HOOkeD On Fly FisHing

HOOKED ON FLY FIS H ING

The Cast of the Rod, the Feel of the Strike, the Joy of Spending Time on the River

Practicing casting technique. Photo by Frank Burzynski

By Judy Hildner

A brilliant blue sky stretched overhead. The sun flashed on the rippling water. A bird’s call sounded across the low murmur of the river. Crash! A trout hit with violence, shattering the day’s calm.

Herb Grotheer, Jonathan Walter, and Michelle Edwards, along with other members of the Fly Fishing Section of the denver Group of the Colorado Mountain Club, have experienced the rush of adrenaline that comes with the hit of a trout countless times. It can be unforgettable and addictive, drawing them back to the state’s rivers and streams again and again. but casting a rod and feeling a strike is just a small part of the allure of the sport. The exquisite pleasure of spending time in the mountains or in the sweeping spaces of an open river is equally satisfying. So it’s no coincidence that fly fishing is a section within the CMC, offering schools in fly fishing and fly tying, as well as clinics, seminars, and trips.

*** Grotheer said his wife gave him a flytying kit for Christmas in the early 1970s, although he had been a reel fisherman for many years. He fashioned his first fly with a bit of peacock feather and decided to try it out on the South Platte River below deckers at Trumble. “On my very first cast, a fish cashed into the fly. It startled the heck out of me,” Grotheer said. “I thought, ‘wow, maybe there is something to this fly fishing after all.’”

Jonathan Walter

Michelle Edwards Fly Fishing School is designed for both experienced and novice anglers. Photo by Frank Burzynski

Walter had done some spin and bait fishing with his sister during summers in Maine but it wasn’t until he moved to Colorado in 1988 that he decided to try fly fishing. “I do better with instruction,” he said. “My nephew came out to visit and we took a class together in 1989.” Walter was already a member of the CMC and, within a few years, he went to the denver Council to ask about starting a fly fishing section with friend Steve Grout, who has since moved to Missoula, Montana. “We had our first meeting in 1994 with 10 or so people,” Walter said.

Grotheer was one of those in attendance at the first meeting. He said he learned more in a year with the section than in some 25 years on his own.

Two decades later, the group has grown to some 120 members, including Edwards, who joined in 2008. “I took the fly fishing school. I pretty much ran with it, going on section trips when I could and just going out by myself once or twice a week yearround,” Edwards said. She also became an instructor herself.

The school and outings with other fly fishermen are obviously enjoyable, but one of the most rewarding aspects of fly fishing for this trio is the solitary time spent on a river, absorbing the rhythms of nature.

***

A Los Angeles native, the 75-year-old Grotheer came to Colorado in 1967, and retired from Martin Marietta in 1994. That was when he decided to get serious about fly fishing. He and his wife recently moved to Jefferson County, where he can grab his gear and be on the water in half an hour or so.

“For me, it’s getting out and enjoying the Rocky Mountains,” Grotheer said. “It’s not about catching fish. I just enjoy being on the river. It’s not so much about catching a fish. If someone is out there and they don’t catch anything, maybe they go away disappointed with the day. I never feel that way.” Walter is 57 years old and a native of Cleveland, living now in Wheat Ridge. He has a “fairly” busy medical practice as a general internist but has remained committed to fly fishing and the CMC section and school.

Walter has enjoyed many pleasurable hours and days fishing, but his most memorable was on a stream that will remain nameless. “I was on a solo backpacking trip and it was the first time I’ve ever got what’s called a grand slam. A brown, a rainbow, a cut-throat, and a brook trout—not big fish, but that wasn’t the point,” Walter said. “It was a smaller stream, but I don’t want to say where.” He released those fish but has savored the accomplishment for a number of years.

Walter also recalled a CMC trip last summer to the Western Slope, saying he stayed for another day or two after the rest of the group returned home. “It was in a beautiful canyon, not too early in the morning, about 8:30 a.m. or so,” Walter said. “I hiked up into the canyon and I saw this large mass up in a tree.” It turned out to be a huge owl that flew up and away, out of the canyon. “It wasn't a fishing memory but it was unforgettable,” Walter said about watching the huge bird take flight.

“It's also a nice diversion, nice to get

away,” Walter said about taking day trips to Clear Creek above Golden and other nearby streams. “I can be on the water within 40 minutes.”

He also ties his own flies and spent one blustery Sunday in March refilling his tackle box, tying a couple dozen before telling about his experiences on the water.

Edwards, like Grotheer, was born in Los Angeles but moved to Frisco in 1993 as a high school freshman. She now lives in Lakewood and is a Veterans Administration program analyst for the CHAMPVA and Spina bifida programs.

Edwards also is an avid skier but is truly hooked on fly fishing. “The best thing is a perfect dry fly cast, perfect drift to that waiting fish and then them grabbing it,” she wrote in an email. “You get them in, get a good look, and let them go back out. It’s definitely like the perfect powder telemark turn, something that just makes you smile. If you’re crazy enough, you fish all the way through the winter.”

Edwards has done day trips to the Yampa River that began at 4:30 a.m. and ended at 10:30 p.m., fishing all day in the sleet and snow. She also remembers, “doing a barrel roll in the South Platte in February to keep the fish I was trying to land. but it but went straight downstream through my legs while I was trying to net it.” She fishes Clear Creek, St. Vrain, and bear Creek— “any of the little local rivers where I can go fish for a couple hours after work or on the weekends.”

Grotheer has fished all across Colorado and checked in at countless fly fishing shops and marinas. He reported seeing a vending machine for flies at the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo on the Arkansas River. “I thought that was pretty enterprising,” Grotheer said, clearly tickled by the venture. “Imagine feeding some coins or a credit card into a vending machine and out comes an elk hair caddis or black ant fly. It’s just a few yards to the river and a cast.”

Grotheer also has helped organize the fly fishing section along with Walter. “Currently, I'm chairman of the section,” Grotheer said, having taking over that leadership role fairly recently. “Jonathan is the fly-tying school director. Laurence Hoess is the fly-fishing school director.”

Grotheer said they all realize involving new people is critical for the section to survive and thrive. “There are people, maybe half or more of our members, interested in backpacking up to alpine lakes to fly fish,” he said. “I'm getting too old for stuff like that. . . . We have one guy who built his own rod, that's a little much for me, too.”

Walter is also deeply committed to giving back to the sport. He has taught casting and is a certified casting instructor.

*** The sport of fly fishing is rich in appeal for a broad spectrum of fishermen – men and

An instructor demonstrates casting. Photo by Frank Burzynski

women, young and old. The rhythm of nature, from water flow and temperature to the hatch of insects in the spring, all plays into time spent fly fishing.

Clearly, it has hooked these members of the CMC. △

For more information on the Fly Fishing Section of the Denver Group, go to www.cmcflyfish.org.

One of the most rewarding aspects of fly fishing is the solitary time spent on a river. Photo by Frank Burzynski