The Old Republic Journal
Dispatches from Texas land and water.
Welcome to our front gate. (Don’t mind the Jack Russells yappin’ at ya.)
This journal is a deliberate step away from the fast-scrolling, algorithmic noise of modern social media. It is an independent, reader-supported space dedicated to the heritage, technical work, and strategy of Texas angling on the fly.
Whether you are looking for long-form narratives on public waters advocacy or granular tactical blueprints to improve your time on the water, that’s what this journal was built for.
What You Get As a Subscriber
By dropping your email with us, you join a community of serious fly anglers and conservation-minded folks. Every week, you will receive two distinct dispatches straight to your inbox:
The Technical Blueprint (Mid-Week): Actionable breakdowns of rigging, fly recipes, and water tactics that work. No clickbait nonsense—just raw data from the Hill Country limestone boulder reaches to the hyper-shallow seagrass flats of the coast.
The Sunday Long-Read: Grander narrative essays focusing on the history of Texas waters, outfitter field notes, and the quiet leisure spent between fish.
Behind the Journal
This publication is written from the truck, the kitchen table, and the Fredericksburg office by Ben Christensen.
With over a decade of professional fly-fishing and guiding experience, Ben is a dedicated husband and father, hunter, woodworker, and an IGFA world-record-holding fly angler on Texas rivers. After a career spent as a journalist, a humanities teacher in Texas public high schools, and a stint in the Marine Corps, this journal represents a return to the fundamentals: documenting the realities of Texas stream access and breaking down things like leader and fly selection that separate a tough day from a legendary session.
From sight-casting to bass tucked under Hill Country cypresses on the Pedernales and Llano, to hunting cruising redfish in the wind and sand of lower Laguna Madre embayments like South Bay, this is an unfiltered look at a life spent on the water.
Join the Muster
This journal is entirely reader-supported. There are no corporate sponsors, no clickbait, and no algorithmic filler.
If you believe that Texas land and water deserve more than a 15-second video snip, consider subscribing to unlock the full archive of technical dispatches and field logs.
We’ll see y’all out there. -Ben
