The Current by Trouts Fly Fishing

CURRENT The

IN THIS ISSUE : HIGH POINT

SEVEN-CIGAR TROUT CONFIDENCE FLY BOX

WET WADING SALTY EXPECTATION

Premier Issue 2015 � Volume 1 � Issue 1

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CURRENT The

CONTENTS From Trouts Introduction 4 About Trouts 6

Premier Issue 2015 � Volume 1 � Issue 1

Features 8

High Point by Louis Cahill

The Seven-Cigar Trout

Time

Staying Connected 24

Building A Confidence Fly Box

Education 30

Wet Wading

Top Five Tips (From A Guide)

Angling Abroad

Salty Expectation

Fishing Information/ 15 River Reports Trouts Signature Services 22

Guided Trips 34 Destination Travel 40 Staff 42

by Tom Rosenbauer

by Jesse Lance Robbins

by Geoff Mueller

by John Gierach

by Reid Baker

by Jim Klug

by Scott Morrison

COVER: Trouts Marketing

Manager Kyle Wilkinson casts to a wary riser on the South Platte River at Deckers. Photo: Kevin Cooke

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NEW WATER

by Tucker Ladd: Owner, Trouts

urrents. Whether river, lake, flat or ocean, it’s the current that provides life to the piscatorial prey we seek. Currents create feeding lanes, seam lines, riffles and runs. It’s the movement of water forward, ever changing and ever evolving. When it came time to name this inaugural publication, we struggled to come up with a term that would clearly personify what we strive to provide our clients, whether in-store or online. From day one of owning Trouts Fly Fishing, my mission has been to offer an experience that went against the grain of the traditional fly shop; to break down the barriers that have existed between fly shop employees and patrons. Ultimately, how could we demonstrate in a name our commitment to change with the times, while always delivering the industry leading level of service, information and expertise that our clients have come to expect? Thus, The Current was born. What you will find in the pages that follow a collection of everything that is Trouts Fly Fishing. From unique articles by our favorite authors, to advertisements from our most important manufacturing partners and descriptions of all of the services provided by Trouts Fly Fishing, The Current is the written word and images that make Trouts the foremost authority in fly fishing. At Trouts, we have always believed that fly fishing is more than just a sport, it is a lifestyle. Fly Fishing is not a pursuit that can ever be mastered, and as such we strive to be a resource of education, information, and most importantly, camaraderie. Our staff has traveled the globe with a fly rod in hand, and we love nothing more than sharing our experiences and lessons learned with everyone who steps through our door. So whether you are a beginner or a seasoned veteran, we open our doors to all anglers in the hopes of bettering our sport, and most importantly, enhancing your time on the water. At the end of the day, it is our customers that make Trouts Fly Fishing the special place it has become. We have been proudly serving the Colorado angling community for nearly 20 years, and we are in a never-ending pursuit to be the best fly shop around. But none of this would be possible without the continued patronage of our customers both new and old. Just like the seam line that pulls everything in a river together, we hope that The Current will bring us closer to the most important people...you. Come on by the shop—our home is your home. See you on the water!

CURRENT The

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS: Tucker Ladd .................................Owner Clint Packo O . wner, Trouts Guide Service

STAFF: Rick Mikesell ......... General Manager Cody Hoeckelberg ......Floor Manager Kevin Cooke ..E-Commerce Manager Kyle Wilkinson ...Marketing Manager Dave Mitchell .. Fly Fishing Associate

GUIDES: Reid Baker ................ Guide Manager Kyle Wilkinson.....Professional Guide Toby Stuart...........Professional Guide Scott Dickson.......Professional Guide Barry Reynolds....Professional Guide Chris Barry...........Professional Guide Ryan Sullivan.......Professional Guide

EDITOR:

Scott Morrison Morrison Creative Company ~ Cody, WY

MAGAZINE DESIGN: Scott Morrison Morrison Creative Company ~ Cody, WY

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Photos: Trouts Fly Fishing

Fly fishing is not a pursuit that can ever be mastered, and as such, we strive to be a resource of education, information, and most importantly, camaraderie.

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ABOUT TROUTS

routs Fly Fishing is a full service fly shop located in the heart of Denver, CO between downtown and Cherry Creek North. We are privately owned and operated, and we pride ourselves on operating in a manor that goes against the grain of the traditional fly shop. We strive to break down the barriers that have existed between fly shop employees and patrons, ultimately trying to create an atmosphere that is inviting to all anglers whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a beginner or a seasoned veteran. Every person who works at Trouts Fly Fishing is a dedicated angler who enjoys helping others and exposing the wonderful things that come from spending a day on the water. In addition to selling fly-fishing goods, Trouts also offers a wide selection of fly-fishing classes, guided trips and destination travel options. Trouts has been proudly serving the Denver angling community for 20 years, and in that time has established themselves as the go-to source for

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everything fly fishing. So, whether you are looking to book a guide for a day, take a class to expand your fly fishing knowledge, book that dream destination fly fishing trip or pick up some supplies before your next outing, Trouts Fly Fishing is here to meet your needs.

Photos: Trouts Fly Fishing

VISIT ABELREELS.COM

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HIGH POINT. Story and photos by Louis Cahill

Tim looks like he has swallowed his tongue. He’s pale, eyes dilated, the corners of his mouth twitching. He’s soaked in sea water, eyes burning and red.

is fingers digging into his seat bottom, he squints and stiffens like a corpse preparing for the next wave, which drops the little skiff hard. It sounds like a car crash and sends gallons of water into our faces. Nothing, it appears will stop the next

navy blue, six foot wave from hurdling over the bow. It’s a fraction of an inch from doing just that when the bow lifts. The wave seems to ride the bow up, hovering literally an eighth of an inch from crashing over into the cockpit for a few seconds. And then

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Three quarters of the earth is ocean and we huddle on the other quarter like sea gulls on the rocks.

the whole thing starts again. Norman Rolle stands, stoic in the back of the boat, a buff bearing the Rio logo pulled up over his face all the way to his Smith wraparound sunglasses. His right hand is on the back of Tim’s seat, his left gently twisting the throttle of the outboard, accelerating up the waves then coasting down, steering us carefully through the cross currents and surf crashing into, and back from the wall of jagged rock that the Bahamians call High Point. High Point is one of the most inhospitable places I’ve ever seen. It juts into the Atlantic like a knife blade for a quarter mile, huge rough hewn boulders guarding it’s coast. At its tip a deep black trench.

The Tongue of the Ocean. This point separates the inhabited northeast coast of South Andros Island from the wild and isolated south. It can only be passed on a fairly calm day, and today is not so calm. Tim leans over to me and says nervously, “Jesus, this is bad.” I’m suddenly aware that I’m grinning and quite possibly looking a bit out of my mind. “Oh no,” I tell him, “I’ve seen it much worse. I did this once when the whole boat came out of the water on every wave, no shit, the whole boat dry every wave, you could hear the prop singing in the air”. He didn’t seem at all consoled so I quickly decided to have some fun with him.

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“Do you know how a flats boat sinks?” I asked. He shook his head. “Well, you see,” I continued, “when the first wave comes over the bow, it scares the hell out of you, but you think you’re going to be ok...you’re not...once that first wave comes over you’re screwed. The boat can’t climb the next wave with all that water in it, so the next wave fills it, then the third wave flips it over—and if you’re still in it you’re dead—so what you want to do is, when that first wave comes over, pitch the cooler, then get out after it. That way you have something to hang on to.” For a minute I honestly thought he might puke, mulling over the idea of fighting me and Norman for a place

on the floating cooler, but by then we were through the worst of it and Tim was clearly relieved to not be staring at a wall of water every ten seconds. I didn’t see any need in telling him I was messing with him, nor did I see any profit in telling him I knew a guy who’s boat had gone down exactly like that. The color was coming back to his face and I knew he had the exhilarating feeling that he had done something remarkable, which he had.

The trip around High Point is just the morning drive to work for a South Andros flats guide. Norman has likely been doing it since he could walk. Is it dangerous? Probably. I’ve never heard of one of these guys sinking a boat, but I’m sure it happens. My buddy Bruce has been a guide in the Keys for over twenty years, and he hates it. I imagine he wouldn’t mind it if he was driving. I feel the same way about motorcycles. I’ll drive mine a hundred

and fifty miles an hour, but I won’t get on the back for a ride around the block with anyone else. For me, this sketchy ten minutes is my favorite part of the day. It’s the part that let’s me know that, this is not just another day. This is something special. Something to drink in. Something to take home, and hang on to for as long as possible. Three quarters of the earth is ocean and we huddle on the other quarter like

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sea gulls on the rocks. When you ride around High Point, you are dipping you’re toe into the real world. You’re getting just a taste of what planet Earth is really all about. High Point is beautiful. The water is dark purple-blue and angry, full of barracuda and sharks. The rocks rise up like castle walls hiding most of the point from view, waves sending spray high into the air. Sometimes, you can look down into the water and see the flash of huge schools of bonefish running around the point like silver confetti caught in the tide. There are a few abandoned buildings and a couple of palm trees. A line of deep water moorings and a concrete dock hang along the southern edge, rusting into the sea. If High Point was in the States there would be a huge mansion on it and Tom Cruse or somebody would live there and pay millions of dollars in hurricane insurance. The Bahamians know better and leave High Point to the sea. I’ve been told that it was the U.S. Navy who built the landing and buildings, but apparently, they gave up on it. Now it’s on it’s way back to being wild—maybe not in my life time—but soon. After all, the sea gets what she wants. Today, I get what I want too. I ride a flats boat around the most beautiful place I know. I see an angry corner of the ocean. I feel the speed and power of some bonefish. I stroke their sleek silver sides and watch them swim away, wild and free, likely to never see another human. I stand on the bow with my toes curled over the edge, the sun on my back and the wind in my face. I stare at the flats and try to soak up the sea. The green and teal, gold and blue, the feel of the wind, the rocking of the boat under my feet, and the soft lyrical tone of my guide’s voice. “Hey buddy, bonefish comin’ eleven o’clock, point your rod for me”. I raise my rod, I find the fish...and I wish that this moment, could last forever.

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FISHING INFORMATION/RIVER REPORTS

t Trouts Fly Fishing, we understand that up-to-date information is a vital resource to all anglers. Whether checking river flows during your lunch break, figuring out where to go fishing over the weekend, or planning a dream summer trout excursion, we want to offer the information that will make your decisions easy and your time on the water as productive as possible. Yet seeing as how our shop is smack dab in the middle of Denver, CO., we service a customer base that travels not only across the state to fish, but also the country and globe. As such, we offer a different kind of fishing report, one that is designed with our customers in mind. Given the amount of world-class fishing that exists within a half-day’s drive of our shop, we break our River Reports down by river basin throughout the state. Upon entering the River Information section of our

website, you’ll have the opportunity to click on either the Yampa/White, South Platte, Colorado, Gunnison, San Juan/Dolores, Rio Grande or Arkansas Basin. Clicking on your desired basin will yield an incredible amount of detail on the fishing for that area. In all, we have information on 41 different rivers across the state that are broken down into 58 separate sections. Select a particular river/section combo and we provide information on Seasonal Conditions, Current Flows, Hatches, a general River Rating and the all important, River Access Information. For our local waters, such as the South Platte and the Colorado, you can also count on up-to-date information regarding our recent fishing trips. Simply put, no other shop in the Rocky Mountains provides you, the angler, with as much detailed fly-fishing information for our area rivers.

Photos: Will Rice

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THE SEVENCIGAR TROUT Tom Rosenbauer

his is a true story. It’s a tale of unusually large brown trout, sewage, weird mayflies, floods and droughts. If you choose to doubt any part of my tale, question the size of the trout because that part comes from the lips of a lifelong fly fisher. But the other stuff comes from careful observation and scientific literature. I could footnote this if you wish but I am afraid I would lose most of my readers, including my editor, and thus the check would not come and I would be forced to buy cheaper cigars. A population crash of the Battenkill’s brown had brought mixed blessings. In the years 1993 to 1997, trout from 10 to 14 inches long had gone from a density of 200 per mile to less than 50. Even worse, smaller fish had gone from 1400 per mile to less than 100 per mile. Fishing pressure declined over 80 percent. Although the future looked grim, this left me, with the Battenkill in my back yard, chasing only large, older fish and little competition from other fishermen. I have a spot on the upper river that belongs only to some local bait fishermen and me. In 23 years I have never actually seen them, only

the mushy glow of their Coleman lanterns on foggy April nights as I drive by the river. One of them might be the guy who delivers my wood in the summer, another might be the father of one of the girls on my daughter’s soccer team that I see every Saturday in October. Perhaps I’ve stood in line at the IGA behind the ringleader. But all I see is the morning-after evidence: fire rings, forked sticks marking their territory, and the odd empty pouch of Red Man, probably dropped in the

taken home to feed the family. I fish around them, in the spots where there is no easy place to sit on the bank, where brush covers both sides of the river and I can slip into place with my waders. There have never been many small trout in this piece of river because there is no riffle habitat, just dark, forbidding, snaggy water. It’s tough to wade unless you know exactly where to enter the river and how to tiptoe along the sandbars. I have never seen another fisherman

Fully expecting not to see any trout feeding, I lit a big Macanudo and leaned back, mindful of the large patch of nettles I had grabbed in the dark one night. dark in the excitement of a rod tip quivering at the edge of the lantern’s glow. Those markers are important to me because I know where not to fish, where the old browns have been

here during daylight hours except for the time I saw Jim poaching my water. Jim, Matt, and I work together, and both of them live on the river, Jim upstream and Matt

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downstream. Long ago we set up boundaries on our “beats” (even though this is private but unposted land) and Jim seldom wanders below the Dead Elm, while Matt never enters the Bull Field. Over the years, hundreds of hours sitting on the bank watching, the three of us know exactly where the bigger fish will feed in our particular stretches, and anyone stumbling into this water with a fly rod would likely leave the place cursing the lack of fish and the water that had seeped over the top of their waders. I am not a particularly talented fly fisherman, only one who has obsessed over this silly distraction for over 30 years. When I am on the road I flit from one spot to the other, hardly studying the water, too intent on seeing what’s around the bend. A friend who tried to keep up with me on the upper Colorado called me “The James Brown of Fly Fishing”, which confused me until he translated it as “The Hardest Working Man in Fly Fishing”. Around a campfire on the South Fork of the Snake in Idaho I overheard a couple of guides describing someone as “fishy”, a high compliment that I’m sure I did not earn on that trip. But I’m fishy at home. I feel guilty living on a trout stream, being able to check for hatches before I brush my teeth in the morning, sneaking away at noon for a stolen hour, stopping to look for rises between work and dinner. I don’t rub it in, though. A charter boat captain friend of mine delights in getting a big striper on the reel and calling magazine editors toiling in New York on August days so sultry you can’t see the tops of buildings. Three miles out in Nantucket Sound, he holds the squealing reel up to his cell phone and hangs up. They know who it is without caller ID.

It is this proximity that makes me fishy, gives me the patience to stalk old brown trout. Last spring I sat on the bank in one little slot in the brush that I usually passed on my way to several plots upstream. For the past three years, I had seen nothing but kamikaze brook trout here, but the far bank is lined with cobbles and mink hustle along the edge like dark brown Slinkies. I had hit one with a car the week before on the road opposite the river, and because I had enjoyed their company on many fishless nights, and because the mink in my headlights painfully reminded me of my pet ferret, I had come to pay respects. Fully expecting not to see any trout feeding, I lit a big Macanudo and leaned back, mindful of the large patch of nettles I had grabbed in the dark one night. I read somewhere that our peripheral vision is more likely to catch movement. What is it about a trout rising that lets us pick out one spot amongst many swirls and bubbles, drawing our eyes to the spot, quickening the pulse? Some atavistic response tells us there is a movement that’s out of place, that doesn’t quite match the pattern of currents. Something along the far bank winked at me. I could not articulate what I saw, never can in times like this. But I have learned to trust that vague feeling that a trout rose. Predicting hatches on the Battenkill is a lot like pushing the buttons on a vending machine while blindfolded. You never know what you get, and it’s almost guaranteed you will be underwhelmed. This night, there were a few Hendrickson and Paralep spinners, the odd caddis, and midges the fish invariably ignore on this river. I watched a Hendrickson spinner backlit against the fading light, twirling out in the main current until it was plucked into a side eddy and

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pushed up against a tangle of alders. It was taken not in a rise, but it was funneled into a beak that extended from the alders. Protected by the alders, the fish never made a swirl or a ring. It was betrayed by a solitary bubble so large it could have been made by one of those little plastic rings used by children. Had I been walking the bank or wading upstream or doing anything except spacing out puffing on a cigar, I would have missed that fish. I don’t buy most of the platitudes whined by fly-fishing experts; one I do accept is that your first cast is your most important. The water in this run was still too deep for me to wade below the fish and the only way I could get to him was to wade down from above on a sandbar I hoped was still there from last season. But one tactic I never use on the Battenkill, at least for big trout, is the downstream approach. These old browns will slink back into muskrat holes the minute they notice anything that resembles the approach of a predator, and tactics that work on the civilized fish of the Bighorn don’t cut it here. Rather than letting him know I was after him tonight, I decided to watch, get his number, and wait for another night. I never got my waders wet that evening. Fishing for large brown trout is a solitary pursuit. I will drive up and down the river prior to fishing, and if I see a car parked within a half-mile of a pool I will go elsewhere. Even a careful wader will put a brown trout off the feed for a whole evening just by his presence. I do like to “go fishing” with other people when it’s just a casual day of fishing, with no preconceived plan, but I always laugh to myself about a non-fly-fisher’s conception of going fishing with someone else. They have this vision, when I say I’m going fishing with

Jim, that we will be side-by-side in the river, doing male-bonding stuff and talking about our feelings. The reality is that on the drive to the river we talk about fishing, once we get to the river we get out of sight of each other as quickly as possible, and meet after dark to talk about fishing on the ride home. Let them think we are bonding—anything to get out of the house on a soft May evening when the spinners are dancing above the gleam of the untouched lawnmower. On my second sighting I started well below his spot and caught a couple of small brook trout, got out of the water when I got about 80 feet from his position, and got back into the river well above him. The spinner fall was pretty sparse that evening and I didn’t want to even look at him until he was feeding steadily. After the sun crawled below the alders I sat on the bank across from him and lit a cigar. He rose once or twice in the hour it took me to smoke it, with no steady rhythm. I don’t know what they do underwater when they feed like this. They often slow down in their feeding pace after your first cast, I imagine because they have been alerted to your presence, but I am sure that fish could not have seen me on the far bank. When the fish get into a steady, regular rise pattern they get preoccupied and easier to fool; when they are unsteady they are nearly impossible to fool. I finished my cigar and left him alone once again. Cigar night number three was so windy my smoke only lasted a half-hour, the wind stealing half of the Connecticut Shade wrapper by itself. And I never saw a fish rise, not my friend nor any other. On nights when the fish are feeding, everything is right with the world and I never worry about the state of the river. On nights I don’t see anything, panic sets in and I worry about everything. And

with this old population and little sign of any small browns for future years, I had plenty to agonize over. There is no doubt the Battenkill has not been the same since the town fathers in Manchester decided to heed the Clean Water Act and replace the old primary sewage treatment plant, which did little more than strain out the big pieces, with a state-of-the-art tertiary plant that also removes most of the nitrates and phosphates from the effluent. I now have no problem with my daughter swimming in the river, but the bug life is a fraction of what it used to be. Although the lack of sewage fertilization in the river cut down the overall density of fish in the river, it was not responsible for the lack of small fish. Something else was to blame. So I worried about the three golf courses on the upper river and what pesticides and herbicides they might be using. I worried about the study that showed Chernobyl’s effect on fish populations in northern Europe and wondered if it might have gotten this far. Development in Manchester has lowered the water table in the valley. The resurgence of beavers in New England has blocked many small tributaries that are the primary spawning streams. Acid rain. The world is full of environmental nightmares when the fish don’t rise. I wasn’t about to let this nagging issue drop. I was lucky enough to study fisheries under Neil Ringler, one of the top experts in trout population dynamics in the country. He’s also a sicko fly fisherman and would understand. When I described the situation to him through E-mail, he sent me a copy of a study he had done recently on a small stream in the Syracuse, New York area. He studied the density of slimy sculpins, longnose dace, brown trout, blacknose dace, white suckers, and creek chubs in relation to discharge

conditions in the stream. What they found was an increasing pattern of drought in summer (particularly in 1991 and 1992) and floods in late spring (especially 1993 and 1994). The study concluded that young-ofthe-year brown trout are particularly susceptible to drought because they are riffle-dwellers, and the first part of a stream that goes dry in drought is the riffle area. This reduces the habitat available to young trout and pushes them into pools, where they are eaten by larger fish of all species. And March and April floods happen when delicate brown trout fry are emerging from the gravel. So two dry summers followed by two nasty spring floods gave the brown trout in the northeastern states a double whammy. I prefer this explanation as it gives me hope that the Battenkill will arise from the ashes. Cigar night number four looked good. The water had dropped enough to let me wade the bar below the fish, the wind had dropped, the bugs were steady. My friend was feeding like a metronome. I waited to finish the cigar, but realized my mistake ten minutes later as I heard the soft thump of plastic paddles against aluminum. I hate canoes on moving water. A couple with a dense downstate accent, he apparently a seasoned outdoorsman, informed me with a weighty tone that “they were jumping upstream”. “Thanks.” Asshole. I finished the cigar without seeing another rise. Four cigars, four nights, and I hadn’t even gotten into the water near this fish. The fifth cigar night started on an equally optimistic note. There was a Baetisca spinner fall. You have probably never seen this mayfly; I never have anywhere besides a fivemile stretch of the Battenkill. It is one of the strangest mayflies you’ll

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ever see, one of those species whose dun stage is mysterious, like the Gray Quill. In fact I don’t know anyone who has ever seen the duns. The spinner has a tubby size 18 body matched with size 12 wings, and looks more like a giant Trico than anything else. Despite its grotesque physique, trout love them, especially big trout, and when these spinners are on the river every, I repeat, every trout comes to the surface. Even those normally caught only under the Coleman lanterns. My friend was eating, but first I had to deal with the hot sour breath on my neck. Did I tell you about the bull? The unappealing (to a fly fisherman) character of this stretch of river is not the only thing that keeps it mine alone. The field bordering the river feeds a small herd of cattle. Keeping the cows happy is one of the largest bulls I have ever seen, a handsome fellow with a mean visage but an apparently gentle and curious nature. At least to me, as when I come down to the river he ambles over and sniffs me. I always stay close enough to the river for a quick slide into the water, and even though I’ll go over the top of my waders a quick bath is preferable to playing matador with a 2-weight fly rod. If he’s in a bad mood he will sometimes smash the alder bush next to me, I suppose to let me know who’s boss, but he has never made a threatening move towards me. He’s more of a backcast obstacle than a threat to life and limb, and sometimes I have to turn around and growl at him to get him out of the way. I once sent a friend from New Jersey to this stretch of river, figuring since he was from out-of-town and didn’t get up here very often he was not a threat to my solitude. I warned him about the bull but said he seemed to be harmless. The next day, safely

back in Short Hills, he called me and I think he was still breathless from running and an adrenaline high. I never knew bulls could recognize individual humans. I took my time finishing the cigar as there was still plenty of light and bugs, and I knew he was not going to stop feeding. Way downstream I saw a rise that I recognized. Mr.Big. You see, the trout I was stalking was not the biggest one in the alley and I knew it. Last year, on a night when no other trout were feeding, I saw a huge rise right out in the middle of the river, a distinctive sideways rise that gave me the shivers. After nine fly changes I finally hooked this fish, and instead of diving for the shoreline tangles the trout ran straight down river and back up to me where I conveniently landed him. I must have been living right that night as this fish was the largest brown trout I have ever taken on a dry, inches bigger than anything I have taken in Montana or Wyoming or Idaho. I won’t even tell you what he taped at because you’d call me a liar. Earlier this year I had seen his distinctive rise again, but every time I made a cast near him he would move upstream or sideways, not spooking right away but telling me he was there but was not going to put up with the foolishness of last year. It was like my fly was positively charged and he was the negative end and I finally gave up on him. Once was enough for both of us. I had planned this approach for hours, so I knew just where to get into the river, how my first cast would land, and what fly I would switch to if he refused my spinner. Still, it took me 15 minutes to get into position, as I knew I could not afford to send even the smallest wave upstream. I gauged my distance by false casting off to the side and fired my first cast so that it would land just upstream of the alder tangle. I missed by about two inches.

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The tippet caught a tiny branch, spun around and tied what looked like a Bimini twist around the alder. I pulled straight back to snap off the fly, the alder bent towards me and then shot back like a bowstring. The trout never rose again that night. The night of the sixth cigar just smelled right. Some nights when the air is heavy with moisture there is a point in the evening, just after the sun leaves the water, when everything stops moving. The wind drops, the wood thrushes and veeries shut up, and even the traffic on distant roads pauses as though the whole world is waiting to see a rise. This night, probably because the spinner fall was thick, my fish had moved out from his alder cave, drawn closer to the main current by an unusually generous evening. I knew I’d hook him. I could tell by his confident rises. I knew he’d take my Baetisca spinner. I knew how to approach him without spooking him. I didn’t even finish my cigar, but kept it screwed into my teeth as I waded into place, and lengthened my tippet to five feet of 6X to make sure that drag would not tip him off. The first cast was short, the second was perfect and he sucked my fly down just as he had the last natural, turned towards the alder tangle on the shore and wrapped me around an underwater branch. I could still feel some pressure that seemed to pulse, but as I waded over to the tangle I could see my tippet just under the surface, wound around a branch that was vibrating in the current. The seventh cigar was lonely. No fish rose anywhere near the alder tangle and I had missed my window of opportunity as the Baetisca hatch had faded, and with it the likelihood of taking any large browns, especially one that had been pricked. Next spring I’ll use 5X.

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TROUTS SIGNATURE SERVICES

rout’s Fly Fishing is more than just your neighborhood fly shop selling flies and guided trips. Our customers are traveling to the far reaches of the globe with a fly rod in hand. As Colorado’s Premier Fly Fishing Retailer and Outfitter, we know that to be a top tier fly shop we need a dynamic offering of services to meet the needs of every one of our customers. This is what we call our Trouts Signature Services. Trouts Signature Services are a variety of services unique to Trouts

Fly Fishing, and more importantly, help us stand out from the competition. While we are a fly shop, first and foremost we are a fly fishing retail store. Our focus is on the goods and services we offer our customers daily. While we proudly offer one of Colorado’s most reputable guide services, guiding is not how we pay our bills. Far too many fly shops these days rely on outfitting as their primary source of revenue. While this is great if you’re only looking for a guided trip, you will find that these stores lack in the ways of added benefits and value to their customers. From day one, Trouts Fly Fishing has strived to do things differently, and we are confident you will find the experience offered at Trouts Fly Fishing is far beyond what you will find at any other fly shops.

REEL RIGGING

Properly rigging any fly reel, whether for trout or tarpon, is a technical and highly important factor when getting ready to hit the water. Nothing will ruin a fishing trip faster than equipment failure. We believe one of the most crucial pieces is rigging your fly reel. While this can be done at home, we always recommend bringing your fly reel into us so that we can ensure that everything (backing, fly line, leader) is properly loaded onto your fly reel and ready to hit the water. Whether you’re headed to a local high mountain brook trout stream or Tanzania to chase tigerfish, our team of experts will make sure your fly reel is properly set up and rigged to ensure maximum enjoyment during your precious time on the water. With years of rigging experience and countless trips across the globe to fish for a multitude of species, the staff at Trouts Fly Fishing is highly experienced and detail-oriented when it comes to getting your gear ready. This is an often overlooked aspect to any fly fishing excursion, but it is something we take very seriously. So what does this service cost you? Well, if you purchase your fly reel and/or fly line from Trouts, this service is free of charge for the life of the product. If you weren’t fortunate enough to buy your gear from us, we charge $5 to rig any trout reel, and $10 for all big game reels (saltwater, salmon/steelhead, pike/musky, etc.). So the next time you’re looking to purchase a new fly line or just make sure your reel is ready for your next trip, be sure to bring it by Trouts Fly Fishing and let our expert staff make sure you gear is in fish-ready form! 22 T RO U T S FLY FI S H I N G | THE CURRENT | PREMIER ISSUE 2015

ANGLER REWARDS PROGRAM We want to say thank you to every one

of our customers for their support and continued patronage, and we’re doing so by giving back for every dollar you spend with us, whether online or in-store. Being a member of our Angler Rewards Program comes with many incredible benefits we know countless customers will appreciate. All the more reason to continue shopping with Trouts! The details of this exciting program are as follows: • Earn 10% Cash Back on all qualifying purchases* made during the calendar year. • Enrollment in Preferred Email List with special, members-only offers and events throughout the year. • Happy Hour prices on flies ALL THE TIME! • FREE PRIORITY SHIPPING on all online/phone orders. Stop on by the store or learn more about this program online but be sure to take advantage of this unique offer to ensure that every dollar you spend goes the distance. *The fine print: Qualifying purchases include in-line, full priced items only. Excluded items include: sale items, special offers, repairs, items discounted more than 15%, gift cards, sales tax, postage, labor, rentals and membership fees. Refunds are nontransferable and have no cash value. Refunds are good for one (1) calendar year.

RENTAL GEAR

Trouts Fly Fishing is proud to offer a full selection of quality rental gear. Whether a trip to Montana for trout, Belize to chase permit, or just heading up to the South Platte with some friends, we have a wide selection of premium Sage rods, Sage reels and Simms waders and boots to fit your needs. We use only the top brands to ensure that the gear you rent is of the highest quality to maximize your experience on the water. All of our rentals are available at affordable daily, weekly or monthly rates, and we only charge you for the time the equipment is being used on the water. Travel days are on us. Rentals are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, but can also be reserved in advance to ensure we will have what you need, when you need it. All rentals come ready to fish, but things like specialty fly lines, leaders and tippets are not included and will need to be purchased separately.

GEAR UPGRADE

LET US HELP YOU GET OUT OF YOUR OLD, OUTDATED EQUIPMENT, AND INTO SOME NEW GEAR!

We know our customers are always interested in getting into new and better fly fishing equipment. We also understand this isn’t always practical when you already have gear that is suiting your needs. With this in mind, we created a program to help you get out of the old, and into the new. Whether it’s a piece of equipment you never use, or a rod that just doesn’t meet your needs any more, bring it in and let us do the leg work to help you turn your unwanted gear into cash.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS

• Print out our Gear Upgrade Sales Proposal Form and fill it out. • Bring in the equipment you’d like for us to sell, in addition to the completed Gear Upgrade Sales Proposal form. If you live outside

SIGNATURE ROD SERVICE

WHY WOULD YOU PURCHASE A FLY ROD FROM ANYONE ELSE?

Trout’s Signature Rod Service (TSRS) is a unique offering that signifies a couple of things: our confidence in the rod manufacturers we represent and our commitment to providing quality equipment and service to all of our customers. Let’s face it, when it comes to fly rods, it’s not a question of “IF” a rod will break, it’s “WHEN” and how many times. The Trouts Signature Rod Service means if your new fly rod breaks, we will cover the costs of repair (including related shipping and handling charges). It’s our way of saying congratulations to you for purchasing a fine, USA handcrafted fly rod. It works simply: buy any fly rod that is $500 or more from us, and if the rod breaks, bring it back to us

of the Denver area, you can simply send in your gear along with the completed form. Once your shipment has been processed, email us to let us know your gear is on its way, and provide us with the associated tracking number for our records. Please ship all equipment to the following address: Trout’s Fly Fishing ATTN: Gear Swap 1303 E. 6th Ave Denver, CO 80218 • Once we’ve received your gear, we’ll do some research and give you a quote of what it is worth. This quote is based upon our expertise and knowledge of fly fishing gear, as well as our experience selling used fishing gear online. • We will then sell your gear on eBay where we are noted as a Power Seller. Items will be listed with professional quality photos, and their value will be thoroughly researched to ensure you get the most cash for your gear.

• Once the item sells, we will notify you of the sale price and place these funds in a store credit account here at the shop. These can be used when purchasing goods at the store or online. So what will this cost you? NOTHING! That’s the beauty of this program; we do all the work for you. The only money that will be deducted from the sale price is any eBay and PayPal fees associated with the transaction. It would cost you the same amount of money to list your item on the internet yourself, but by letting us do it, you get the added exposure of your item being listed on our eBay profile. Plus, you get the piece of mind of knowing your gear will be sold in a professional manner, and every effort will be made to ensure you get the highest value for your unwanted gear. Ultimately, we just want to earn your trust and patronage by serving our customers in every way possible to the best of our ability.

and we’ll send it to the manufacturer for repair—and cover all the associated costs. The following are the terms and conditions for Trout’s Signature Rod Service: 1. The start date for the program is August 15, 2014. 2. You must have purchased your fly rod from Trouts Fly Fishing. 3. TSRS program is valid only for fly rods whose retail cost is $500 or more. 4. Your repair must be processed through our shop. 5. TSRS is redeemable for one (1) complimentary repair. 6. TSRS has no expiration. 7. The rod model and size, rod serial number, customer name must match Trout’s Fly Fishing’s internal records. 8. Trout’s Fly Fishing reserves the exclusive right to accept or deny any TSRS that does not meet the specifications disclosed in item 7. 9. Trout’s Signature Rod Service is presently available for Scott Fly Rod, Winston, Sage, Orvis, and Epic

products only. 10. There are no exceptions to the above program rules, under any circumstances, whatsoever. So the next time you’re looking to purchase a new fly rod, be sure to remember that Trouts is dedicated to ensuring you are happy with everything you buy from us, no matter how long it’s been since the purchase was made.

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STAYING CONNECTED

T SEEMS YOU CAN’T GO ANYWHERE THESE DAYS WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA BEING A PART OF THE EXPERIENCE IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. IT’S WITH THAT IN MIND THAT WE WANT OUR CUSTOMERS TO BE ABLE TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH TROUTS WITH THEIR PREFERRED SOCIAL MEDIA— FACEBOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE PLUS—YOU CAN FIND TROUTS FLY FISHING ON THEM ALL!

THE BLOG

Exciting, educational, relevant, updated daily…what more do you need? We know our customers want to be in the know when it comes to fly-fishing. It is for that reason that we work tirelessly to make sure our blog is one of the best you can find anywhere. Whether it’s guide trip reports, industry news, how-to videos and articles, destination travel photo journals, customer events or educational class offerings—we are committed to keeping you informed. Make stopping by our blog a daily habit, and rest assured, the latest and greatest fly-fishing related news will be waiting for you!

FACEBOOK

Simply put, visit our Facebook page! With nearly 25,000 page “likes”, Trouts Fly Fishing’s Facebook page is a proven industry leader within this social media platform. From Facebook specific contests, blog update information, to participating in our very popular weekly “Let’s Hear It” column where we ask the question “What do you want to know about fly-fishing this week?!” and feature selected topics on our blog, there’s always something new to check out on our Facebook page!

INSTAGRAM

If you’re on Instagram and don’t follow @troutsflyfishing, drop what you’re doing and get to it! We think of our Instagram as a representation of the lifestyle we love to live. We won’t bore you with advertisements or shop specials we may be running. Nope, a visit to our Instagram page will yield nothing but a continual stream of awesome fishing pictures from our travels near and far!

TWITTER

GOOGLE PLUS

Trouts Fly Fishing - Just like with our Facebook page, Google Plus is another great way to stay in touch with the daily happenings at Trouts Fly Fishing. From customer events, to products reviews, to fishing and guide trip reports—you can always count on the finding the latest and greatest through our Google Plus page!

CUSTOMER EVENTS

Everyone at Trouts Fly Fishing will undoubtedly come to the same conclusion that, quite honestly, we know how to have a good time with our customers! If a fly-fishing film tour is coming through town, you can bet we’ll be there. A Simms sponsored Cornhole tournament? You betcha! Sidewalk sales offering some of the best deals you’ll find anywhere? Too easy! We almost always have something in the works, so be sure to check in with us regularly to see what’s cooking.

CASTING AND COCKTAILS

From April through September, plan on joining us every month for this wildly popular event. The way it works is simple: each month we

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feature a fly rod sponsor like Sage, Winston, or Scott. They will bring a whole quiver of their fly rods to Washington Park in Denver to let you cast to your heart’s content. We bring a Yeti Cooler full of ice to keep your adult refreshments cold while you get FREE casting instruction from members of our Guide Staff ! Oh yeah, and there’s usually a few freebies to giveaway. We can’t think of a better way to test the latest and greatest fly rods on the market, offer free casting lessons, and enjoy a few cold ones—all in the company of good people! Trust us, you don’t want to miss these!

303 SHOOTOUT

2015 will mark the third installment of this incredibly fun event. This amateur casting competition is our way of letting our customers go headto-head in an accuracy contest with the grand prize being a new fly rod! Year one was sponsored by St. Croix. Year two was sponsored by Winston. Be sure to check in with us for the 2015 details. This fun and relaxed event is always a blast!

GUEST SPEAKERS

The fly-fishing industry is fortunate enough to have some very generous, knowledgable and interesting people working in it who love to share their knowledge on the sport we all love. From rod and reel manufacturers to photographers, authors and fly fishing guides, we strive to continually offer in-store presentations on a variety of relevant topics from the people leading the charge. Whether it’s one of our fly fishing guides doing a presentation on streamer fishing in the fall, John Geirach performing a reading of one of his legendary books, or Jim Klug, founder of Yellow Dog Fly Fishing Adventures chatting about saltwater fishing, Trouts Fly Fishing is your one-stop-shop for fun, interesting and informative events!

BARS OUTGRIP STUDS Use 100 traditional screw-in studs and you still won’t match the contact area or grip strength of the Foot Tractor Wading Boots. The soft aluminum bars cut slime and grip rock like no conventional boot you’ve ever worn.

Better grip, better fishing.

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Story and photos by Jesse Lance Robbins

TIME

Time has surfaced again and again as an intriguing element in my angling. There are the ebbs and flows of passing time, but also recurring themes related to timing, all of which add to the greater sum of fly fishing.

o matter how long the actual fishing day, events that transpire seem to have an effect on how the day passes. How often do guides proclaim a certain time of the day to be better than others? A certain hatch will come off, the sun gets above or below a certain level, the tide changes, or a certain stretch of river is reached all at a particular time. The fishing will then get better, perhaps much better. When a guide tells you that it’s about time for the fishing to turn on, you get your shit together. Two winters ago, some friends and I took a trip to trout fish in Argentine Patagonia. One evening we had dinner with a family of locals. The

father of the family had only fished a few times but quizzed us in his second language on our trip and fly fishing in general. “What is the best time to be fishing?” he asked. This is not an easy question to answer. Aided by a Fernet y Cola buzz, we discussed and ultimately determined that “The Golden Hour” was the best time to be trout fishing. Of course, The Golden Hour could be any hour of the day. From then on, whenever the fishing got hot for someone, they made it known to the others that it was indeed The Golden Hour. It’s funny to recall how my own fishing became more focused, casting more precise, when someone else declared the time as PREMIER ISSUE 2015 | THE CURRENT | TR O UTS FLY FISHING 27

Golden. During one such hour—a sunny, mid-afternoon—a constant “Hwwwick!” could be heard coming from everyone’s lines as they were ripped off the water, setting hooks into foam-eating rainbows. One evening, remarking at the daylight that remained at 9:00 pm, we realized it was The Golden Hour again, yet we were not on the water! In regards to keeping time, watches are the standard device. I’ve fished with and without one over the past couple decades, and a finite measurement of time has been an interesting addition. On some days, it is a necessary piece for minding water flow changes or for rendezvous purposes. On others, it seems the watch serves only as a way to verify how time can be distorted while on the water. Guessing the time after being on the water is always good for a laugh. In my guiding days, we prided ourselves on a bold watch tan 28 T RO U T S FLY FI S H I N G | THE CURRENT | PREMIER ISSUE 2015

that was burned with help from the cheapest, waterproof Walmart model. A watch-checking guide is either on point, or is counting down to happy hour. A while back, I took an extended holiday to New Zealand, traveling and fishing my way around the South Island. In my fishing vest, among other questionably-necessary accessories, was a watch face. It turned out to be fairly handy, or at least amusing, as I’d estimate remaining hiking distances, justify the timing of a meal or snack, or note how long I’d worked a single fish. At the beginning of one particularly lengthy hike into a hut along a river, I noted the time. Later, when I reached the first trail marker, I decided to check my speed. The watch face was nowhere to be found however. I searched all my pockets but couldn’t find it. I stopped hiking and assessed the situation: the trailhead was a

ways back; the watch held no real financial or sentimental value for me; my desires to possess a time-keeping machine were mixed to begin with. I took this all to mean I was simply not meant to know the time on this trip, and continued on. When it doesn’t matter what time you get to where you’re going, what good is a watch anyway? I met and became friends with some other traveling anglers while on that trip, whose motto was “Right on schedule,” no matter what time it was. Enough said. Time may pass in the most curious of ways while swinging flies for steelhead though. It’s no secret that a steelhead doesn’t come easily to a fly presentation so there’s ample time between encounters for contemplation while watching your line come around to the hang down, cast after cast. A single swing offers up plenty of time for one thought to lead to another, yet in reality may only last five or ten seconds. After a day of steelheading, I’ll sometimes wonder what I thought about while I stood there in the river, my fly swimming through the currents. Though the exact thoughts are lost, they were mine at the time, so they must be with me still. One could say it takes a certain number of minutes to fish a run, but I heard one guide describe this time by the number of cigarettes he could smoke while fishing it. Large steelhead rivers are sometimes described by how many runs you can reasonably fish in a day’s light. No matter how you measure it, when you do see one or get a quick yank, time is definitely warped afterwards. Suddenly, the fishless day you were thinking about giving up on now doesn’t seem long enough.

Time’s slow passing while swinging a fly is rivaled by that distinct moment during which the angler waits to set the hook on a large, dry fly eating trout. In such instances, time will creep along while the jaws close. Witnessing an early hook-set is painful, especially when the triggerpuller knows what they’ve done. Words meant for consoling are rarely

well-received. Once, after watching a friend blow three consecutive hooksets on cooperative browns, the only thing I could think to say was, “Wait longer.” This was not helpful advice and his glare said as much. Waiting for a tarpon to turn, a trout to sink or a steelhead to get a mouthful is easier said than done. For better or worse, practice may be the only way to get better at this sort of timing. Meaning, you may have to fail a number of times before you get it right, but the more you do it wrong, the more

reason to keep trying. In spring, a new fishing season has anglers out of bed long before sunrise to maximize their fishing day and get in all the daylight they can. Conversely, long summer days can make an angler a little lazy. In some places, you can be on the water at the crack of noon and still fish for ten hours. Fall fishing is somewhere in between; you need to wait a little while for the river to warm up a bit, but the window is short before the shadows get long. In winter outings, you’re so cold that you’d swear you’ve been standing in the water for a couple hours, only to check the time and see twenty minutes has passed. Either scenario might be beneficial or disastrous: more time on the water could warm things up, literally and figuratively, or the bite could’ve been missed completely. Sitting on a riverside rock, waiting for sunrise and enough light to see the water, time will crawl. And then, all of a sudden you should’ve been casting ten minutes ago. In evenings, time seems to race when you’re looking at a setting sun and failing light. You can see the tailout or the next pool ahead but you’re not sure if you’ll make it there before dark. It took forever to get to dusk and now it’s gone before you knew it. Or maybe it’s the opposite; the afternoon’s hatch sped by and now the only thing keeping you from dinner and a cold one is a sun that won’t set. Whether you keep it or disregard it completely, angling has a way with time. As galactic hitchhiker Ford Prefect put it, “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so.”

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EDUCATION

Photos: Trevor Brown

ecome the best fly fisherman you know! At Trouts Fly Fishing, helping our customers achieve their fly-fishing goals is something very important to all of us. We believe one of the cornerstones for achieving these goals is continual education. While our staff may be very experienced in all facets of this great sport, we haven’t forgotten one key fact—we were all beginners at one point in time. It is with this in mind that we place great importance on providing quality educational experiences for those interested in the sport of fly-fishing. The goal behind our fishing classes,

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seminars and schools is to offer our customers, no matter what their age or experience level, an opportunity to learn something new that will ultimately make their time on the water more enjoyable. Whether it be basic knots and rigging, teaching children to fish, learning advanced dry fly techniques for western trout, mastering the art of casting to wary saltwater fish or learning to tie your own flies, we have the instructors and classes for you. No matter what your level of expertise may be regarding fly-fishing, we’re confident we have a class or seminar you’ll be able to benefit from. See classes on next page.

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CURRENT CLASS OFFERINGS LEARN THE BASICS

Designed for the complete novice, the goal of this class is to instill a basic understanding of fly fishing gear, equipment, knot tying, and other essentials to prepare beginning anglers for a day on the water. If you, or someone you know has been on the fence and thinking about giving fly fishing a try, then Learn The Basics is for you! This class is mindfully built to help beginning anglers understand basic fly rod and reel mechanics, the difference between nymphs, dry flies and streamers and how to master basic knots and rigging. Learn The Basics classes take place at our shop in the evenings. This fun, relaxed and informative course is a great way to meet other beginners and there’s always plenty of time for hands-on questions and answers.

Photo: Trevor Brown, Jr

ON-STREAM BEGINNER

Our On-Stream Beginner course is definitely one of our most popular offerings. What better way to wet your feet (literally) in the sport of fly fishing than to actually go experience a day on the water! These one-day fly fishing schools are held on one of our famous Exclusive Properties. Taught by our Professional Fly Fishing Guides, the main goal of this class is to provide participants with the skills and knowledge needed to be successful and self-sufficient anglers. Students will learn the basics of fly fishing including casting, reading water, entomology, and fly selection. Interested in taking this class but don’t have your own fly fishing gear? No worries! Just like with our Guided Trips, we’ll include everything you may need to enjoy your day on the water: fly rods/reels, waders, boots, flies, leader and tippet. Lunch is provided as well.

Photo: Will Rice

ON STREAM INTERMEDIATE

Our On Stream Intermediate class is another one you don’t want to miss out on! This one day fly fishing school focuses on one of the most rewarding ways to fly fish, which is with a dry fly. During the course, your Professional Fly Fishing Instructor will demonstrate the finer points of dry fly fishing. The course is perfect for students to advance their skill level and finetune their approach. Topics covered will include upstream vs. downstream presentations and advantages of each, slack line casts, reach casts and much more! Our Intermediate Dry Fly Clinic is held on one of our Exclusive Properties. This beautiful property, located on a small tributary of the upper Colorado River, rises from a creek in northwestern Grand County, in the Arapaho National Forest at the top of the continental divide and flows southeast toward the Colorado River. These classes typically take place from mid-late summer, which typically coincides with the time of year when dry fly fishing is one of the most productive techniques. 32 T RO U T S FLY FI S H I N G | THE CURRENT | PREMIER ISSUE 2015

Photo: Trevor Brown, Jr

C O STA D E L M A R . CO M

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GUIDED TRIPS Trouts Fly Fishing is proud to have one of the finest Guide Staffs in the Rocky Mountains. Our fly-fishing guides are true professionals in every sense of the word and are committed to providing you a truly memorable day on the water. Never taken a guided fly fishing trip? Always wanted to learn to fly fish? Interested in mastering a more advanced fly-fishing technique? New to the area and want to cut down on the learning curve often associated with fishing a new river? Looking to plan a corporate retreat your customers and/or employees will always remember? If you answered “YES” to any of the above questions then a guided fly fishing trip is for you!

Trouts Guide Service is pleased to offer both half-day and full-day trips that include everything you need to enjoy your day on the water— fly rods/reels, waders, boots, flies, leaders, tippet—it’s all included! Whether you’re looking to spend a day on some of our fantastic, local public waters or treat yourself to one of our exclusive private properties, we have the resources available to meet even the most seasoned angler’s needs! In order to provide the attention to detail necessary for a first class fly fishing experience, we limit the customer-to-guide ratio to 3:1. What this means for you the angler is personal attention and instruction

that is unmatched. All of our guides have a lifetime of fly fishing experience and love nothing more than introducing beginners to the sport we care so deeply for. It’s been said the knowledge gained from your guide during the day will be worth more in the long run than the actual fish caught. We are confident you will find this statement to be true, however, there will most likely be a bunch of trout caught along the way as well! Rest assured, a day spent fly fishing with Trouts Guide Service will be one you won’t soon forget!

TRIP RATES

TRIP OPTIONS

FULL DAY GUIDE FEE

HALF DAY FLY FISHING TRIPS: Half day trips take place during the most

* Full day guide fees include all necessary equipment, lunch and refreshments

productive time of day for fishing during a specific time of year. These trips typically last 4-5 hours, and include 3-4 hours of fishing time. Includes: drinks/refreshments, terminal tackle (flies, leaders, tippets, etc.), and any necessary rental equipment. * Lunch is available for half day fly fishing trips upon special request and for an additional fee. Please make sure to discuss this at the time you book your trip.

FULL DAY FLY FISHING TRIPS: Full day fly fishing trips will last from roughly

8am – 4pm. These trips include: Lunch and drinks (cold sandwiches, although hot lunches are available upon request), terminal tackle (flies, leaders, tippets, etc.), and any necessary rental equipment.

PRIVATE LESSONS: Whether it is casting lessons in preparation for your

first saltwater fly fishing adventure or an on-stream lesson focused on improving a specific skill in a real-time fishing environment, we are more than willing to do what it takes to ensure you reach your goals. No topic is too basic or advanced for a private lesson. Let us know what you’re looking to learn and we will design a course specifically for you!

GROUP AND CORPORATE (7+ PEOPLE) FLY FISHING TRIPS: Group trips can

be conducted as best-of-day or full day trips. They include: Lunch and drinks (cold sandwiches, although hot lunches are available upon request), terminal tackle (flies, leaders, tippets, etc.), and any necessary rental equipment. In addition, the cost of these trips includes a 20% gratuity for the guides, and all trips are billed in full in advance. 34 T RO U T S FLY FI S H I N G | THE CURRENT | PREMIER ISSUE 2015

$395 1 or 2 anglers $135 3rd angler

1/2 DAY GUIDE FEE

$295 1 or 2 anglers $125 3rd angler

* 1/2 day guide fees include all necessary equipment and refreshments

PRIVATE LESSONS FULL DAY $395 1 or 2 anglers $135 3rd angler

* Full day private lessons include all necessary equipment, lunch and refreshments

PRIVATE LESSON HALF DAY $295 1 or 2 anglers $125 3rd angler

* 1/2 day private lessons include all necessary equipment and refreshments

PRIVATE WATER RATES:

Our Private Water opportunities include the standard guide rate, plus an additional “per angler” fee. These fees generally average $100 per angler. Please check with Trouts for details of the specific property you’re interested in.

THE WORLD’S M O ST A D VA N C E D POLARIZED LENS Experience World Altering Color and Clarity The Frontman ChromaPop™ Polarized Ignitor

PHOTO LOUIS CAHILL

smithoptics.com/chromapop PREMIER ISSUE 2015 | THE CURRENT | TR O UTS FLY FISHING

BUILDING A CONFIDENCE FLY BOX Geoff Mueller

Photo: Trouts Fly Fishing

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etired basketball coach and talented chair thrower Bobby Knight is adamant the best fish catcher ever mass-produced is Orvis’ TeQueely Streamer. He made the claim back in spring of 2012 while speaking to an audience of guides, reps, and industry types attending Simms’ annual Ice Out event. Attendees packed Bozeman’s Wilson Auditorium to hear what the legendary coach had to say about flyfishing, basketball, and life. And in this moment of TeQueely head scratching, the snickering crowd hung on Knight’s every syllable, anticipating a punch line that was never delivered. The TeQueely? Yes, said Knight, “It’s the only fly you’ll ever need.”

Photo: Scott Morrison

Considering Knight led the US basketball team to Olympic gold in 1984 and has more than 900 NCAA Division I wins in his pocket, one can assume he knows something about winning formulas. And the TeQueely, in fact, may just be the sexiest bug ever to brush yellow rubber legs against the crinkled kype of an ornery old brown trout—if it’s the only fly you were to ever fish. That’s because the TeQueely is just one of many representatives that fall into the “confidence flies” category. Those patterns that see reoccurring usage because they have and continue to work in the field. The reliability of confidence flies has been chiseled into the mind’s eye, driving their powers

of trout persuasion to the realm of sacred, irrefutable fact. Here’s another fact: my current fly portfolio does not include a single TeQueely. But the collection has been whittled to a handful of confidence-inspiring patterns; prime clumps of fur, feather, and synthetic materials that during specific situations consistently put happy times into my fish-slimed hands. As fly tiers continue to tweak, primp, fluff, streamline, swim, weigh, measure, dream, delight, and devise, the selection is in constant flux. But the following standbys have come to form the TeQueelys of my inriver experiences. And there’s no doubt—in my mind—that they are

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The reliability of confidence flies has been chiseled into the mind’s eye, driving their powers of trout persuasion to the realm of sacred, irrefutable fact. the best couple of flies ever produced by some of the top contemporary fly tiers out there. I’ll crack a chair to the curb in defiance of anyone who says otherwise, including Bobby Knight. Here are those bugs and why.

CHUBBY CHERNOBYL Hook: Dai Riki 730, #8-12 Thread: UTC Ultra 140 denier Dubbing: SLF Kaufmann Golden Stone or Dave Whitlock Golden Brown Tail: Crystal Flash Foam: 2 mm tan craft foam Wing: Synthetic poly Legs: Sili Legs

Chris Conaty, formerly of Idylwilde Flies in Portland, Oregon, is hesitant to take credit for the sometimeslambasted Chubby Chernobyl. The fly is basically a variation on the original Chernobyl Ant. Several years ago, Conaty received a custom order from a shop on the South Fork of the Snake River. It was for a black foam Chernobyl with a red dubbed body and black rubber legs. This pattern had no tail, the foam was attached to the hook shank in several places, and Conaty remembers it having one wing of either poly or Antron. He also remembers it being one of the ugliest damn flies he’d ever seen. At the time, the team at Idylwilde was producing several Chernobyl variations, they were selling well, and there was chatter around the office about expanding the lineup. Conaty took a selection of materials, locked himself in the tying room, and started the process of Frankensteining a new bug. He dressed it up by adding flash to the tail. He tied in two wings to enhance its visibility. He added tail flash that made the fly modifiable to suit on-river demands. (For example, the elongated double wings could be cut to alter its profile and ride.) Square silicon legs were chosen instead of the round rubber ones because Conaty felt they caught more current, perhaps “wiggled”

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better, and he liked the sparse flecks of sparkle they contained. As for the name, that was simple. Upon pondering the first batch, Conaty remarked that they looked just like fat Chernobyls. The Chubby Chernobyl was born. The Chubby’s original body color was gold, good for imitating local hopper hatches. But it proved to be much more versatile when it was introduced to Deschutes River trout in the form of a floating gob of golden stonefly. Its success on the Deschutes launched it out of the ballpark. Manufacturers have now moved tens of thousands of Chubby Chernobyls in various colors annually. It’s a top seller across the board. Fish love it. Fly fishers have either fallen under the same spell, or continue to love to hate it. But there’s little question as to its effectiveness. . . other than the why. The debate as to what trout see when a #10 Chubby Chernobyl comes twirling overhead varies from camp to camp. Conaty has discussed the fly’s merit with guides and outfitters at length and they, like him, have witnessed trout move long distances to choke down a Chubby, even when naturals are swimming closer by. Oregon-based guide, Brian Silvey, says the Chubby’s charm stems from the way its legs are tied in— crossed in the front and back, giving it movement similar to a natural trying to break the grip of the water’s surface. Others say it works because it sits incredibly low, especially after the dubbing soaks in water and added weight. This is not unlike a lot of other dubbed flies, but the Chubby possesses the added bonus of a wing you can see, even when it’s half submerged. Still others say it’s the actual wing material and colors that dupe trout into seeing a bug, itching to take flight.

“I’ve had multiple people highlight these three things, and rarely have they suggested it could be all of the above,” Conaty says. “It’s been fun to debate, but I really have no idea what the answer is. In the end, it’s so hard to tell.”

JUJUBAETIS Hook: TMC 2488, #16-22 Thread: White 10/0 for abdomen, Black 10/0 for thorax Tail: Brown Hungarian partridge fibers Abdomen: Two strands of brown Super Hair, one strand of black Super Hair. Flash: Pearl Fire-Fly wingcase, grey Fluoro-Fiber thorax, black tying thread Legs/Emergent wings: Leftover butts of Fluoro-Fiber wing case Charlie Craven, of Charlie’s FlyBox in Arvada, Colorado, is one of the most talented fly tiers I’ve met, hands down. He has an irreverent sense of humor, skills that stem from years of busting out tens of thousands of commercially tied patterns, and a substantial lineup of effective flies for trout. For now, his Jujubaetis wears the crown, not only as a fish producer,

but as a fly that’s enamored fly fishers the world over in recent times. The Jujubaetis was developed as an offshoot of Craven’s original Jujubee Midge—a fly he’d been tweaking since the early ’90s and that went into production at Umpqua in 1999. “It was really just a variation of that,” Craven says, “I’d been fishing it up in Cheesman Canyon alongside an RS2 and I’d catch just as many fish on it, so I figured they had to be eating it for a Baetis and that’s what prompted me to add a tail.” The addition of the tail was the first in a series of modifications. Craven continued to tweak the pattern and submitted an updated version to Umpqua—sans epoxy overcoat—that never caught on. Back at the vise, he added a flash and experimented with a palate of more exacting Baetis color schemes. “I remember one day I was messing around with some leftover epoxy. I ran it over the head of a Jujubee Midge and as I did it the epoxy was kind of goobered up,” Craven says. “Originally, I was just trying to do the wingcase but it ended up running down the length of the body.” Once the mistake solidified, Craven pondered the result and knew he was onto something. The addition of epoxy finished out the fly’s silhouette, added durability, and imparted a perfect tear shape—much like a natural Baetis nymph. “This is what makes it stand out from other flies in the water,” he says. “The silhouette is perfect—it’s not sort of—it’s exactly shaped like a Baetis nymph.” These first incarnations used Loon UV Knot Sense, but after repeated river use the coat would peel off. Craven currently uses Clear Cure Goo epoxy. He says it adds “symmetry” to the final product, blending the wingcase and thorax into one smooth unit. The fly has

something else going for it, too: Simplicity. “The Barr Emerger is an example of a fly that is older than I am and still works as good as it ever did,” Craven says. “It’s simple like an RS2, a Hare’s Ear, and a Pheasant Tail Nymph, and flies like that tend to last forever. The Jujubaetis is just a modernized version, but it still fits into that same mold.” The Jujubaetis has caught many a trout’s eye in addition to those of fly fishers perusing shop bins for the latest greatest trout trap. It’s Craven’s best-selling pattern. (In the last quarter prior to this writing, Umpqua moved 1,800 dozen units.) Color combinations run the gamut, from original brown to blues and purples and reds and a rusty-brown PMD version. Craven fishes blue and purple on overcast days and prefers it for tricking picky fish into charging at depth. As a general mayfly attractor pattern above and beyond its baetis duties, Craven has also added a 1.5 mm beaded version to the mix, which gives the fly enough weight to keep it down, in front of the fish. This article is an excerpt from What A Trout Sees: A Fly-Fishing Guide to Life Underwater, Lyons Press, 2013. You can purchase Mueller’s book at the shop.

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DESTINATION TRAVEL COME FISH WITH US IN 2015! MEXICO

ISLA HOLBOX TARPON LODGE

Just say the word “Tarpon” to most any fly angler and you’re bound to get a similar reaction. These hard fighting fish that can grow to 200 pounds or more are without a doubt one of the most fun species to catch with a fly rod. For 2015, Trouts Fly Fishing will be hosting a trip to one of best places to chase them on the fly, and no, we’re not talking the Florida Keys. Join us as we head to Isla Holbox, a fly fishing lodge on the Yucatan Peninsula, located just a few hours outside of Cancun. Holbox Fly Fishing Lodge is the only property on Holbox Island dedicated to fly-fishing enthusiasts and their non-fishing partners. Anglers and guides pursue both large and small tarpon, cobia, sea trout, snook, barracuda and the occasional permit in clear gulf waters, on endless flats, and in backcountry mangrove lagoons. Non-fishing partners mix wandering throughout town, swimming, kayaking, windsurfing, birding and island exploration with hours of relaxation on empty, white-sand beaches of this undiscovered island. You can also mix in a trip to nearby Mayan Ruins or snorkel with the whale sharks! Photo: Jim Klug

BELIZE

EL PESCADOR LODGE

If one country has helped put saltwater fly fishing on the map more than any other, it might just be Belize. We’re not sure there’s such a thing as a destination fly angler who hasn’t been to Belize, or doesn’t have it on his or her list. Home to endless miles of flats teeming with various species, Belize is the ultimate fly fishing destination. El Pescador Lodge, in business for over 40 years, is one of the best-run, most famous fly fishing lodges in all of Central America. Situated on Ambergris Caye, an island just a short 15 minute flight from Belize City, the lodge offers world-class sight fishing for the “Big Three”—tarpon, permit and bonefish. It is the perfect destination for first-time saltwater anglers, seasoned veterans, couples and families. A trip to El Pescador is guaranteed to provide memories to last a lifetime…. not to mention some of the best fishing you’ll find anywhere! (See related story “Salty Expectation” on page 56).

Photo: Trouts Fly Fishing

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ALASKA

EGDORF’S WESTERN ALASKA SPORTFISHING

Alaska—just a mere mention of the word brings up images of rugged landscapes, lush forests, abundant wildlife, and BIG fish! Join Trouts as we head on an Alaskan adventure to Egdorf ’s Western Alaska Sportfishing. In continuous operation since 1982, Egdorf ’s offers anglers a high-value, wilderness tent-camp experience. The camp sits along the banks of the remote and pristine Nushagak River where wildlife is plentiful and fishing is only a few steps from your doorstep. Although ‘tented’, the camp has all the basic essentials for a comfortable Alaska fishing vacation, including a full kitchen and dining area, showers, bathrooms and comfortable tented guest quarters. Over the years, the Egdorf family has built a reputation for operating one of the finest wilderness camps in Alaska. Many refer to their operation as “the real Alaska experience”. Photo: Ian Davis

DOMESTIC TRAVEL OFFERINGS

The entire team here at Trouts Fly Fishing loves a good adventure! And while traveling to far and remote destinations is certainly at the top of all our “to do” lists, we realize it isn’t always an option for us, and more importantly, our customers. It is with this in mind that we always try to have multiple “closer to home” getaways planned as well. Due to the ease of planning and travel, these often end up being some of our most memorable trips as we reflect back over the years. These trips have taken us everywhere from Florida to Louisiana, Wyoming to Montana and all OVER the state of Colorado. Be sure to keep in touch with us throughout the year to see what exciting domestic offerings we have on the books. Whether it is a weekend trip to the Rio Grande River looking for the salmonfly hatch, or perhaps headed north to the Bighorn River for a DYI float trip, make it a point to join us for one of these incredibly fun adventures!

Photo: Trouts Fly Fishing

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STAFF TUCKER LADD

CODY HOECKELBERG

Tucker Ladd was born and raised in Colorado. For Tucker, fly fishing is more than just a hobby. It’s a lifestyle that keeps him close to nature and the natural world. Tucker fly fishes for the camaraderie it brings with friends and family. Fly fishing has become an activity that brings peace and relaxation to his life, and is something the he tries to share with every person he meets. In addition to owning Trouts Fly Fishing, Tucker is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the American Fly Fishing Trade Association. “I am not only proud to become the AFFTA Chairman, but I am honored to be the first retailer to ever hold this position. This is a testament of the commitment to the retail base of our industry by the current Board of Directors, as well as AFFTA as a whole. I have always believed that retailers are the life-blood of our sport and industry, and I am excited to have the opportunity to represent this segment of our trade group. 2014 will undoubtedly be an exciting year for AFFTA, and I am looking forward to helping drive our trade group to new levels of success, relevancy and growth”

Cody Hoeckelberg was born and raised in Colorado and has a passion and excitement for fly fishing that is contagious. Fishing has become a part of his nature whether he is studying Google Earth for new bodies of water to explore or thinking about a new fly pattern design. “There are so many opportunities in the world of fly-fishing and it can take you anywhere in the world and even pay your bills,” quips Cody. “I have met some of my best friends through fly fishing and have unforgettable memories on some of my crazy excursions to fishing destinations.” Cody has fished extensively in Colorado and has also explored Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Florida, British Columbia and Mexico. Cody is also on the Board of Directors of the Denver Chapter of Trout Unlimited and is Lead Guide for Casting for Recovery. “I coordinate the river helpers for Casting For Recovery, which is a non-profit organization that provides a free weekend long retreat to women who are victims and survivors of Breast Cancer,” says Cody. “Fourteen ladies show up on the North Fork of the South Platte outside of Bailey, CO for a weekend of spiritual gatherings, healing sessions, and the chance to bond and hear about each other’s battles against cancer. I volunteer my time by finding 14 professional and compassionate fly-fishing guides that I pair up with the ladies for their fishing day, which takes place on the final day of the retreat.”

OWNER

RICK MIKESELL GENERAL MANAGER

Rick Mikesell began working at Trouts Fly Fishing in June of 2010. If you have a question about equipment, flies or gear —regardless of how technical—Rick will have an answer and most likely a pointed opinion. In addition to fishing for trout in the higher elevations of Colorado, Rick is often found chasing a wide range of species in Colorado including pike, muskie, bass and carp. “Fishing is a constant challenge,” says Rick. “On the water, all of the complications and nuisances of life disappear and all that is left is a very real connection with the grandeur and complexity of the natural world—it is never boring or the same. Nature always has a new set of variables and new challenges to offer.”

FLOOR MANAGER

KEVIN COOKE E-COMMERCE MANAGER

As our E-Commerce Manager, Kevin is responsible for the management of Trouts Fly Fishing Online Store and also online sales and fulfillment in multiple digital market places. Kevin has a strong digital retail and technology background, his most recent position being with Run. com managing multiple websites and the digital presences of 43 brick and mortar locations across the US. Kevin was born and raised on the East coast but spent most of 2008 traveling the US with the

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Toyota Trail Teams promoting the Toyota Tundra, FJ Cruiser and Tacoma. Kevin fell in love with Colorado and the West visiting places like Ouray, Crested Butte, Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs. Once Kevin’s contract ended, he moved back to NC and began a career in online marketing with a small customer acquisition firm, RedVentures. After a few years in Charlotte, NC, Kevin and his college sweetheart married on 9-10-11 before moving to Colorado in early 2012. Kevin lives here in the neighborhood with his wife, Kaily, and dog, Charlotte.

KYLE WILKINSON MARKETING MANAGER

Kyle Wilkinson is the Marketing Manager at Trouts Fly Fishing, as well as one of our fly fishing guides. Born and raised in Southeast Kansas, Kyle recieved his first fly rod at age 10 and the deal was pretty much sealed. Now, nearly 20 years later, Kyle’s love for the sport and teaching others continues to grow by the day. He has traveled extensively throughout the Midwest, Rocky Mountains and multiple saltwater locations chasing any fish that will eat a fly. When not on the water, Kyle can usually be found relaxing with his wife, Katie, and their two King Charles Spaniels, Maddie and Nelli. “Simply put'… It’s all about the journey”

DAVE MITCHELL FLY FISHING ASSOCIATE

David is a transplant from New Mexico where he grew up fishing the San Juan, the Rio Grande and other local rivers with his grandfather where fishing was a tradition. He makes it a point to continually find new waters to fish and has fished many of the western rivers from Montana to New Mexico, as well as waters in the Northeast US, Texas, Florida and Mexico, to name a few. He enjoys fly tying and experimenting with different patterns. He also loves to get behind the oars of his drift boat any chance he can. “Every trip to the water is a new experience. Find your utopia”

NAUTI LUS ® CCF-X2 SILVER KING

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WET WADING

John Gierach

f there were no other way to tell, I’d still know it was wet wading season by looking down at my legs. By July of most years they’re finally tanned from six or eight weeks of wearing shorts, but more to the point there are cuts, scrapes, scabs and bruises in various stages of healing, plus the pale scars from previous seasons that vanish over the winter, only to show up again in negative as the sun develops the pigment in my skin for another year. It goes without saying that I wear shorts for comfort, not to show off my legs. In fact a woman I know says

that once you get past about age 35 you should start covering yourself up as a public service, but I figure, hey, if you don’t like what you see, don’t look. I came late to wet wading after spending the requisite number of years trying to stay dry in all conditions by habitually wearing waders whenever I went fishing rubberized canvass, latex, neoprene and Gortex, more or less in that order over the years. And I still usually do, since fully two thirds of my fishing is done in cool, chilly

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or outright cold weather when there’s no sane alternative to staying dry. I suppose my Minnesota upbringing set the stage. Up there you had bitter cold for half the year, swarms of stinging insects the other half, and if you went for a quick swim you’d spend the next half hour removing leeches. It wasn’t just midwestern modesty that made you shy of exposing too much skin. Like many of the best things I know about fishing, I picked up wet wading from guides. These guys were on the water almost Photo: Scott Morrison

daily in season and had long since puzzled out the quickest, easiest and most comfortable way to do things. No telling how many hot summer days I cooked in full chest waders while the guide pulled the oars dressed comfortably in shorts before I began to see the light. Also, although I’m still not entirely sure why any of us fly fish, being one with nature is high on everyone’s list, and it’s hard to feel at one with nature when you’re wearing rubber pants. For that matter, after spending decades in what the tackle industry would like us to think is a gear-heavy sport, you can begin to pine for those childhood days of barefoot fishing with nothing but a cane pole and a can of worms, even if your only actual experience with that comes from Norman Rockwell paintings. Whatever, the day comes when you look at your lifelong accumulation of equipment and wonder, does every afternoon of fishing have to be an expedition? Fly fishing is famous as an enterprise where more can go wrong than right, so of course wet wading has its own peculiar set of pitfalls. More than once I’ve walked right into wild rose bushes with their pretty pink flowers and thousands of tiny, but sharp thorns, and then tried to get back out again without making it worse, which turns out to

This isn’t serious – it’s more on the order of being attacked by a litter of week-old kittens – but it still stings.

Photo: John Hunter Morrison

be impossible. This isn’t serious – it’s more on the order of being attacked by a litter of week-old kittens – but it still stings. And one day when I was working my way around on the bank to get a good casting angle on a nice-sized brown trout, I found myself standing bare-legged in the middle of a large patch of poison ivy that I’d have noticed sooner if I hadn’t been watching the water. I saved my bacon that time by wading into the stream and scrubbing my legs raw with cold water and handfuls of sand. At least I had the presence of mind to do it downstream where all the splashing wouldn’t spook that fish. Here in northern Colorado the dependable wet wading season lasts roughly from late June to late August, although it expands and contracts at each end from year to year. It works best for me when I’m covering a long stretch of small stream on foot, getting in and out of the water constantly, or doing a float where I’m back in the boat high and dry at least half the time. But if I’m on a trip where I’ll be wading for hours on

end, I still want to be in waders, even if the weather is hot. On a day with temperatures in the 80s or 90s, it can feel blissful to wade barelegged into water that’s in the high 40s, but after you’ve stood there for an hour and a half you can begin to get pretty cold. This is oddly disconcerting. Your back and shoulders are baking in the sun and your hatband is damp with sweat, while your legs are going numb and your knees are knocking. And the trout invariably start biting at the exact moment you decide to get out and warm up. Also, conditions can change quickly here in the Rocky Mountains. I do a lot of mid- to late-summer fishing at fairly high altitudes where a sudden storm or squall can drop the temperature by 15 or 20 degrees in minutes – say, from 80 degrees to 60 – and if you’ve been wet wading all afternoon, even just a thin cloud cover and a little breeze can bring on a pretty good chill. The solution is one I picked up from yet another guide: I carry a cheap pair of wide-legged fleece

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pants in my daypack. (You want the wide-legged kind so you can pull them on quickly without having to take off your wading shoes.) Unlike the special fleece pants designed specifically to be worn under waders, you can get these cheaply at any chain discount store you’re willing to do business with. That usually does it. If not, my daypack also holds a wool sweater and a rain slicker, and if things get any more western than that, I have a fire starting kit that consists of kiln dried pine sticks wrapped in newspaper with wooden matches and a striker, all double bagged in plastic. I always carry that little pack if I’ll be going more than a few minutes’ walk from the truck. Any survival instructor will tell you that if you’re very far out for very long you should always have, at a bare minimum, some clothes that are warmer than you think you’ll need, a sharp knife, a compass, some high energy food like granola bars or trail mix, a loud whistle (to attract rescuers) and dry matches. I’m not being overly cautious here. Several times every year, hapless tourists go for hikes in the mountains on hot summer days dressed in nothing but shorts and T-shirts, only to get lost and spend several below freezing nights out. In extreme cases, search and rescue teams bring the bodies out on stretchers. When you live near a national park that gets three million visitors a year, it’s possible to develop a low opinion of tourists, but to be fair, this is usually less a matter of outright stupidity than it is a lack of regional awareness caused simply by being from somewhere else. It’s the same reason why someone from Seattle always has a raincoat handy, while someone of equal intelligence from Tucson may not even own a raincoat.

But then the complacency that comes with being prepared can also get you into trouble. Just last August I was fishing a local high country stream with my two friends Ed and Paul. We’d parked the Jeep and hiked half a mile downstream, figuring to slowly fish our way back up in time for lunch. It was sunny and warm when we started walking – ideal wet wading weather – but by the time we got where we wanted to be, charcoal gray clouds had oozed in over the Continental Divide and it had started to rain. We dutifully put on our rain jackets and tucked up under the meager shelter of a small blue spruce to wait it out, figuring that these mountain thunderstorms seldom last longer than 15 or 20 minutes. At first this seemed like the normal sprinkle that becomes an outright rain and then a drenching downpour punctuated by lightning and pea-sized hail: the kind of storm that seems biblical, but blows itself out quickly. But this was one of those freak storms that backs into a high basin and parks there all day. An hour later it was still raining – harder if anything –the temperature

Photo: Trouts Fly Fishing

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had dropped into the 40s, the ground was white with hailstones and the creek had risen 18 inches and turned shit-brown. We finally admitted that not only was the fishing blown for the day, but we were getting pretty damned cold. I assumed the half-mile walk back to the Jeep would warm me up, but it didn’t. By the time we got there I was into the first stage of hypothermia where your tongue feels too thick to speak and you fumble with the car keys through waves of uncontrollable shivering. After that would come disorientation, followed by the false and often fatal sense of warmth and drowsiness that Mark Spragg called, “the thermodynamic lullaby.” The Jeep’s heater helped, and so did a peanut butter sandwich and some coffee from the thermos. It was still raining hard with no end in sight and we worried that the feeder creek we had to ford to get out of there could get too high to cross, but even then it was another 15 minutes before I stopped shaking enough to be able to drive. We never even strung up the rods.

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TOP FIVE TIPS

(FROM A GUIDE) TO IMPROVE YOUR FLY FISHING

Reid Baker - Guide Manager, Trouts Fly Fishing Guide Service

etween where to go, what tackle and flies to use, casting, reading water, rigging, presentation of the fly, the nuances of finding where fish are holding, and the changes in techniques from specie to specie, volumes of books have been filled with instruction. And the things you, dear reader, need to work on aren’t necessarily the things I need to work on when I head to the water (yes, even full time guides still have techniques we can work on when we get a chance to put a rod in our hand). It is for this reason that it is difficult to boil the entire scope of fly fishing down to “Five Tips from a Guide to Improve your Fly Fishing”. That being said, I’m going to give it a try, but with a slight change to the title. I do believe the best way to improve as an angler is to improve how we enjoy the sport. There are a few key ways all of us can improve our enjoyment of fly fishing—essentially, ways to maximize our valuable fishing time (which never seems to be enough) while minimizing opportunity for frustration once we get to the water. If we find we are effective with our time and minimizing our opportunity for getting all worked up, we have a recipe for finding the most reward out of our days, which leads to better fishing outings. Below are my suggestions.

Photo: Tim Romano

1. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

One of the most important ways to improve your days on the water is to have accurate, up-to-date intel about how the rivers are fishing and what is the best way to go about approaching the water. Is the Colorado River blown out? What flies are working in Cheesman Canyon? How do I get into fly fishing for carp? It is important to have accurate and trusted sources to maximize your time on the water and share valuable information. And, given conditions and fish behavior are always in a state of change, you need to have consistent reporting from a trusted source. That’s where Trout’s Fly Fishing comes in. Our staff in the shop and on the guide roster live to fish! We spend all our free time on the water and love to talk about and research conditions when we’re not out fishing. We’re here to help you and get you pointed in the right direction. Whenever you’re planning on heading to the river or stillwater, I encourage you to stop in the shop and view us as a resource to have the best days possible when heading out.

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2. BOOK A GUIDED TRIP OR TAKE A CLINIC

OK, shameless plug, I know. But I truly believe that fly fishing is best learned by spending time on the water with someone who knows the ins and outs. As we always say in the guide service… learn by doing! Yes, there are no shortages of books, DVDs, magazines, blogs and websites out there that can get you pointed in the right direction in technique honing, but nothing is going to beat having a professional show you firsthand. If you’re stumped by the South Platte around Deckers, or have trouble understanding how to rig a doublenymph system, or want to work on your double haul before your saltwater trip to Mexico, we’ll get you dialed in. Whether you’ve never held a fly rod before or are a world traveled angler, everyone can benefit from a day on the water or in a class with Trout’s. Stop by the shop and talk with us about what you would like to learn and we can taper a trip or point you toward a clinic specific to your needs. Want to learn your homewaters on The South Platte, Clear Creek, Bear Creek or the Blue? Interested in learning how to “match the hatch”? No better way to learn than while standing knee deep in a river with

Scott and Trouts. Dream Team.

At Scott, we specialize in one thing – high performance fly rods. Each and every Scott rod is handcrafted by artisan anglers using the finest materials and components. They’re built one at a time, section by section, grip by grip, in our Montrose, Colorado shop.

And we only work with retailers who specialize in one thing – fly fishing. We’re choosy that way. Our retail partners share their expertise, focus on meeting anglers’ needs, and showcase the world’s best fly fishing gear. And that’s exactly why you’ll find Scott rods at Trouts Fly Fishing.

S c o t t F l y R o d C o m p a n y | 2 3 5 5 A i r P a r k Wa y, M o n t r o s e , C o l o r a d o 8 1 4 0 1 | 9 7 0 - 2 4 9 - 3 1 8 0 | s c o t t f l y r o d . c o m

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someone who does this as their full time job. Guided trips offer you a chance to improve your instruction one on one with a professional guide from Trout’s. This is the single easiest way to shorten any learning curve. Or, if more of a group clinic is your pace, we have you covered too. For beginners, we offer both classroom and on-stream beginner clinics, all of which focus on equipment, casting, rigging, presentation, entomology, reading water, hooking, fighting and landing fish—the basics. If you are beyond that, we offer several intermediate clinics throughout the year. From technical dry fly and drydropper clinics to switch and spey rod clinics, Trout’s is sure to help you step up your fishing game. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself, even if you’ve been fishing for years and years, there is room for us all to learn!

3. TAKE CARE OF YOUR EQUIPMENT AND YOUR EQUIPMENT WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU

Nothing will limit your enjoyment or effectiveness on the water more than poorly maintained or sub-par equipment. Leaky waders, cracked fly line that doesn’t float, or rotten tippet that breaks with the slightest tug will make for frustrating or downright uncomfortable days. That’s why it’s important to take good care of your gear and make sure everything’s in good working order before you load up the rig and head to the water. Trout’s is committed to putting the finest equipment in your hands and making sure everything performs best at all times, and at a variety of price points. With all the great advances in rod, reel, line and tackle technology, there’s a lot to be excited about these days with gear that is more effective, comfortable, lighter, and durable than ever before. If you’re curious about what’s out there or if your current setup is in good working order, we

encourage you to stop by the shop with your kit and let us check out what you’ve been working with. Or, if you’re just getting into the sport and want to get started on the right foot without breaking the bank, we can get you geared up and on your way to enjoying the lifelong sport of fly fishing.

4. PROTECT AND CARE ABOUT THE FISHERIES

Here’s a big one for us on the Trout’s Fly Fishing and Guide Service crew. We firmly believe one of the best ways to improve your enjoyment of the sport is to cherish and care about the resource. We live and work in a beautiful state with world class fishing right outside our door, and that’s something truly special! Feeling like you’re giving back to promote and protect these natural resources is vital to our future days on the water. Getting involved in conservation is a great way to give back, and there are a number of organizations throughout Colorado and country that help protect our watersheds. Most notable in our mind at Trout’s is Trout Unlimited, and specifically Colorado Trout Unlimited (CTU). Through CTU, you’ll make new fishing buddies, hear presentations and talks from naturalists, biologists, guides and fly fishing writers willing to share their insight in monthly meetings. More importantly though, you will be joining a community of conservation-minded fly anglers and your voice, efforts and donations will strengthen our fisheries for the long haul. Not from Colorado but interested in getting involved in your neck of the woods? Trout Unlimited is a national organization and we encourage you to find your local chapter. At the very least, observe best angling practices to protect the fishery on a day-to-day basis. Learn how to properly handle, revive and release caught fish. Take only one or two pictures and get them back in the water… your Facebook

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profile picture shouldn’t be more important than ensuring the fish lives to swim another day. Learn how to identify spawning fish and recognize redds to avoid disrupting wild fish reproduction. Dispose of used leader and tippet, lead…trash in general. We all have a responsibility to take care of our fisheries so they remain strong, and observing these practices will give us all better days on the water through the years. Again, don’t hesitate to ask us at the shop about ways to give back or protect rivers and fish while you’re out there. We’re always eager to educate!

5. HAVE FUN OUT THERE!

At the end of the day this is the single most important suggestion we can give you. Above all, fly fishing is supposed to be fun! It’s a chance for you to get outside, enjoy spending time with friends or family, learning new skills and challenging yourself. Don’t get caught up only focusing on catching the biggest fish or having the highest catch rates. Don’t get bent out of shape if a fish shakes you off, the river is more crowded than you hoped for, or you’ve gone X number of minutes without a hit. Our guide staff will tell you that on any given day on the water it seems the folks who land the most fish are the ones who were already having the most fun and are the most relaxed before their line even touched the water. Put your phone on silent or leave it in the car, if possible. Voicemails, emails and texts will be there when you get back. Enjoy the process of learning and improvement, enjoy the surroundings, enjoy the company if you’re with someone or enjoy the solitude if you’re alone…but above all, enjoy being out fly fishing! This will have the biggest effect on improving your quality of days and it’s amazing how often you seem to catch more fish when you have a smile on your face. We’ll see you on the water!

Photo Credit: Dr. Mark Adams

Some call it an obsession. WE CALL IT RESEARCH.

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ANGLING ABROAD Story and photos by Jim Klug

Although you’re there to fish, the greatest thing about destination angling is the places that it takes us.

he thrill of preparing for a fishing trip—especially one that involves travel to new and distant waters—is like nothing else. Loading your fly rods into a travel tube, sorting boxes of flies, rigging reels and fly lines, and packing bags for a far-off adventure ensures the preparation is as much a part of the journey as the fishing itself. We who are passionate about fishing do our research, book our spots at the lodge, and arrange our airline tickets in an overall quest for the ultimate fishing experience. Whether we are venturing to a new destinations that we’ve never before visited, or returning to an area that we’ve explored and fished for years, we know that the experience of traveling with rod and reel will be rewarding, no matter the conditions, the weather or the number of fish we catch. This experience is found in the morning mists of an Alaskan river,

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listening to the roar of the radial engine of a Beaver floatplane as it pulls away from the dock and lifts off into the grey light of a Bristol Bay morning. It’s in rivers that run red—so choked with spawning salmon that you could almost walk across their backs from one bank to the other—and in the fly line that burns through your fingers as a wild, pure-strain rainbow rips upstream after smashing a skated mouse pattern in skinny water. Other experiences are epitomized in the warm, crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean, on the flats of Belize and in the shallow lagoons of the Yucatan. In rolling schools of tarpon, hungry bonefish tailing in the glare of the setting sun and finicky permit that refuse to play nice. Regardless of where our travels take us, we know that if it involves fishing, so inevitably the adventure will be great. After all, the fish that we pursue are almost always found

in beautiful places. Here at Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures, we’re fortunate enough to work with thousands of anglers every year—planning and arranging their fishing adventures and working hard to deliver that special “trip of a lifetime” for each and every client. We’re dedicated to providing the best pre-trip planning materials and information in the business, and do everything within our power to properly prepare our clients and set our anglers up for success—no matter where in the world they are fishing. Over the years, we have learned first-hand that, when planning and preparing for any saltwater trip, it is important that you arrive with the right equipment, the right amount of practice and—most importantly —the right expectations. Over the years, we’ve compiled a few key pieces of advice that can help make your upcoming destination adventure rewarding and exceptional.

FLY FISHING IS NOT EASY.

Regardless of how much money you may spend on a destination angling trip, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to hooking and landing fish. The gamefish that anglers pursue are, by nature, very spooky, hyper-alert fish. Fooling these fish into eating an artificial fly or lure is always a challenge, even on the best of days.

EVERY FISH YOU CATCH IS SPECIAL.

That may sound like a bad Hallmark card, but it’s absolutely true. Whether you’re landing your first steelhead on a fly or finally catching a trophy tarpon or permit, take a moment to appreciate every fish that comes your way and remember where you are and why you are there! With that kind of mindset, you can’t help but enjoy your trip, regardless of the size or number of fish caught. PREMIER ISSUE 2015 | THE CURRENT | TR O UTS FLY FISHING

BE REALISTIC ABOUT YOUR TRIP LENGTH.

RELAX AND HAVE FUN.

Have fun and learn to accept the occasional blown cast, tangled line, and missed set. The more you stress out, the more likely you are to continue making mistakes and having problems. It is no coincidence that the most laid back, easy-go-lucky anglers are always the ones that seem to catch the most fish.

PRACTICE YOUR CASTING.

Practice your casting before you head out for your trip, and then practice, practice, and practice some more. No matter how good your guide is, how aggressive the fish are feeding, and how perfect the conditions are, you are still going to struggle to catch fish if you can’t deliver the fly in a quick, accurate manner with the required distance.

REMEMBER, FISH DON’T ALWAYS EAT.

Sometimes, when the fishing is tough, we need to remember this. You can have perfect conditions, the best guide, ideal water temperatures, and all of the planets in perfect alignment, and still the fish may not eat. Why? Well, think of fish as being similar to people. We don’t eat all day: only when we’re hungry. When this happens, hang in there. Sooner or later, the fish will get hungry again.

MAKE THE MOST OF WHERE YOU ARE.

When visiting a foreign country or a new area, take some time to learn about the culture, the people and the region. Although you’re there to fish, the greatest thing about destination angling is the places that it takes us. Try new foods, learn some of the local language, listen to new music, and immerse yourself in the culture of the area you’re visiting.

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If you have only booked a weekend trip with two days of guided fishing, understand that weather and tough conditions can make for frustrating fishing. Longer trips mean a greater chance of good fishing conditions—at least on some of the days!

LISTEN TO YOUR GUIDE.

Finally, listen to and trust your guide. Chances are good that they know a thing or two about their waters and their fish. Even if you’re the most experienced angler in the world–the person who has fished everywhere for every species imaginable—listen to the advice and instructions of the local expert that you’ve hired.

like a backstage pass to the world of fly fishing...

complete trip preparedness, travel logistics, excellent customer service, experienced technical support and incredibly relevant information for every destination we work with...all for the same price or less than booking it yourself. FREE TRAVEL GUIDE AT: WWW.YELLOWDOGFLYFISHING.COM • TOLL FREE: 888.777.5060 AFRICA ALASKA ARGENTINA BAHAMAS BELIZE BOLIVIA BRAZIL CANADA CHILE GUATEMALA KAMCHATKA SEYCHELLES ST. BRANDON’S VENEZUELA YUCATAN UNITED STATES & MORE PREMIER ISSUE 2015 | THE CURRENT | TR O UTS FLY FISHING

SALTY EXPECTATION Story and photos by Scott Morrison

mostly-wise fisherman once shared a bit of wisdom that I am reminded of every so often as I dream of my next day on the salt. You know the dream: a home-run scenario played out on every species of hungry fish I spot before the guide, followed with a perfect cast, an eat, an effortless strip-set and the grip and grin after I deftly bring him to hand. A cover shot in the making tomorrow will be—and the weather will be perfect. “You know what happens between expectation and reality don’t you?” my fisherman friend asked. “What?” said I, expectant of the glorious illumination I would be passing down to future progeny. Dissapointment,” he says. ... Now that we are all properly deflated, let me say that there is a place where I have nearly always found his words to be bunk. In fact, Belize’s El Pescador Lodge thrives on

expectations—or rather—delivering on them. It’s a quality that doesn’t necessarily go hand-in hand with just any fishing lodge if you’ve been around a few. For instance, not only will the folks at El Pescador ask about your expectations for a day on the water, they ask again when you leave how they delivered, and if you have any advice to make the trip better the next go around, they want to hear it. Moreover, if you are a fairly decent stick and you expect you might have a shot at a slam, it’s possible. If you want to spend an entire day targeting one species, it’s possible. If you want to have a place to fish when the weather is bad, they have contingency plans. If you’ve never cast a fly before and you want to learn, they’ll teach you. If you have a significant-other who is tired of hanging in the boat with Mr. Intensity, El Pescador has activities that’ll have her (and the kids) asking why you never brought them

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here in the first place. If you need flies or you break a rod thousands of miles from home because you trout set a 70lb tarpon—they have a replacement in their fullystocked shop. If you planned on incredible food, a soft bed and an airconditioned room, a cold beer at the bar, a dip in a refreshing pool (right next to the bar), a friendly, helpful staff and…you get my drift. More importantly, while El Pescador excels at delivering, at the same time, they don’t set the bar so high that anglers are lured into false pretenses about guaranteed fish, perfect weather or being a lodge they are not. Nobody is perfect...and not everyone can be perfectly pleased. I don’t want to be guilty of doing the same in this article. Go enough to El Pescador and you could experience bad weather, picky fish, a scorpion in your wading booties you left outside, or a guide that hangs on a deserted flat just a little longer than you

think he should—but hey—nobody can control the weather, permit are permit, you were told not to leave the boots outside and the last time I gave a guide grief about hanging around a flat too long, the permit showed up (and left) about the same time he started the motor. After 40 years in the business with some of the most experienced guides in Belize, a staff of friendly, hardworking people that are basically one big family (you included), you’d expect they have some, if not most of the kinks worked out. It was just recently that I attended a celebration of El Pescador Lodge’s 40th anniversary. Owners, Ali Flota and Chris and Steve Spiro, along with fishing director, Lori Ann Murphy and staff graciously hosted a group of fly fishing luminaries for four days at their newly remodeled and expanded lodge. If I sound all-to-glowing about El Pescador, then consider that they had some of the most well-traveled

A cover shot in the making tomorrow will be—and the weather will be perfect.

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and experienced fly fisherman in that group and there wasn’t so much as a single “disappointment” about the lodge, the food or the fishing that I was aware of. When we arrived at the lodge our bags were waiting in the spacious and well-appointed new rooms. After an informative orientation on the fishing area, tactics and guide assignments from Lori Ann, we settled down to a few Belikins (Belizean beer) and the first of many nights of exceptional dining. We were also treated to an excellent presentation on the status and future of Belize’s bonefish, permit and tarpon fishery by Aaron Adams of Bonefish Tarpon Trust who was with our group, but no stranger to El Pescador. Tirelessly working with the Trust and the country of Belize itself, Ali at El Pescador has been instrumental in enacting catch and release regulation for these three species country-wide. It’s just one of many ways El Pescador is helping lead the way for the conservation and preservation of what may arguably be one of the most precious resources to anglers worldwide—especially when you consider the information folks like Aaron are learning about spawning habits, habitat, and migration routes and the positive economic impact fly fishing has on places like Belize. Speaking of tourism, one of the other handy things about El Pescador’s place in the world is the availability of so many other recreational activities. Even though most of us can’t think of anything more exciting than sight fishing a tropical flat, tearing yourself away from your fly rod for a day or two is acceptable considering choices like snorkeling, diving, cave tubing (riding an inner-tube on a river through caves), zip-lining, kayaking, paddeboarding, beachcombing, shopping in nearby San Pedro, visiting the zoo or exploring Mayan ruins...and the list goes on. As mentioned before, family members and assorted fishing widows will have plenty to do while you are 58 T RO U T S FLY FI S H I N G | THE CURRENT | PREMIER ISSUE 2015

fishing...and you’ll have plenty to do when you’re not. Of course, the fishing is great. While one can’t always expect to land a perfect cast or keep a steady composure when a permit shows, Belize and the guides at El Pescador, at least, can deliver the opportunities. The waters surrounding the island of Ambergris Caye where El Pescador is situated are full of opportunity for tarpon, bones, permit, cuda, snook, jacks and assorted reef fish in just about any month of the year. An angler also has choices about the type of water they prefer as well. Blind cast for tarpon in deeper water, sight cast to tailing bones in the skinny stuff, or ply the nervous water that belies a traveling school of permit. Search the mangrove creeks for baby tarpon or snook, wade a flat and cast to cuda or ambush a group of jacks at a channel mouth. The guides at El Pescador are a rich legacy of fatherson mentoring from those 40 years the lodge has been around. They are on the water nearly every day and all have an incredible working knowledge of the fishery, tides, geography and fortunately, a great deal of patience with those of us who only have a shot at the salt once a year, or once-in-a-lifetime. And if you didn’t get enough of your day on the water, you can always walk the beach for bones or take one of the lodge’s kayaks out the back door into the lagoon on your own. So when you finally get the chance to go, expect that anything can happen when you travel to Belize. Expect that bad weather, the finicky apetite of a permit and your own health or ability could be lacking when you finally get your shot. There are many things in life that cannot be controlled. But also realize that there are times when we are pleasantly surprised by things we don’t expect—the times when we get more than we hoped for. My mostlywise fishing buddy has never been to El Pescador.

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