Tuesday, November 17, 2015

The “Mothership”- by Flip Pallot

November 2015

For 15 years my dear friend Lefty and I have commiserated regarding a commonly shared health issue…Indigestion, gird, acid reflux…’no stranger to many of us.

About that long ago, I found myself at 7000 feet in the Idaho Rocky Mountains, with a friend, glassing a meadow 2000 feet above us.



In the meadow, herding eight cows, was the bull elk of my dreams! 10 years of plying those same meadows had failed to produce the opportunity to stalk such a wonderful bull with my stick bow. I’d passed on many.

Sid, my younger hunting companion, suggested that we make a fast climb to the lower corner of the meadow where he reckoned the bull would herd his cows to bed down for the day. We started the climb and shortly and attack of reflux brought me to a halt. I drank some cool water and the pain abated. The climb resumed and we gained another thousand feet before reflux, once again , intervened. More cool water and we were climbing again, the meadow nearly reached. Sadly for us, the bull and his harem made it to the thick aspens before we could cut them off. That year, I was 61 years old…and remember Sid commenting… “I hope I can get around the mountains as well as you do when I’m 61 years old”.

That same year, Lefty traveled to  Thomasville, Georgia  where a mutual friend performed an operation on Lefty’s gastric system which, totally eliminated his reflux problems. Lefty had a new lease on life, and to this day, has never had another issue with indigestion! 
I, on the other hand, suffered constantly from indigestion. Each time I exerted myself, especially when it was cold out, I suffered from “Heartburn” or some other form of indigestion…always curable with cool water or some antacid tablet. Twelve years or so passed before I made arrangements to have the same surgery that had given Lefty so much relief. Our friend in Thomasville had agreed to do it for me and I was excited to be rid of such a long standing problem.

Surgery was scheduled for summer or early fall. At the end of the summer I spent a day bass fishing with  old friend Chico Fernandez and his Doctor friend , Robert Cava, from South Florida. It was a GREAT day of bassin' and during a sandwich break the subject of health came up and I mentioned my upcoming surgery to Dr. Cava. “Sounds good, he said…I know the  procedure and sounds like it’s just what you need…However, if it were me, my family or my patient, I’d recommend seeing a Cardiologist and eliminating any type of coronary issue before having that surgery! Often coronary and gastric symptoms mimic one another”.
I, and Chico, hold Dr. Cava in very high regard and so within days I wrangled an appointment with a local Cardiologist who scheduled an EKG, Echo-Cardiogram, and Nuclear Stress Test…the results of which lead to a heart catheterization and the realization that during all those years of indigestion, I had actually been experiencing angina…chest pain associated, not with indigestion, but with a significant heart issue.



My immediate question to the Cardiologist was…”Is there any conceivable scenario within which cardiac stents can fix the problem?”
“Not a single chance, was his rejoinder. You need to schedule by-pass surgery within days!”…And so it was done…Triple by-pass surgery when I was convinced for many years that I had indigestion.

There was some good news within the bomb just descended. I had managed not to damage my heart muscle and the pumping function remained good. The operation was long, with some complications, but successful..... leaving me with no restrictions on future activities whatsoever!
An immediate result of the surgery was the total absence of chest pain. I now fast walk a couple of miles a day along with other activities without a hint of pain and next season look forward to climbing to 9500 feet and dragging an elk out of the woods!

Last evening I found myself on my feet for several hours at a function with folks I had not seen in many years…much hugging and backslapping by the likes of Rufus Wakeman, Rob Fordyce and Karl Andersen…( IGFA Hall of Fame Induction). Really major hugs that I thought would re-split my chest, but everything held up well and I’m simply waiting for time to finish the healing process (with the help of a trip this month to Texas for whitetails)


Glad to be back and as always......Stay Close....more to come!

- Flip





Tuesday, November 3, 2015

IGFA Hall of Fame



All of us here at flippallot.com, Mad River Outfitters, and those that are involved in Flip's life and "projects".....would like to extend a HUGE Congrats to our fearless leader!!!!!

Flip is being inducted into the IGFA Hall of Fame tonight in Dania, Florida.

He joins an elite group of 110 legendary anglers.

Well deserved Flip!!!! Well deserved.

Click Here for more details on the event at the IGFA on Tuesday, November 3rd



In the meantime…..here’s a an update as to what is going on at flippallot.com:
                    
*  You may have noticed that we have been absent for a few months. Well.....there is good reason. Really good. 

Keep your eyes on the Tall Tales Blog. Flip has written a story about the "misadventures" of the last few months and will explain it all....in his own special way of course. Should be posted within the week.

Have no fear though.........he's back and better than ever and you'll be hearing from us regularly from here on out.


Stay close!


Tuesday, September 15, 2015



Once upon a time, in the very last time of Walkers Cay, the island (before storms blew her away) John "Dozer" Donnell, Rob Fordyce and myself had just finished a film along the reef there. Rob had brought his boat across from the states for the event.

It went very well and the day after filming "Dozer" and I were to have flown home on charter as Rob ran his boat back across the Gulfstream.

The morn was clear and dead flat calm as we went to the marina to see Rob off. It was obvious that Rob was not going to make that trip alone. We all jumped aboard...time out for a quick foto...and we struck for Florida.

It continued calm for a couple of hours, letting us stop at a couple of blue holes and load up on snapper. As we sat, becalmed, I fished three, frosty bottles of beer from the coolerator and we drank to the great good fortune of our being there...together... and at the same time, the likelihood that we would never find ourselves there another such time.

How wonderful the plane left without us...



Monday, September 7, 2015



.......more Tall Tales coming your way next week! Thanks again for following along and supporting the new website!!!!!


Monday, August 24, 2015


Howler Brothers



‘So glad to have Howler Brothers products in the web-store…’Lord knows, they’re in my closet…and once you spend time wearing them, they’ll wind up in your own!

Not just another attempt at outdoor clothing…’actually something new, and not JUST for fishing and hunting! My Howlers are not only with me every moment that I’m in a skiff, or afield, but they get to go on motorcycle rides, out to supper, airplane trips, deer hunts, and to important meetings.






At Howler Brothers, they’re tuned in to the needs of outdoorsmen because it’s their own lifestyle…They know! They listen! They bring it to market!





Late Summer Special in the Web Store!

Save 30% on ALL Howler Brothers!!!







Tuesday, August 18, 2015


Cecil Keith- by Flip Pallot



I suppose that Cecil will ever be associated, among other things, with the pocket at Buchanan Bank. His ashes, as did his presence, will haunt tarpon there forever as they migrate north.
As I remember Cecil, I can’t help recall a steamy June morning as I launched my skiff at the Toll Gate ramp on Long Key. I was with my fishing companion Dave Vatter, and the only thing looming in our combined consciousness was the summer migration of tarpon. The stern of the skiff slipped off the trailer into the oily, slick calm of the boat basin….the ripples shattering the reflection of star shine. The in-line six cylinder Mercury roared to life, clicked into gear and the bow came north toward the point of Buchanan Bank.
Beating Cecil Keith to the Pocket was no small feat in those times. He seemed to grow out of the marl there. If the little hand of your watch was past five A. M. you had little chance! As I came along the east side of the point and glanced at my watch, I thought…..You’ll be in the second spot today Cecil.
I rolled the skiff hard west through the cut south of the Pocket and looked toward the north horizon…No sign of Cecil. It was the top of the tide and we’d have falling water in the Pocket till after mid-day. PERFECT!!!!!!!
I eased off plane, poled across the bank, staked down in the Pocket and breathed a sigh of relief. Dave and I were in the Cat Bird Seat till after noon and then some.
Dave and I broke out breakfast, opened the thermos of coffee and talked of things Fishical until the glow of sunrise fulminated up to the east. Fish could come along at any moment.
I reached up to my throat where my Polaroid sunglasses should have resided…..they were not there. They had missed the boat ride. I knew in a flash that they lay on the dash of the pickup back at Toll Gate. The prospect of a day on the shimmering flats, without sunglasses, was unthinkable!
A Coast Guard quality drug search of the boat failed to reveal a spare pair of glasses (a lesson carried long into the future). Three things were certain…the sun was most certainly rising, I had no sunglasses, and finally, Cecil Keith was coming very soon to claim the Pocket!
A plan developed. Dave would ease overboard and stand in the Pocket, guarding our spot with a spinning rod as I fogged it back to Toll Gate to fetch the glasses. Off I went as the sun hour-glassed up over the horizon.
Dave must have wondered as he stood in the waist deep Pocket…what about birds looking for a place to roost? What about crabs, sharks, stingrays? My thoughts were of nothing but sunglasses. Tarpon still occupied some distant folder on my hard-drive, but it was that pair of Polaroid’s that guided my course back to Toll Gate. Round trip from the Pocket to Toll Gate took most of thirty-five minutes on a high plane at sunrise.
It was the custom in those times, as today, for the first arrival to Buchanan bank to occupy the Pocket. Later arrivals lined up behind the Pocket along the bank at intervals averaging 30 yards between skiffs. As I arrived back at the bank and peered toward the pocket, I could see Dave standing waist deep in the pocket. Thirty yards behind him was Cecil’s skiff. Behind Cecil, incrementally, were three or four
other skiffs, the occupants of which were peering into the rising sun hoping to catch a glimpse of a rolling tarpon approaching the Pocket….none concerned that the person occupying the Pocket was four miles from the hard road and without a skiff.
I idled in to the south edge of the bank, poled across, picked up Dave and then staked down once again in the prime spot. Cecil never said a word. It was as though such antics occurred every day.
Another guide might have protested, but Cecil, ever confident in his ability to find fish for his anglers, never uttered a protest. Another lesson that I endeavored to carry long into the future.
I’m hopeful that I’ve done so!

Thanks as always for reading and please stay tuned for more.....much more!!!!!



Friday, August 14, 2015


TFO's New IMPACT Fly Rods!

Every year there are “NEW” fly rods introduced but very rarely are they actually “NEW”! The TFO, IMPACT family of rods is truly new in a number of ways. New proprietary materials, a new process and highly technical actions have created a package capable of the most technical requirements called for in any fishing situation.

You must try it yourself...…not for everyone, but a combination of qualities available for those who choose to invest in casting skills sufficient to take advantage of THE “IMPACT”!   - Flip



Here's a press release from my home shop over at Mad River Outfitters that features my friends Brian Flechsig and Blane Chocklett: 

Incredibly light and incredibly strong, the Impact feels like nothing you’ve ever cast. At first glance, it seems shockingly slow for a high-end rod – and then your cast doesn't fall apart as you overpower it....your loops actually get tighter. And then it dawns on you, like a very subtle joke, that this rod is DIFFERENT…

The culmination of several years’ worth of development and some of the top minds in the industry, Temple Fork Outfitters’ new high-end rod has been one of the most anticipated sticks of recent history.  Versions of the Impact have been in the hands of some of the country’s top anglers and guides for over a year, as TFO continued to tweak their new flagship. 
Now the Impact is hitting racks across the country, and anglers ought to prepare themselves to be astonished. 
In an era where performance is equated almost solely with blisteringly fast rods, the Impact approaches the concept from a different direction. The Impact isn’t a slow rod – in fact, it’s one of the most powerful pieces of graphite available. 
It’s just different.
“If we can equate high-end fly rods with muscle cars, then it’s easy to see the Corvettes out there, and the Camaros – as well as the Mazda Miadas,” said guide and outfitter Brian Flechsig, of Mad River Outfitters, one of the first dealers to get their hands on the new rod. “If that’s the case, then the Impact might be more like a Tesla Roadster. It doesn’t look like a Corvette, it doesn’t sound like a Corvette, it doesn’t even drive like a Corvette…but there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that it performs like a Corvette, or even better.
“It’s just that different,” he said. 
Flechsig first took up the Impact as an experimental version in an 8 weight while fishing for bones off Andros Island. He immediately noted the rod’s slim profile – almost half of the blank diameter of other 8 weights, and one of the lightest on the market. 
“I fished it for five days straight,” he said. “I didn’t even take another rod out of my quiver.”
Blane Chocklett, Virginia’s musky hunter extraordinaire and originator of such pivotal recent flies as the Gamechanger, was on the team that advised rod designers working on the Impact. He’s been fishing the rod for around a year, in both his home waters and around the world.
“Usually, to get something out of a rod, you have to give up something else,” he said. “That wasn’t the case here. The new technology being developed [at TFO] let’s you get everything you want in a rod without making sacrifices.”
Chocklett acknowledges that the rod feels different but says that, once the caster stops trying to overpower and lets it work as it was designed, it’s a dream, turning over large flies and casting into the wind with ease. He notes that, like most rods, finding a line that properly complements the Impact is important; he said he’s found Scientific Angler’s Titan Taper to be a great fit.
And the elasticity of the rod, coupled with its strength, means that when you transfer the energy of the fight where it belongs – to the butt – the rod continues to earn its keep. With a traditional fast rod, the extreme stiffness of the butt means the fighting energy of the fish is transferred to the angler, and the emperor’s new clothes are suddenly revealed: most expensive rods are exclusively casting machines that offer precious little in the way of fish-fighting power – not the best thing when wrestling a powerful saltwater gamefish, and not the best thing for protecting class tippet, either. 
“I took a 34-inch false albacore on an 8-weight Impact, in the 20 pound range,” he said. “It was going crazy and I was really putting the wood to it. You’re able to feel everything – almost like fiberglass, which allows you to fight the fish way back on the grip, how you’re supposed to.”
“This rod is just stronger,” he continued. “It’s not going to break or fail nearly as often as other rods. That’s even more incredible when you consider its weight and the diameter of the blank.”
Chocklett believes the rod could revolutionize angling for hard-fighting species such as carp, redfish, and bonefish – but, in the hands of the right angler, the Impact could end up being the go-to rod for even bigger quarry: he recounted a battle between the Impact and a monster 40-inch flathead catfish last summer. 
He also thinks TFO is onto something significant with the new ultra-high modulus carbon fiber debuted in the Impact.
“They’re going to do all kinds of different things with this new technology,” he said. “This is only the beginning.”




Tuesday, August 11, 2015


Filming some of the very early Walker's Cay Chronicles-

I have been scanning some old slides for use here and on the new website and bringing back some wonderful memories........



"Dozer" Donnell and I hooked up to a tarpon filming the show pilot...


Bruce Buckley filming a permit that I caught during another show with "Dozer"...


Buckley filming Jose Wejebe fighting a white marlin in Venezuela...


Buckley filming "Lefty" Kreh landing a cuda in the Bahamas................(more to come)





Monday, August 10, 2015


Thoughts about Hogs.....by Flip Pallot



You wouldn’t think I’d even be having thoughts about hogs, period…but lately, I seem to be thinking about them often…’Guess ‘cause I’m seeing fewer of them all the time.
Growing up in the Everglades south of Alligator Alley (S.R. 87) and east of the 40 mile bend in the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41) , we NEVER saw a hog…EVER! I, and friends, airboated all of that country all the way south to the Everglades National Park boundry. We hunted it hard during season for marsh hens, snipe, ducks and deer, rode it during the rest of the year, explored the tree islands, and frogged it at night all year long. There was not a single hog!
Then one day, at the Airboat Club landing, a story was told of running up on a boar hog south of the Loop Road. “Did you kill it”, someone asked ? “No”, came the answer, “Thought it was a bear at first but as I got closer saw it was a huge boar hog. He splashed up into a long hammock near the Crack Up Camp.”
Some believed the story as it circulated about among hunters in the Glades. Most did not…and because I spent so much time in those woods without seeing a hog or sign, I doubted the tale.
A year later, during an early season, archery hunt for deer, south of the Loop Road, I poled my canoe away from the road before light…pushing for a string of small islands where I had seen three bucks a week earlier. It was coming day as I approached the islands and I heard heavy splashing in the shallow needle grass glade to the southwest. I let the canoe glide, looking toward the splashing sound, I could see a giant, reddish boar hog running across the glade, heading to the next small island to the east.
I poled hard to head the hog off and got to a custard apple tree thirty yards before the hog did and jumped out of the canoe, took up my bow and stepped up to the tree…waiting as the hog came almost straight in my direction. He came past me at ten steps, completely unaware. I left an arrow behind his shoulder…he huffed and continued his trot to the island and I marked the exact spot where he left the water.
Back in the canoe, I poled the 75 yards to the tree island and could see the water droplets and tracks where the hog had crashed his way through the cocoplum fringe around the small, cap rock outcropping of an island. I could hear him growling a few steps beyond the thick bushes. As I stood in the water, making a plan, the hogs growling become softer and suddenly I could hear the kicking that often accompanies the dying of an animal.
It had all happened so much faster than the telling that now, for the first time, I had a chance to shake from the adrenalin rush and exertion or poling the canoe and wading to the island…the WONDER of killing a hog in the Everglades closing around me for the very first time.
I sat for ten minutes or so and watched the sun getting up above the sawgrass prairie to the southeast…the feeling at that moment understood only by hunters. I made my way through the cocoplums following an ample and short blood trail to the hog, only then realizing how very big he was! I touched his still warm side and examined the enormous cutters and whetters sticking out of his jaws. He had no scars on his body, neck or head and I could tell he had lead a solitary life without contact with other mature boar hogs.
Greatfully, the drag back to the canoe was a short one and once there, the hog being so big, I had to submerge one gunnel of the boat and float him aboard…then bail the water out of the canoe. His weight in the bow leveled the canoe and made the polling back to the Loop Road very easy. When I got back to my truck I loaded the canoe but could not begin to load the heavy hog into the bed of the pick up so left the hog in bushes beside the road and drove back to the game check station at Tamiami Trail and got Dave Balman to return with me and load the hog. 
Back at the check station my hog was the central focus of the morning as it was the first hog that many of the other hunters had seen!
Within a very few years, hogs were no longer uncommon in the southern Everglades and became a GAME ANIMAL in the minds of hunters throughout the Glades. An animal that was wonderful table fare and could be hunted the year ‘round.

Sadly, The deer and hogs are gone from the southern Glades (another very sad story for a later time) and as each year goes by, fewer folks remain who remember those shining times in the Glades when it was a free marsh. Thoughtless water management and ridiculous Government regulation of the entire Everglades having reduced a treasure to a limited access wasteland!



Saturday, August 8, 2015





Just added the TFO Bluewater Family of Rods to the Web Store!

These rods are designed for some serious Heavy Lifting!!!!!

Thursday, August 6, 2015




Good friend and "Sidekick", Gordie Hines made this incredible painting.....and intimates that a left handed version of Flip is on the bow of this skiff....regardless....it's GREAT ART!!!! from a GREAT ARTIST!!!!

Stay close.....more Tall Tales on the way!!!!

Tuesday, August 4, 2015


Be Very Careful What you Wish For.....      by Flip Pallot


What a wonderful job you have Flip! What a wonderful life! Fishing all the time in exotic destinations around the world.:I wish I could have a job like that! Folks say that to me almost every day...and you know what...Theyre absolutely right! It is a wonderful life and a wonderful job. But as with all things, theres a price. And a job, even a great one, is still a job. I know this because I still fish frequently for fun and its much different than fishing in front of a film camera.
Just about thirty years ago I was involved in my first television fishing film. Stu Apte invited me to join him as a boat captain in Costa Rica to film an episode of the A.B.C. American Sportsman series. Football ledgend, Dick Butkis, was to be the guest on the show and Stu was going to teach Butkis how to catch Pacific Sailfish on light plug casting tackle. I was going to operate the boat. It was a dream come true! It was Costa Rica...It was Dick Butkis...It was the American Sportsman...It was my hero, Stu Apte... it was sailfish...and all I had to do was drive the boat, hang with Dick and Stu and watch the sun go down over a far away ocean!
It was one of the best weeks of my life. My dreams came true and I never had a stressful moment during the entire filming. Stu, on the other hand, was stressed to the point of going Postal. It was his responsibility to insure that I ran the boat correctly, that the camera boat was in the right position, that we found fish and that we could get them on film. He was stressed about the weather and Customs and getting the film back into the States without its being X-Rayed. He was stressed about the connecting flight to San Jose and stressed over whether the editor in New York would have enough material to make a quality film. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out what had happened to my good fishing buddy Stu. He had always been so convivial. So much fun to be around. Why, all of a sudden, was he consumed with non-fishical things such as overweight baggage, currency exchange and a missing role of film?
Much later in my life I would come to understand Stus preoccupation with these items and to accept the responsibility for making certain that I and the film crew were in the right place at the right time and that fishing opportunities were not missed. Oddly, much of my training for the making of fishing films came from many years of guiding in South Florida and in Montana.
Mostly, I guided folks who had a limited time to accomplish their fishing dream. Often that dream involved a bonefish, tarpon,snook or permit and often the time frame was not much more than a day or two. Some folks were there for the total experience. I really loved guiding them. Others were totally focused upon catching fish. These are the folks who keep guides on the top of their game and are the folks, who in many ways, prepared me for the film business..
In 1989, the idea for the Walkers Cay Chronicles was germinated. At this point, the American Sportsman and the Outdoor Life series had both ended their runs on network television. I had just finished two seasons with a show called The Saltwater Angler on TNT. Pat Smith, who had been the producer of both the American Sportsman and Outdoor Life had spoken with me many times about our doing a series together which would feature wonderful destinations, real anglers, and relationships. The timing seemed right. We brought a group together which formed a production company and we made a pilot film to show to prospective sponsors and networks.


When the pilot was completed, we needed someone to narrate the series. We gave this question a lot of thought. We really didnt want a generic sounding voice and we really didn’t want a regional sounding voice either. After listening to a lot of voices, we decided to try for a popular singer/song writer named Hoyt Axton. Hoyt had done a number of popular commercials and his voice was well known, if not recognized.
Hoyt’s office was in Nashville and was mostly a recording studio. He knew nothing about fishing and had never seen a fishing show but was interested in speaking with us about the narrating gig. Pat and I went to Nashville. My brother Scott joined us...Hoyt was one of his idols.
After introductions were made and a little was said about the film, we began projecting it on a screen in Hoyts office so that he could get a feel for what the show would look like. The opening scene was my skiff, being poled along a mangrove shoreline in the Everglades by good friend John ,Dozer, Donnell. I stood atop a casting platform on the bow of the skiff with a fly rod in hand, ready to cast at  tarpon. I wore a T-shirt and some fairly short, short pants.  Hoyt, who held the remote control, all at once froze the frame and said...”Hey Flip, are those your legs, or are you standing on a chicken?”  We Had our narrator!
Joining the team soon after were Rick Patterson, sound recordist and producer along with Bob Hana, camera man and producer. Rick, Bob and myself were in the field together for almost 16 years, while back in New York, Angelo Bernarducci put it all together in its final form. Poor Stu...If he’d had a team like that he wouldn’t have gray hair today. Being able to share responsibilities in the field allows me to concentrate on the fishing while Rick and Bob concentrated on production. All three of our ideas are reflected in what was generated on location.


Guests on the show were always friends who were excellent anglers and generally had some tie to the location. On of our last shoots, in Florida, the guest was my great friend Bill Bishop. Bill loves to explore and especially loves tarpon, so we made it Bill’s show. We went to a new, secret location and hunted tarpon. All in all a wonderful experience, but it was work for me...‘still worrying about all the things that have to come together to make a show worth watching... BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!!!!!!!


Friday, July 24, 2015

July 24, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Legendary “Walker’s Cay Chronicles” Angler, Flip Pallot, launches new website, blog

Saltwater fly fishing pioneer’s site boasts a “playgroup” of angling icons, including Lefty Kreh, Stu Apte, Chico Fernandez, and many more

For a self-declared technophobe who thought the Internet was likely a “passing fad”, angler and consummate outdoorsman Flip Pallot is surprisingly excited about his new web presence, www.FlipPallot.com.
                “No one could be more amazed than myself by the fact that I’m getting to announce the opening of my own, full service website,” he said in a release. “FlipPallot.com...  I just love saying it. Not one to have welcomed or accepted the World Wide Web, I find myself, like everyone else on planet earth, knee deep in its allure.
“I think I’m going to say it again. ‘Www.flippallot.com’ –  feels good!”
Pallot worked closely with angler, guide and outfitter Brian Flechsig, owner of Mad River Outfitters in Columbus, Ohio.
“I had plenty of help and encouragement in the launching of the site,” he said.
The site itself is a virtual ‘who’s who’ of legendary fly anglers, and users can expect to glean angling wisdom from the likes of Stu Apte, Lefty Kreh, Rob Fordyce, and many more.
The site’s kick-off also includes Flip’s first ever blog, “Tall Tales”, a compendium of fishing adventures and insights from Pallot and friends, which is available as a RSS feed. “FlipPallot.com isn’t just a portal to booking Pallot for appearances: it presents a reckoning of the history and relationships of a master,” said Flechsig, whose encouragement was a catalyst for the site. “And, importantly, this site will provide him with a vehicle for sharing the wisdom and knowledge he’s accrued over the years. I don’t know of any anglers who couldn’t benefit from the opportunity to virtually sit at the master’s knee.”
Flechsig, who’s spent the last several years mastering his own brand of web-retail strategies, has piloted his outfitting business around the onslaught of big-box outdoors retail, in part due to his commitment to providing anglers and customers meaningful web content and avoiding “clickbait”-style web content that promises much but does little more than confuse customers.
                “Flip and I both believe that, if you provide your customers with good information and steer clear of bullshitting them, they’re going to stick around,” he said. “This website will equip anglers to make good decisions when it’s time for them to break out their wallets.
“And, if they want to break their wallets out then and there, well, we’ve got them covered,” he laughed.
For his part, Pallot himself is looking forward to the site’s evolution, and welcomes feedback from friends, fans, and anglers everywhere.
“…After it’s been around for a couple of weeks, it will begin to take shape as a truly unique place to visit – that’s a promise,” he said. “Meanwhile, please slip around the site and let me know your thoughts; I’ll be right pleased to hear from you.
“And…‘FlipPallot.com’. Damn…just had to say it one more time.”


For press inquiries, please e-mail, info@flippallot.com or call Brian Flechsig at (614) 451-0363 and of course....please visit the new website at www.flippallot.com


Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Here is a story I wrote about my friend John Havlicek. Not exactly sure when I wrote it and it wasn't ever published anywhere. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more.....much more!!- Flip


"Pals" by Flip Pallot


Twenty five and thirty years ago the name John Havlicek was well known to every basketball fan on planet earth. John played for the Boston Celtics when they were THE team to beat..........when basketball was a game, when fans not only idolized, but really loved the players. In spite of the passage of all these years and the coming and going of many great players there are still NBA records with Johns name on them.

Twenty two years ago John spent his last day in a Celtics uniform and I spent my very last day in an office wearing a coat and tie. We retired within days of one another from careers followed since school days......his having been much more illustrious than mine!

Our television fishing debuts took place on exactly the same day and place. We teamed up to film and episode of the Outdoor Life television series which was the successor to the throne of the ABC American Sportsman series.

We were filming a bonefish and permit show in South Florida. Right in South Biscayne Bay. John flew in from his Boston home and stayed at a motel in Homestead along with the film crew. I met them each of five mornings with my skiff at the Homestead Bayfront Park launching ramp. Although John's basketball skills were legendary, his fishing skills were not. He was however, eminently coachable, had great eyes for spotting fish and was as fishy as they come. His nearly seven foot height made him resemble a great blue heron perched on the front of my small bonefish skiff.

Over the course of the filming's five days John's skills improved hourly and at the end of the shoot John had caught numerous bonefish and a permit or two. I remember that one night we all repaired to my house where we ate one of John's permit and gained it's power.

For a number of years after making that film I corresponded with John but our fishing paths never crossed. Finally, one evening I was speaking at the annual banquet of a fly fishing club in Boston. John, although not a member, learned that I would be there and showed up to visit with me during the cocktail hour. We vowed to fish together soon........It didnt happen.

A few years later I ran into John again in the Florida Keys. John was a regular participant in the Redbone Charity Tournament series and I was fishing the Redbone that year with my friends John Donnell and Mitch Howell. Havlicek and I had a chance to catch up on what one another was up to and we vowed to fish together soon...........It didnt happen.

Over time, John's fishing skills did become legendary (no surprise to me). He even started his own very successful, annual,  charity tournament in New England and invited me to fish it one year.......It didnt happen. I was traveling and not able to make it.

Several years ago I was planning to film a sailfish show for the Walkers Cay Chronicles on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. I thought of John and what a great fishing reunion it would be for us to do the show together. I phoned him and extended the invitation. I’ll check my schedule he said...........It didnt happen. He was traveling and not able to make it.

Finally and at long last, after twenty two years,  in the Summer of 2000, the planets aligned themselves. John Havlicek and Flip Pallot found themselves together in a canoe, deep in the Everglades, once again filming a fishing show. It was amazing to witness how far John had advanced as an angler. It caused me to think of one of my favorite movie lines uttered to Robert Redford in the film Jeremiah Johnson.......You’ve come far pilgrim.

We made an excellent film and John got his first look at the wild heart of the Everglades. He caught snook, sea trout, and redfish and encountered an alligator at much closer range than he might have liked. John and I had plenty of time each evening during the filming to catch up on one anothers lives and we vowed to fish together again soon..........And it happened!

 Yesterday evening at dark, John pulled out of my driveway and headed back to South Florida where he spends his Winters. We had spent the fishing day together in absence of cameras. John got his first airboat ride and his first look at the St. Johns River (one of my very favorite places). We fly fished for American Shad , another first for John. I sat on the bank at one point and watched John destroy shad on a three weight rod and some shad flies tied by John Turcot.

We ended the day by walking the marsh and shooting some snipe. Yet another first for John. As the sun slipped away, west of the house, we enjoyed an adult beverage, cleaned the snipe which John would take home and eat, and vowed to get together again real soon.......... It will happen!

Monday, July 20, 2015

I have been working with the guys over at Howler Brothers for 3 or 4 years now and our relationship just keeps getting better! I LOVE their stuff!

Here is an article that was posted on their website back in May of 2012. Read it over and then be sure to check out the selection of Howler Brothers stuff on my website!





Long before the Fly Fishing Film Tour, luxury lodges, large arbor reels and nano technology, there was a small band of bad asses who were out there trailblazing and pushing the sport of fly fishing beyond chalk streams and creel baskets.   If you ask anyone involved with the sport to name these guys, Flip Pallot would be either the first or second name you’d hear.  For good reason.   Flip has done it all.  He’s an author, TV personality, guide, casting instructor, rod designer, skiff creator, fly inventor, product consultant and all around cool guy.

We could not be happier, or more proud, to have Flip join up with us as a Howler Brand Ambassador.   We caught up with him recently to welcome him aboard and peer into his brain.  Here’s what we found out:

We’ve read a few comparisons between your mentor and good friend Lefty Kreh and Yoda from Star Wars.  If that comparison is accurate, who does that make you?   Obe Wan Kenobe perhaps? 
The "Lefty"/Yoda comparison is a good one...up to a point. Lefty has been Yoda to us all for decades and we're hoping to squeak another decade (or more) out of him!!!!!! I'm simply a fortunate acolyte! 

Between filming shows, doing casting clinics, consulting with companies, designing skiffs and writing books, do you ever just get a chance to just fish? 
I have the best of all lives in that I get to spend a great deal of time hunting and fishing. It's this time afield that the keeps the creative batteries charged and provides the sparks that ignite high adventure!

The last 5 years seem to have brought a sea change in the film side of fly fishing.  As someone who has been in that game for a long time, why do you think that is occurring?  
The last 8 or 10 years have been interesting to watch on outdoor television. 'So many more programs competing for the same number of sponsor dollars. The scarcity of dollars causes outdoor TV producers to ever find ways to produce programs for less which has given rise to a "sameness" among programs. It has also given rise to the loss of production values and the ability of programs to TELL A STORY!....'hard to expect much more from a show filmed in a day or two. The race for sponsor dollars has also created "on air exposure" as a selling tool to procure those dollars. Many, many outdoor programs have become shameless infomercials causing me to get up from my lounger and raid the ice box....then surf to find some bull riding or a good tractor pull.

Pick one:
Elk or tarpon?
Elk!

Ducks or bonefish?
Bonefish

Quail or trout?
Trout

Bow or fly rod? 
Are you kidding???????? That's a trick question!!!!!

Cerveza o ron? 

Ron! (Pussers' Navy, Habana Club dark of course, Casique and  14yr. old Flor de Cana)



You’re a confessed lover of the Everglades.   Are conservation efforts working and what is the single biggest threat to the ecosystem and fishery?  
Sadly, I don't believe that conservation efforts exist that can save the Everglades. It breaks my heart, and I hope that I'm wrong, but I believe that the water and water quality needed to save the Glades does not, will not, can not exist and if by some miracle it could, we've ruined the delivery system (the south Florida aquifer). It's hard to quit on such a treasure as the Everglades and some of us won't...but it feels like charging windmills.

You’re often wearing a hibiscus flower hat and seem to have taken to our Gaucho shirt with the hibiscus embroidery.  Is there a connection between you and the hibiscus or is this just a coincidence? 
The hibiscus is the flower of my youngerhood and follows me still through tropical travels...Howler Bros. has clearly recognized the importance of the hibiscus to those of us who choose to sweat as we play.

If you were still in the banking business, would you lend money to Howler Bros.?
If Howler Bros. would make the "Gaucho" in sea foam/skiff guide green...why of course I'd lend them money. What could possibly go wrong?????????




Friday, July 17, 2015

Here's a Press release from a few years ago when I joined forces with the team at TFO!

TFO News


Flip Pallot Joins Temple Fork Outfitters

I first met Flip Pallot nearly 30 years ago while he worked as a guide in South Florida—thanks to a recommendation from one of his mentors, Lefty Kreh. My first day on the front of his flats boat in Biscayne Bay, I knew he was a special person. His passion for the species we sought, for the environment and for perfecting the techniques necessary to succeed as both an angler and outdoorsman continue to be an inspriation to me.

Through decades of spending time around a campfire together, sharing hunting and fishing stories, business philosophies, personal successes and tragedies, we became best of friends.  From rigging tarpon leaders to rigging duck decoys, from sharpening knives to cooking, I’ve seen him solve problems with great planning and insight—and I, like so many others, have benefited from his wisdom and willingness to share ideas. From his incredibly successful Walker’s Cay Chronicles, to his works as an author—his casting schools to his personal appearances, Flip complements our goal of increasing participation in, and awareness of, fly fishing by offering the best possible combination of price and performance in rods.

Rick Pope

Lefty sums the relationship up very nicely: “I am delighted that my old friend and fishing buddy Flip Pallot has joined the TFO Advisory Staff. Together I am sure we will come up with some products that will make TFO customers happy and help teach us all how to catch more fish.”

Flip says, “TFO has given me a chance to play in the same stadium with Lefty Kreh, Gary Loomis and the rest of my Temple Fork Family...I must be dreaming!”

Going forward, Flip has agreed to be involved in the design of our rods, to assist in developing casting schools and educational programs, and to participate in general business planning. We are delighted and honored to have him join our team.

Jim Shulin 
Vice President