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View Full Version : Remembering Dave Howard, one of the best anglers in knew.



Bill Kiene semi-retired
04-25-2021, 07:02 AM
Some years back Dave came into my fly shop and I waited on him myself.

He had a fairly good modern fly rod with an old Pflueger Medalist fly reel on it.

He wanted us to look over his outfit because he was fairly new to the sport.

Dave drove around Sacramento area photographing house for the Real Estate market.

I think he fish every day, early and late in the American river.

I took off his fly line and added some backing, cleaned up his connections.

He had been wade fishing every day for shad in the American river.

His reel was missing a screw and it was 'dry as the desert' inside with no grease at all.

I added a screw and tightened all the rest, clean his reel some and greased the axle/spindle.


This was the beginning of very long carrier in fly fishing and later drift boat guiding locally.

Dave had this special sense or ability that most do not have being able to figure out how catch fish on a fly.

He was the 'Shad King' during his rein on the American river.

Later he got the Stripers dialed in too.

Dave like the Cortland QD 225 sink-tip or sink-head which was Cortland's answer to the Teeny super fast sinking sink-tips or sink-heads.

He also developed the small "Wet Pinky" shad fly that was the local gold standard until Jeff Chin showed up.

.

Mark Kranhold
04-25-2021, 08:28 AM
Loved seeing Dave on the river, he is definitely missed! I still have his old VHS video around somewhere, Stripping for Stripers. The Dave and Andy show!

Bill Kiene semi-retired
04-25-2021, 02:19 PM
I think I have that tape too.

16954

hwchubb
04-25-2021, 08:39 PM
Thanks for the reminder, Bill - always think of Dave when the shad start to show. The Wet Pinky is still one of my two go-to patterns, shad still eat them!

Terry Thomas
04-26-2021, 08:26 AM
Thanks for the reminder, Bill - always think of Dave when the shad start to show. The Wet Pinky is still one of my two go-to patterns, shad still eat them!

Dave was a great guy and had the American dialed in...”Stand by to stand by.”

David Lee
04-26-2021, 09:05 AM
Dave was a Friend and mentor to Ron Otto and I .

Ron and I started the wading for Stripers thing back in '99 , and Dave had the fishery sorted pretty well by that point in time . We hung on every word and tip he would offer . Chasing Stripers in the American on foot is different than other bodies of water , and requires a VERY different approach . Throw long (Stripe just Loves to follow a fly great distances) , use longer leaders (start at 10 feet , go longer if you can) , use lighter tippets (8-10 Lb.) , and pay attention to the 'golden hour' .... when the Sun is off the water . Using the concepts and methods that Dave Howard came up with , both Ron and I managed to catch large Stripes .

He was a very pleasant person , enthusiastic , and a ball to be around .

His obituary - https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sacbee/obituary.aspx?n=david-f-howard&pid=1505179

D.~