From the streams of the San Marcos River to the airwaves of PBS, local fisherman John Henry Boatright is casting a wide net, reaching Texas TVs and beyond. What started off as a chance encounter when Texas Monthly writer Forrest Wilder stumbled upon his lost tackle box ended up becoming a featured story about carp fishing in the popular publication.
Boatright’s story went from glossy magazine pages to cinematic portrayals when his story was picked to be featured in the PBS show “Texas Monthly Presents.” Episode 108 is titled “A New Lens,” which is fitting for Boatright’s story and his advocacy for freshwater carp, helping people to see a once-defamed fish in a new perspective.
Boatright grew up right down the road in New Braunfels. When he was in middle school his father retired from the police department and ended up running security at the local waterpark, Schlitterbahn, where his mother also got a job.
“Schlitterbahn was my daycare, yeah, which means the old Comal River was my playground,” Boatright said.
He would spend his lunch breaks fishing on the river that ran behind the park.
“I grew up hunting, but I didn’t really grow up fishing and I taught myself to fish behind Schlitterbahn in the crystal clear water. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the crystal clear water here and these kinds of artesian springs that emanate from the escarpment; It’s some of the hardest fishing around,” Boatright said.
His experience fishing on the Comal strengthened his skills and made other rivers feel easy but it wasn’t until 2017 when he was introduced to a new art form, fly fishing.
“I had a few friends who would constantly catch more fish than I could when they were fly fishing and I thought, you know, eventually, there’s something to that,” Boatright said. “I picked up a fly rod and never went back.”
Boatright’s fly fishing affair was centered on a more intimate experience with the fish.
“You don’t have a gear advantage in the reel. You pull the line back to you once you have a fish, and so that struggle is shared with them so directly,” Boatright said.
His newfound love for fly fishing led him to explore rivers all around Texas, finding himself on the Pecos River out in West Texas. He was camping with friends under a cliff where unfortunately he lost his fly tying box.
“It wasn’t till much later in the day, many miles downriver, that I realized, oh, that’s probably gone forever, because I had no idea where I had left it or if it had fallen off my kayak,” Boatright said.
Although he had lost his fly box which contained hand-tied flies, his spirits were still high the rest of the trip, landing himself a huge bass and his only carp catch using his last remaining fly.
“It was a very special experience spending a week out there on a river I had never been on, catching some fish that meant a lot to me,” Boatright said. “The river giveth and the river taketh away.”
This philosophy led him to accept the loss of his fly box, returning instead with memories and appreciation for Texas rivers and the fish that call them home.
The story could have ended there with the remembrance of a great trip despite the fly box fiasco but the little blue box found its way into the hands of Texas Monthly senior writer Forrest Wilder.
He had been walking his land on the Pecos River when the box appeared. Getting into fly fishing himself he had mixed feelings of loss and luck, feeling sad that a fellow fisherman had lost his flies. When he flipped over the fly box and saw a phone number he gave it a call, leading him to John Henry Boatright. Out of the over 60 miles traveled by boat on that trip, the fly box was lost and found in just the right spot.
“That kind of serendipitous event is what unlocked the possibility of doing this story,” Wilder said.
From there a fishing friendship was formed and Boatright became the subject of a Texas Monthly article titled ‘My Quest to Lasso an Aquatic Bronco’ written by Wilder. The story focused on retelling their chance encounter leading to Boatright and Wilder to try to catch an elusive carp.
The story was published in the March 2023 issue of Texas Monthly but got a second life when the PBS series reached out to Wilder about filming his story for their show.
“For me personally, giving a second run for a story and finding, presumably, a new audience that may not have otherwise seen it is great,” Wilder said.
It takes a team to bring any story to life on camera. New interviews were set up with Wilder and a film crew organized a shoot with Boatright to build the visual story.
“It’s just really fun for me to get to take what I think of as such amazing narrative storytelling, and kind of bring it to life as video, like we say, kind of from the page to the screen,” Senior Producer for Texas Monthly Presents Alyssa Estrada said.
Movie magic was put into play as Boatright had brought his friend Ryan Schaper to help him catch fish for the filmed segment. The film crew worked through their shot list, capturing the beauty and cinematic quality of a rushing Texas river.
“So while they’re doing their thing following me, getting their shots and stuff, as I’m trying to catch ‘em, Ryan pulls a fish up,” Boatright said. The film crew then raced to Ryan, and posed Boatright in front of the fish.
“Now there have been two publications from Texas Monthly and I’m holding Ryan’s fish,” Boatright laughed. “That’s how humbling these fish are, if you’re going out there with a mission, the fish don’t care. If you’re going out there with purpose, the fish don’t care. They’re trying to survive and I think to some extent we’re all just trying to survive. That’s my release, carp fishing. I was very humbled by the carp and that experience.”
The “Texas Monthly Presents” show is available on their website, where you can watch and read more about John Henry Boatright and his pursuit and pleasure surrounding the elusive and often misunderstood carp.
