Backcountry Fly Fishing
by Donny Shefchik, Paragon Guides Field Director
Fishing in the Vail area has changed over the years. Many of us must be OK with “urban” fishing or at least a busier fishing hole. The popularity of fly fishing has brought smiles to Fly Shop owners and guides, and occasional frowns from those looking for a more secluded fishing experience. The rivers are fished earlier in the Spring and later in the
Fall and it’s not so unusual to see a bundled up fisherman standing mid-stream in mid-winter patiently casting to open water.
Our local rivers are in good shape considering the impacts of valley wide growth and the consistent parade of fisherman to the rivers edge to try their luck. I still visit these places but tend more often than not to fish these places off-season and off hours. There were places that I thought of as secret, or at least not popular, but these have been discovered or bought by someone who must have had an overstocked inventory of “No Trespassing” signs .
Now I find myself most often leaving the main roads and mainstream, heading for those small places that have not been discovered or purchased. There are plenty of places and I’m not saying that I eliminate all the people, but these places are quite, beautiful, sometimes rugged and many times “fishy”. The Backcountry Small Streams often provide a bit more adventure, your closest competitor most likely the resident mink or eagle.
I have taken many clients to the small streams and seen a variety of reactions. For many the smaller volume of water makes for more pleasant wading, reading the water and casting to a “fishy” spot seems simpler, and the fish albeit smaller, are as wild and beautiful as anywhere. The reward for fooling the biggest fish in the pool is delightful whatever size stream.
The sight of a rising fish, the calculated cast to the cut-bank or the bending of the rod are the immediate rewards for me. Longer lasting are the joys of time spent in wild places chasing wild trout sometimes with no one to celebrate with but me.