Wow, what a trip for your fellowship. Seven days in Colorado for fishing and the Denver Fly Fishing show brought more than expected. FATC member Greg Krochta invited a few of our FATC (Kenny Klimes, Jim Craig, and John Muckerman) to stay at his home and do some winter fishing along with enjoying the three-day Denver Fly Fishing Show (plus teaching a fly-fishing class, celebrating a special birthday and a Super Bowl party!). This was one week filled with non-stop enjoyment.
On Tuesday, February 8th the gang arrived at the Denver airport, picked up by Greg and traveled the short ride to his house. The entire week was planned to the minute. First was fly fishing the South Platte near Deckers, CO on February 9th. Unfortunately, fishing was tough with only one brown trout caught between the four fly fishers. But the weather was cold, crisp, and beautiful and everyone had a wonderful time in an impressive area. On Thursday, February 10th, John, Greg, and Kenny headed out to fish the Blue River just north of Silverthorne, CO while Jim had a date with his daughter, who lives in Denver, to go snow skiing. The good news is six trout were caught by the three on the Blue. It was still cold which made the trout tougher to find and catch. The sad news is Jim fell skiing and heard a pop in his left knee – maybe a torn ACL. We wait now to see what the MRI will show. So, our plans for Monday would be changed but as you will find out they turned out very well!
On Friday, February 11th, Greg, Jim, John, and Kenny headed to the Denver Fly Fishing show and met up with Ron “the Berwyn Bear” Fiala at the show which was at the Gaylord Rockies Convention Center. The four of us enjoyed several seminars for the day. One by Jason Randall, who many of you met at the Altar Pastor’s fly-fishing event our fellowship hosted in November and another by Landon Mayer. The day was filled with checking in on many fly fishing “celebrities” and companies. We saw St Louis fly tier, Michael Burgess, who will be doing a fly-tying demo on April 5th for our fellowship. Our guys met up with Eric Camfield, President of Altar Fly Fishing, Mark Troilo, President of The Original Ty-Rite Tool, our charity, Casting for Recovery, the team from Temple Fork Outfitters and more.
After the show, the celebration began at Greg’s home for Kenny’s “surprise” 70th birthday party. Yes, hard to believe Kenny is 70 – must have been a misprint on his birth certificate. Steaks were thrown on the grill and Greg’s daughter, Alexandria, made Kenny an impressive cake (she owns her own baking company – it was unbelievable!!).
On Saturday, February 12th, your FATC pulled double duty. Teaching the guys in Denver a special nymphing class AND racing over to the Gaylord Convention Center for a half day of the fly-fishing show. The FITR group (Flyfishers In The Rockies) led by Greg brought twenty-six men to our class taught by both Greg and Kenny. They are a talented group of men from St Catherine church in Aurora, CO and we hope to partner with them more in the future. It was a good three-hour class followed by more of the fly-fishing show. The afternoon saw more seminars and “schmoozing” of our FATC sponsors.
Sunday, February 13th, we had another morning of the Denver show and a final good-bye to our sponsors and new friends made. We bid Ron Fiala farewell as he got ready to return to Chicago. Of course, you all know that Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday and Greg threw one awesome party. All of Greg’s family were there and of course, the three Amigos from St Louis. On Monday, things settled down a bit and Greg, Jim, John, and Kenny hit a few local breweries in town. A special tour was offered, and we said yes! If you are interested in craft breweries, then Colorado is the state for that! Beer and pizza that night and early to bed for the long flight home the next morning.
A super big thank you to Greg and Michelle for their hospitality and graciousness. It was an awesome one-week trip. Your FATC got a lot down as we talked with our sponsors and worked to get new sponsors for our fellowship. Check out the pictures for more on what happened!
