As the Chairman of our fellowship, it is important for me to fly fish often and be at the top of my game (for you!). With 15 fly fishing days in the past 30-35 days, I have to say that I am “whipped”! But remember “it’s not just about the fly fishing”!  As I return from another trip to Colorado with guys from our fellowship, I find myself tired but refreshed. Refreshed in the respect that I have just spent seven days with some awesome men. Men that have a passion for fly fishing but also for their Creator. I have learned much from this trip. Not only about fly fishing some beautiful locations but also about our relationship with Christ. Yes, no matter what you believe I believe that this fellowship has grown because of Him.

This was a last-minute trip to Colorado for our fellowship. The members selected to go were experienced fly fishers and readily available to go at a moments notice.  We would stay in the Avon, Colorado area for a week and fish rivers mostly along the I-70 corridor, as I like to call it. The four FATC that made the trip were Jim Craig, John Muckerman, Greg Krochta (our Denver Lead) and of course me (Kenny Klimes). We stayed in a nice double condo in Avon, Colorado and used it as our base for the week trip.

Day One: John, Jim and I flew from St Louis to Denver on Saturday, May 8^th. The flight was on time and uneventful. But that was just the beginning. As we entered the car rental location, we found no less than 50 people waiting in line. As John and I put Jim in line to get our car, we settled in for an hour and half wait. Fortunately, we got one of the last cars left and we started out on our journey – uneventful – not! On this May day we headed up into the mountains into a snowstorm. But wait that is not all. As we approached the Eisenhower tunnel (the only way beside going over the Loveland pass to get to the western mountains) we were stopped as were hundreds of cars. A bomb scare in the tunnel? The traffic stopped we waited and waited until the all clear! Now we were on our way!? Arriving at our destination we settled in for a great week of fishing.

Day Two: Greg would not show up until Monday, so Jim ,John and I headed to fish the Eagle river first in the Gypsum pond area. Kenny and Jim pulled out two nice browns from the Gypsum pond area, both in the 18-inch class. The water was low but picking up speed as the Colorado run off was at the first stages. We then fished the Eagle River at the “middle school” and again just caught a few trout. We were “learning the waters” and getting our “feet wet”. That night John made an awesome lasagna dinner. Have to say John cooked most of the breakfast and dinner meals for us – THANK YOU John, you did an awesome job, and you are one faithful servant!

Day Three: Greg arrived with news of his work situation but more importantly he was ready to fish! After a great breakfast (yes, made by John), We decided to hit a couple other spots on the Eagle river to get into the fishing groove. We fished the Eagle river again but this time at the park in Edwards, Colorado, and Wolcott, Colorado. On this day, the fishing was better with many browns and rainbows caught but the weather turned against us as it snowed all morning long. The best flies seemed to be Kenny’s “Hair of the Dog” fly,  black leeches, and the Pink Squirrel. So, a lesson learned. Be careful where you put your rod after you catch a nice fish and would like a photo. We had an accident when Greg put his rod down on the ground, partly in the water but could not quite get the words out to tell Jim , who was running over to him to get a picture, “watch out for my rod”. Ouch, broken tip and one rod out for the week. Just be careful out there.

Day Four: With everyone together we decided to head to the famous Frying Pan river near Basalt, Colorado. As we drove up the Frying Pan river valley the weather changed again from cloudy skies to snow blizzard. Check out the video below. Not just one blizzard but two as we had another while on the water fishing. So bad, we ran to the cars for shelter. BUT that did not deter us as we had one of the best fishing days of the trip. The Frying Pan has some of the most beautiful Brown trout you will ever see due to the Mysis shrimp they eat. We fished near the bridge below the dam. The pictures tell it all as small flies did the trick; Barr’s emergers, RS2s, and soft hackles brought most trout to the net.

Day Five: On this day we fished the Colorado river up near the “pump house”. Jim and Greg went upstream for the day and Kenny and John went downstream. Both “teams” did well as mostly browns were taken in the Colorado. We finally had great weather, i.e., no snow  blizzards. We went to larger flies in the morning and smaller flies in the afternoon which turned out to be a good strategy for catching. Between the four of us we had around twenty fish in the net with several big ones lost.  The evening was topped off again with an awesome dinner of pork loin roast by John.

Day Six: On day six we decided to travel to the South Platte where in enters the Spinney reservoir. Well, as we learned earlier sometimes Mother Nature decides what the elements will be for our day of fishing. The wind kicked up so hard that we “tried” to fish the South Platte, but the winds were just too strong. We then thought the winds would be less at the “Tomahawk” area of the South Platte, but it too was difficult to fish. Then we headed to the Blue river in Breckenridge, Colorado and fished it for a short time. By then Kenny and John decided to not fight the wind any longer and waited for Greg and Jim to finish their day. The day was difficult but after five days straight on the water it was nice to finish a little early.

Day Seven: Our last day we decided to fish close to base camp and hit the Eagle river one more time. We fished the Gypsum pond area and the Wolcott area. Some nice fish were caught to wrap up the week. That night we saw one of John’s favorite movies, “Space Balls”. Opps, sorry it was not John’s favorite it was Greg’s favorite. I think John will never ever watch it again ? We packed up and readied ourselves for our long travel day home to STL.  John and I traveled home on Saturday, Jim stayed in Colorado to visit his daughter and of course, Greg just drove home.

Thanks again to John for the awesome meals he cooked for us. Thanks to Jim and Greg for the great fellowship. If you get the chance to fish in Colorado, contact us. We have fished most of the rivers there but please be prepared for any type of weather!