Remembering Bill

[Terry Thomas]

That brown truck stopped by the house today and dropped off a special package. The rod brought back a wonderful memory from the opening weekend of trout season this year. After a relatively fruitless morning swinging nymphs, my friend suggested that we take a short drive and walk into a different piece of water. After a twenty minute hike, we arrived at the stream's edge. The view of this stretch of water immediately brought back thoughts of my old friend, Bill Carnazzo. Bill and I spent many days in the shop talking about his short line techniques. We tied leaders together and discussed fly selections. We tried to set up some dates to hit his waters, but sadly, it never worked out. High waters last year put off the early fishing opportunities. Late season fished great...and Bill was booked. Was I prepared with the leaders that we tied? Unfortunately, no. I set forth and made my best effort. Remembering Bill's tips, if you wait to feel the strike, you will probably miss 80% of the strikes. Making short casts and watching my leader, a very nice brown trout picked up my dropper fly. What a beautiful fish! I felt Bill was there with me. Thirty minutes more brought two more fish to hand. The new rod...a rod that we had contemplated. I'm heading back to that stream this weekend and I will always have my friend looking over my shoulder giving me tips.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Bill really effected many people's lives..........he was a special guy.

I think he really enjoyed guiding, teaching, helping out at the local fly clubs and working at our fly shop.

[aaron]

Good stuff T, 4100 ONE? I've been doing well with Bill's stick caddis recently and it brings a smile to my face every time I hook a fish on one. Will be grabbing some BFF's this week to fish the salmon/stonefly hatch with. Miss Bill a lot, as I'm sure many others do.

[Larry S]

Terry,
Nice tribute to one very special person. Glad I ran into him during
my visit to the shop a few years ago. He seemed to have an unique way
of imparting knowledge by asking questions. Reminds me of a trait of a good teacher -
"be a guide by the side and not a sage on the stage."
Best,
Larry S

[craigfalk]

Terry, Thank you for the tribute. I talked with Bill at length in the shop several times and even ran into him on the Lower Yuba once. I read all his articles about short line nymphing, and with the hints he gave me in person, I managed to catch quite a few fish last summer on what was a new technique for me. The last time we spoke, which as in December, I planned a guide trip with him this June on the Truckee. I couldn't wait to get his instruction on the river. It was quite a shock when I learned of his passing. I do think of him often and consider him a role model in the way he treated people and lived his life. I'm grateful I knew him.

[robdog]

Question for Bill. Will the shop continue to sell Bill Carnazzo's leaders? I think it will a nice way of keeping Bill's legacy around. I admit I was lucky to learn some fly fishing techniques from Bill. I will take that to my grave.

[Terry Thomas]

We still have a pretty good supply of them. Not sure what will happen when they are all gone.

[robdog]

Thanks for that tiphttp://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/robdogj/emoticons/thumbup.gif

[Dan LeCount]

I had met Bill a few times at shows and such, but hadn't really got to know him personally until recently. We had some of the same guide clients and I got to learn about some of the differences and similarities in our guiding style through them. I first really got to know Bill last year, after he started being more involved in Cal Fly Fishers "At The Vise' column. We were working together on my first article for Cal Fly Fisher when he passed. We had talked quite a bit via email and a few times on the phone discussing which patterns he thought would be good for articles and which he already had slated. I originally had a damsel pattern that I submitted to Umpqua that he was interested in, but he had already done a few damsel nymph patterns that year so we went with a quick diving caddis pattern I use for the river instead. We had talked about fishing together but unfortunately it never really came to fruition. He actually got to come up to Reno a few weeks before he passed and fished with my buddy Doug Ouellette on the Truckee. From what I hear, they got into a few toads short-line nymphing. One was a 2 foot plus brown in Nevada that surprised the hell out of Bill. I think they really had a good time since they had a very similar, old school Nor-Cal short line style. Czech nymphing before it was called czech nymphing. I hope hes getting to do some of that where he is right now. From my interactions he sure seemed like a nice fellow.