White Clay Fly Fishers

03/09/2026

I have mentioned to some here, and some know that I would travel to Newark to have lunch with Tom almost every week. At 97 years old, Tom was slowing down noticeably almost monthly. He entered into hospice care every other day in November, so I was taking lunch to his condo. In late November, I lost contact with Tom. We had an agreement that should he pass his family and/or friends would contact me to let me know. Not receiving word from anyone, I had hopes of renewed contact with Tom. I had been fearful to try through the holidays, but renewed efforts to contact him in February. No luck although his name is still on his mailbox at the condo. Saturday was the White Clay Fly Fishers Banquet. A mutual friend (Barb B.) did what I was too scared to do and looked for an obituary in Tom's name.
Tom "Ho Tom" Ho Yet left this world on the 23rd of December, 2025.
I am saddened that no one was able to contact me to let me be part of the process, but Tom wouldn't have wanted anyone to be sad for him anyway.Tom volunteered here (Stroud Water Research Center) for a little while and was grateful to have associated with the Center.
RIP My Friend, Tight Lines, Good Bites, and Big Fish!

12/03/2025

Awesome! There are still some dinosaurs out there surviving on the east coast!

Maryland biologists got a real-life brush with a local legend this fall when they caught “Chessie” — the largest female Atlantic sturgeon ever recorded in their Marshyhope Creek gillnetting survey — before tagging and sending her back into the Chesapeake Bay.

The massive sturgeon shares a name with the bay’s mythical sea monster, but this one is very much real. She measured just shy of 7 feet, 10 inches and topped 200 pounds, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Read more: https://bit.ly/4ryh696

📸: Courtesy of Maryland DNR

09/23/2025

Such a beautiful sound! I get to sleep with it in the background every night! Not this loud though.

09/17/2025

Upper White Clay Creek riser!

08/28/2025

Another tragic loss. We can’t honor him enough. Fish In Peace, Flip!

Flip Pallot: 1942-2025

There was always a distant horizon for him. Always a next adventure. It was ever this way, and so it remains. Now the task will be to hold the lessons close to heart, and stay the course he set, and navigate the way without our North Star.
The family and friends of Philip “Flip” Pallot are terribly saddened to share the news that Flip passed away on August 26, 2025, in Thomasville, Georgia, due to complications from surgery. This was unexpected and unmooring for us all.
Flip was a searing light that streaked across the sporting world for more than half a century, illuminating the possibilities of wild places and the pursuit of adventure, and leaving a comet’s tail of stories and insights and life lessons that will never dim. He was an inspiration to 18-year-olds and 80-year-olds. His passing leaves a gaping hole in our hearts, but one we will fill by living forward in the many ways we have been changed through his presence.
For now—“Heads up,” Flip would say, “and shoulders back, and don’t start your backcast until the line is straight and the fly is moving.” We are not there yet, and so Flip’s family--wife, Diane; daughter, Brooke; brother Scott; and granddaughter Sora--ask for privacy, and his friends ask that all who knew the man and love what he stands for take a quiet interlude and turn your eyes towards his beloved Florida. It is, at this moment, 7:50 p.m. EST. It is sunset in Mims, north of the Everglades, near the banks of the St. Johns River, where Flip and his wife, Diane, have lived for 23 years.
As for Flip, he asked for nothing other than a life lived fiercely true. To all those who share in our grief, in his own sweet words: “More to come. Bye for now.”

Our deepest condolences. Stay tuned for more. Flip, you were the coolest, thank you for being our friend.

📸 JJ Slater

08/28/2025

Flip has left us to go fishing with Jose and Lefty!! Great man, great fisherman!! Peace and prayers for his family. 🙏🏻😔