johnson will show you how to incorporate CDC in your personal tying. Techniques, specialty tools, and feather grading will all be discussed in detail.

River access clean up in Bastrop on the Colorado River

Folks,

An opportunity to help with a river access clean up in Bastrop on the Colorado River.  Join effort with FFI members & FPWD.
Sign up if you can volunteer.

Good morning,

I am eager to share information about the River Access and Conservation Area clean up on Saturday December 6th from 8:00AM-3:00PM. We are conducting this clean up at our Horseshoe on the Colorado RACA Site located on the Colorado River in Bastrop, Texas. I’m hoping you and your loved ones can join my family and I that day!

Sign up and details can be found here.

This workday will consist of removing illegally dumped trash within the riparian areas along the river. I plan to have a roll off dumpster on site, and we need all the help we can get to tackle this. We want to protect the health and safety of the river while showing our RACA landowners how much we appreciate them and the land they open up to their community.

 Most of the garbage is in the riparian areas around and upland of the riverbank. San Marcos office will be providing at least one truck and trailer, and plenty of river clean up bags. I only have about 10 grabbers, some shovels and limited work gloves, I’d appreciate any additional materials you are able to share.

I’m aiming to recruit at least 20 volunteers but hope we can surpass that. I’ve reached out to registered RACA volunteers, but if you know of any other TPWD employees, organizations or volunteer groups based in Bastrop, I would greatly appreciate your help connecting us so we can really bring the community in on this effort.

As always, thank you for your time and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, I hope to see you on December 6th!

Kind regards,

Madison Darwish

River Access Program

Inland Fisheries Division

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

512-754-6844 ext. 214

 

NBFF Club Meeting Agenda 11-19-2025

Remember, our next club meeting is this coming Wednesday, November 19th.  The meeting will be at the East Commons location of the New Braunfels Library from 5:30 to 8:00.
Our guest speaker will be Jud Cole, owner of the Rio Angler Fly Shop.
I emphasize we will be meeting at the East Commons location.
Thanks,
Pat

NBFF Club Meeting Agenda 11-19-2025

Opening remarks and club business

                       5:30 – 6:00 = Social time

Holdover Tournament pictures

Phil’s lesson of the month

6:00 – 6:30 = Opening remarks and club business

6:30 – 7:30 = Guest Speaker

Jud Cole = Rio Anger Fly Shop

 

7:30 – 8:00 = Fly Raffle, Wrap up comments

Ed = Present for approval Donations Committee’s recommendation for 2025

Pat = Update on the club calendar of events

Director’s reports

Treasury = Tom

Membership = Pat

Fly Tying = Gary

Outings = Ron

Education = Phil

Website = Open

Holdover Tournament = Ron

 Brown Trout Study Announced by GRTU’s Chris Johnson

 Volunteers will be needed to set the egg boxes in early December

3-year study in conjunction with TPWD

Fly raffle = Ron

Wrap up

Next meeting December 17th at the West Side Community Center in New Braunfels 5:30 – 8:00

Any additional agenda items?