There are few sports that conjure a mental picture of Colorado as well as fly fishing. The image of a ruggedly handsome outdoors-type casting an arcing line into a crystal clear mountain stream while outfitted in waders, a fishing vest, and a hat studded with hand-tied flies has become a Rocky Mountain icon.

It looks intimidating as hell.

It can be. And expensive, too. But it doesn’t have to be. As with almost any sport, you can spend as little or as much as you want to and still have a great time. A simple starter set-up can be had for as little as $75.

Every summer for the past decade, one of my oldest friends and I have backpacked a couple of hours up into the mountains near the Wyoming border. After setting up our camp, we fish the small snow melt-fed lake nearby for brook trout. At night we sit around a campfire, sip bourbon out of tin cups, and swap stories. The next day we hike another couple of hours up to a hanging lake near the Continental Divide and fish for wild cutthroat trout. Often, we’re the only two at the lake.

There has always come a Zen moment on the water when everything around me faded away and it was only me and the fish. The pressures of my high-stress corporate job would soon melt away. And I know my friend’s concerns over the troubled teens he counseled diminished as well.

It was great therapy back when and, even though we are both now retired, still is.

And we really aren’t that good. Our equipment is pretty basic and we fish with nymphs a lot. But we catch fish and laugh a lot under blue Colorado skies. One summer day we leap-frogged our way around a high mountain lake and caught more than 50 fish.

Most of us have fished at some time in our life. Whether casting for bass in Texas or bullhead fishing along the banks of a river in the Midwest, almost all of us have some fishing experience. It seems to be in our DNA, this ancient art of casting a line or throwing a net. Fly fishing is simply the next step in the evolutionary process.

“While it may look difficult and maybe a bit elitist, it really isn’t,” notes Rob Kolanda, manager of Boulder’s Rocky Mountain Anglers. “We can set you up and get you out the door with a rod and reel for under $100. You can walk over to Boulder Creek and be fishing within an hour.”

Here’s the part of fly fishing that’s an art: you are casting a tiny knot of feathers and thread tied to a steel hook that weighs far less than the line to which it is tied and trying to put it right in front of the nose of a trout.
It does take some skill to cast, but it’s not hard to learn. A couple of hours practicing the cast, mastering some basic knots, an afternoon or two on the water, and you should be catching fish.

“Take advantage of where we live and learn the local waters,” advises Jay Zimmerman of Front Range Anglers. “Too often people forget how good it is right here in Boulder County. There are streams and ponds that offer up great fishing within a bike ride of downtown Boulder. The variety available to us is tremendous.”

Keep in mind that you don’t need a huge assortment of flies, a split bamboo custom rod, and an imported English reel. Equipment can be rented for a day or a weekend from several outfitters in the area. That, combined with a three-day fishing permit and a half dozen flies (wet and dry) will give you a good taste of the sport and let you decide if you want to take it to the next level with your own equipment.

“The trick is to allow yourself to learn something new,” says Rob. “Take your time and let yourself buy into the technique. It’s not about strength; it’s about timing and patience. We see more and more women taking up the sport. And they are really fast learners. They don’t try to muscle the line out there. Instead, they take their time and stay with it.”

After a couple of crazy years following the movie A River Runs Through It, things have settled down in the fly-fishing world. The unspoken divide between dry and wet fly casters has all but disappeared in the West. There’s plenty of elbowroom for all fly fishers on the area’s streams and lakes. Fishing space is the basis for fly-fishing etiquette. Give others plenty of room; out of sight is best, but if you have to share a pool or stream, give the other guy as much room as possible.

“You can learn 90 percent of what you need to know about fly fishing from those little eight-inch brown trout in Boulder Creek,” adds Jay. “Just let us know what you want to do and we will work with you on it. We encourage people to take a lesson or two to learn the basics.”

Boulder County affords a number of streams and ponds for fishing: Boulder Creek, the St. Vrain River, Sawhill Ponds, and Brainard Lake are in the immediate area. A couple of hours driving will put you in gold medal trout streams with breathtaking scenery for a backdrop.

“One of the best parts of fly fishing is not so much the fish, but the places where you go to find them,” Rob says. “Boulder Creek is a true gem and Rocky Mountain National Park, where I learned to fish, is remarkable.”

And of course nearly everybody today preaches the catch-and-release ethic in order to ensure a steady supply of wily trout. Plus, it’s hard to lie about how a frozen fish got into your freezer.

There’s an old saying that a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Right now is a good time to test that theory.

is a communications consultant based in Boulder and is an accomplished runner, climber, and backpacker.
His email address is 
tomrafferty123@comcast.net

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