7/13/2014-Hello to all reading, this is Nick Denbow, Minturn anglers guide, casting instructor and host for saltwater fly fishing trips in Mexico. For this blog entry, I wish to focus on the fly fishing school option offered here at the Minturn location. [Editor’s note: we provide a fly fishing school at both our Parker and Minturn locations. Call soon, as our school dates are filling up quickly.]
Learning to fly cast and fly fish is one of the steepest learning curves you can encounter; of this I am sure. It’s always impossible for guests to absorb everything we throw at them during our schools, a true baptism of fire. Over two days, you are taught about the necessary equipment, knots, flies and casting techniques that you will need. Then, on day 2, you actually go out and catch a trout from a beautiful freestone river here in Colorado. To put this in real terms: after just one day of classroom learning, you will then try to trick a wild Trout that has seen hundreds of fishermen and thousands of flies over many years into thinking that some feathers tied to a steel hook and attached to a fishing line is an appropriate food item. … Let’s just say it’s not easy. To further stress my point, what follows is my personal experience as an instructor over the last two days.
Last night scouting water for the upcoming schools, I fished with three other guides. We shared two rods and fished three different locations. I rose 5 fish to dry flies almost landing one around 6 inches. Maverick, another Minturn Anglers guide, who casts effortlessly and can cover a huge area of water without moving his feet, landed another trout of similar size.
Today 5 pupils of the school picked up fly rods for the first time, and in the same time period, landed 12 fish up to 21 inches, all on dry flies. There are no words to explain the rewarding achievements of our guests today.
Sometimes a blank canvas is the best to paint on, that’s for sure, but let’s not belittle the accomplishment. The guests fooled these fish who have eaten flies in this river their entire existence.
Fly Fishing is not throwing a worm into a pond under a bobber and waiting for a fish to find you. Fly Fishing is not dragging lures behind a motorized boat until you pass a hungry fish. With fly fishing, you go and make it happen based on your ability and performance. Let’s face it, the best way to catch fish is dynamite, what we fly fishermen do requires skill, understanding of entomology and nature, observance, good reflexes, coordination and (of course) a dash of luck thrown in. To trick these fish with fur and feather is actually a game changer for most and after having seen it work full circle many won’t fish in another way again. Many people believe that fly fishing is difficult and expensive. Well, what Minturn Anglers is doing with their fly fishing school is proving this 100% untrue. Just look at the results from this weekend’s class. All I wish for is that these people remember their first lessons and first fly caught fish just as I remember mine some 34 years ago and that after this weekend we have 20 more fly fishers in the world.
Et Piscatorem Piscis Amare Potest?
