Rainwater's Creekside Ramblings: RIP...Chuck Tryon, and thanks for the BUBfly

Chuck Tryon tying flies for others at a RFFA meeting

There are always those few people you met in your life that seem to have the biggest impact. In 1996, I met Chuck Tryon at my first Roubidoux Fly Fishers Association meeting. Chuck was a colorful curmudgeon with a flat top haircut and sly grin on his face most of the time. He was never afraid to speak his mind about anything, fishing, politics, or world affairs, if he didn’t agree you knew it. From the moment I met him, he took me under his wing and began to teach me about flyfishing. A few years later when my wife passed away, Chuck spent a lot of time talking to me about letting go and coping with being a young widower. Sadly, he had been a young widower and knew all to well what I was going through.

Chuck passed away from cardiac arrest on February 8, 2011. His books, especially Fly Fishing for Trout in Missouri, Figuring Out Flies, and 200 Missouri Smallmouth Adventures have guided hundreds if not thousands of people into the world of flyfishing and the Missouri Ozarks. I don’t know a whole lot about Chuck’s early life. He was a geologist for the Forest Service, his wife Sharon passed away much too soon and he had a passion for flyfishing that was second to none. His years as newsletter editor of the RFFA’s River Rap will never be matched. “YE ED” (meaning the Editor), as he always called himself, was able to take a mundane fishing story with a kernel of truth and make it into the fish of a lifetime. He was a giving person, especially when it came to the environment, conservation issues and the sport of flyfishing.

There is no way that I can put down on paper the impact that Chuck had on my life. Chuck got sick a couple years ago and moved to California to live closer to his daughter. Ever since then I have been trying to pay tribute to Chuck whenever I can. I dug up the September/October 1997 American Angler magazine with Chuck’s story on his signature fly…the Big, Ugly and Bodacious, better know as the BUBfly. Whenever I go to fly tying conclaves and exhibitions I have been tying BUBflys and passing on the word of their abilities to catch any fish that swims.

Chuck is now with his wife Sharon. I can envision them sitting streamside on Mill Creek or Roubidoux, enjoying the moment and tossing BUBflys to hungry trout.

Tight Lines my friend and thanks for the BUBfly. Actually, thanks for so much more. The positive impact you have had on my life will never be forgotten.

Below are a few Photos of Chuck and his beloved BUBfly