Lucky Lloyd

[John H]

Lucky Lloyd Eiserman was a bass fisherman in Clear Lake 50+ years ago. I think he was born around 1898 and fell from a grain elevator in the midwest. He broke a bunch of bones, spent a couple of years in the hospital and was told by doctors his fishing days and active lifestyle were over. He was not having any of that and moved west to Clear Lake to pursue bass fishing. He guided and tied flies and there were a couple of magazine articles about him so he was somewhat known. He had a row boat and sculled it around in pursuit of largemouth bass. He took six rods with him so if he broke off a fly he could grab another rod without having to retie. I don't know much more about him than that but I do know I like the guy's name and his perseverance to live a good life after a devastating injury.

Thanks to Bob G, I now have some of Lucky Lloyd's poppers which I believe were tied in 1976. They are pretty old and made by someone I would call an early local bass fly rod pioneer. I like them, put them in a frame and thought about fishing one of them but for now they are staying on the wall. My hope in all of this that Lloyd's fingertips imparted a little bit of luck into the poppers when he was tying them and that it will rub off on me. I went out Sunday and caught a 4 pound largemouth in 51 degree water and today found a pile of stripers on a pump. Both of those are pretty lucky fishing events so maybe, just maybe a little of Lucky Lloyd's magic is rubbing off on me. We'll see.

I also have a couple bird pictures from the bypass.