A good friend of mine, a guy many of you know, and a true pillar of the Texas fly fishing community, Mr. Allen Crise, is in pretty bad shape.

I've known for almost a month now that Al had cancer. But I've been waiting to find out how bad. Today, Al shared with me and some others that he is stage 4...inoperable. The cancer is in his esophogus (which we knew), liver, stomach, lungs, etc. and there's no way for them to remove it without killing him. They're going to try and "knock it back" with radiation and chemotherapy. But...as Al said...the news is "not good."

Al Crise is the Vice President of Education of the Southern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers, a Master Certified Casting Instructor, and owner of the Hawk Ridge Fly Casting School in Glen Rose, Texas. If you live in the northern half of Texas and learned to fly cast within 100 miles of home, then within no more than 3 degrees of separation, you probably learned to fly cast from Allen Crise. He has been a tireless and selfless fly fishing educator in the Midsouth and Southwest...in fact all over the US...for decades.

That is unfortunate. Prayers sent for him & family.

I hate to hear this stuff, I have heard Al's name a lot of times mentioned when talking Texas fly fishing. I wish him the best!

Oh that is terrible news. Prayers sent for Al. Thanks for letting us know about this.

" .....If you live in the northern half of Texas and learned to fly cast within 100 miles of home, then within no more than 3 degrees of separation, you probably learned to fly cast from Allen Crise... "


Kenmorrow, that is and awesome and nice thing to say !

I was lucky enough to meet Al at an outdoor expo in Lewisville. He took the time to show me some neat casting tricks I had never seen before.

Prayers up for one of this states best anglers.

Ken, Do you mind if I post this information on TKF?

Wow...

Al Crise is one of a kind. He came down to the Guadalupe this January and taught a group of injured soldiers how to fly-fish. He was a two day event and he spent all day teaching them how to cast, fight a fish, about all the equipment. I was worn out by the end of the day, but Ol Al was a rockstar and busted out fly tying vises for everyone. After about 2 hours it looked like a bird had exploded on the table and everyone had neon, multi-colored wooly buggers and poppers.

Those soldiers had a blast all because of Al.

Really hurts to hear that he's not well.

HOTkayaks, we've never met or talked. But Al has always kept me updated on the wounded warrior stuff he's done in TX. And he showed me his pics and told me all about that trip when I last visited with him at his place in Glen Rose. He had a blast.

I could tell story after story about the guy. But I have seen him get out of the hospital at noon and teach an 8 hour casting seminar from 2-10pm. He's an animal!

I don't know what TKF is, but I have no problem with appropriate uses.

It's mostly an accurate thing to say!

In his role as VP of Ed for the SC of FFF, he has been a tireless proponent of casting education. Whether it was support of TPWD programs, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, TX fly fishing clubs, the Boy Scout fly fishing merit badge program, Casting for Recovery, or fly fishing programs for wounded warriors, Al has always been there focusing the resources of the FFF in support. On top of that, he has for a very long time run the only brick-n-mortar commercial fly casting school in the northern half of TX. And I believe that until recently he was the only Master Certified Casting Instructor in the northern half of the state...until Steve Hollensed passed his Master test recently. So, if you trace this knowledge tree back, I'll bet you wouldn't find more than 3 degrees of separation between any "home grown" fly angler in North Texas and Al's efforts in fly fishing education.

TKF = Texas Kayak Fisherman

Lots of fly flingers over there and I'm sure many of them know Al.

tkf is texas kayak fisherman its a website like this one, wow I have known the name ol Al for a long time through TFR and all of the stuff he has done on there. I got the privlege to meet him at Texoma on the Fly this year, nice guy and great teacher. Prayers will be sent for him and his family for sure.

Ah! Then by all means. I'll have to check it out. I'm a kayak angler myself.

As a survivor of cancer my best thoughts & hopes go out to Mr Crise & family...cancer sucks

Very sad to hear it. Though I don't know him, I do know that he has given a lot to the flyfishing community and to the community at large. He is appreciated far and wide.