This is from Steve Hollensed, and it looks like a great trip. Please feel free to comment here, or ask questions, as I know Steve will respond. Steve Hollensed, like Rob Woodruff, is an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide, and both guys are certifiably nice guys. If you ever want to get a feel for their personalities, be sure to attend some of their lectures at an Orvis retail location near you.

FLYWATER ANGLING ADVENTURES
Captain Steve Hollensed
Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide
FFF Master Certified Casting Instructor
903.546.6237
flywaterangling.com

Looking for something different in your fly fishing next year? Something located in the US without international travel concerns?

How about an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Lodge with an impeccable reputation located right in the middle of Montana’s fabled trout country?

How about going during a pre-runoff period before snowmelt stains and swells the rivers and before crowds begin to pressure fish?

How about going during a time when big stoneflies and big mayflies will be hatching and producing exciting dry fly fishing?

Then come with me on a return trip to Blue Damsel Lodge near Missoula, Montana on April 10-14, 2012.

THE FISHING

The timing, location and lodge combine to make this a very special trip.

Located right in the heart of some of the best trout country anywhere, the Blue Damsel Lodge has easy access to the Bitterroot, Blackfoot, and Clark’s Fork Rivers. The lodge is located on Rock Creek, another legendary river.

The best fish of the year are usually caught during this time…this is big fish time in Montana. The water is pre-runoff; clear with easy wading and floating. The rivers will be uncrowded and unpressured. This is also the combined peak for the Skwala (big stoneflies), gray drakes (big mayflies) hatches as well as caddis hatches . Dry fly fishing is the expectation with 4x to 1x tippet.

Of course, these are wild fish in wild habitats … mostly bows, westslope cutts, and browns, but also cutt-bows, bulls, and brookies.

THE LODGE

The Blue Damsel Lodge has been described as “both elegant and comfortable, western and luxurious”. It is composed of a three story structure plus one stand alone cabin. It was built by a dedicated craftsman and his artist wife; requiring over three years to complete. The lodge is replete with wildlife artistry that is an integral part of the lodge.

The main level contains a gourmet kitchen, bar, dinning room, and sitting area warmed by a majestic fireplace. All the comforts of home, including wireless internet, are available at the lodge.

Outside the lodge you will find decks, a mudroom, an Orvis Pro Shop, horse shoe pit, fire pits, hiking trails, grills, and a casting pond!

Breakfast and dinner schedules are coordinated with the fishing. The meals are gourmet cuisine prepared by chefs. Appetizers are served at cocktail hour after the fishing.

TRAVEL

The travel part is easy. The Missoula Airport is serviced by American, Delta, and United. Once at the airport, courteous, professional drivers will take you to the lodge (about 45 minutes). These same drivers will also drive you to and from the fishing each day and back to the airport.

WEATHER

Normal temperatures for this time are about 30 degrees for a low and about 55 degrees for a high. (source: weatherundergound.com) Yes it can be cold, but this trip is for the more serious fly angler looking for excellent fishing with luxury lodging. In all probability, the mornings will be cold but midday and afternoons should be very comfortable.

PRICE

Price is $2500 per person. Trip is limited to the first 10 people.
Price Includes:
- 4 night stay at the lodge and 3 days of fishing.
- Ground transportation from Missoula , Montana
- Transportation to the fishing destinations
- Guided float or wade fishing through licensed Montana Outfitter
- First class accommodations at the Blue Damsel Lodge
- Hearty lodge breakfasts & gourmet dinners
- Hot shore lunches or special pack lunches
- Cocktail hour, appetizers, and refreshments at the lodge
- Daily maid service
- Casting and fishing instruction by licensed guides
- Full use of our grounds and facilities

Not included in the price is airfare to Missoula, fishing licenses, pro shop purchases, unusual long distance, special drinks, applicable Montana accommodations tax and any staff and guide gratuities you feel appropriate.

As your host, I will assist you in every detail – before, during, and after the trip to ensure that your fly fishing experience is the best that it can be.

Pre-trip meeting: For your assistance and convenience, I will be holding a pre-trip meeting on February 16 at Orvis Dallas, starting at 6 PM. This is a time set aside for tackle and fly selection, rigging, and anything else that might need attention. I will be available earlier that day for any casting assistance that you desire.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, feel free to contact me or Keith Radabaugh at the lodge directly. Keith can be reached at 866.875.9909 or 406.825.3077. Also visit www.bluedamsel.com .

NOTE – Thanks for sending the information on this trip Steve. That seems like a very good price when you read that, along with everything else, it includes not only wading locations, but floats as well. This one’s tempting especially because it’s off peak season, and will challenge you and your gear – to stay warm, and focused on fish that are probably as smart as any fish in water. Most of these fish are truly WILD. As part of my Buy Fly USA Campaign 2012, you can’t go wrong with a trip to Missoula, Montana, to enjoy the location the fishing and the friendships.

Just Added – Image from today at the Blue River. Released this one, but it had better than average color for a synthetic.

This great fly fishing weather that has set in in North Texas finally has everyone thinking trout – rainbow trout in this case.

The review of “An Entirely Synthetic Fish,” withstanding, and still outstanding (yet to be written), it’s time to get to some slabby catch-and-release only stocker rainbow trout. And if you are in North Texas, and just have to go north, it’s a little less than 90-miles from my door to the Blue River catch-and-release (CNR) area outside Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

As opposed to the catch-and-kill area of the Blue River, the CNR area offers a unique experience. It has relatively few people fishing there – often no one during weekdays, and once you’ve reached the prime areas, it’s quite easy for young, old, athletic and non-athletic people to move around, get to spots with clear backcasts, and have a shot at catching rainbow trout that have had time to gain some weight, and regain some instincts. Sure, virtually all have tell-tale tales, and other characteristics of stockers, but anemic they aren’t.

I am a much bigger fan of the Guadalupe River in Central Texas, but the trip to and from the Blue River is all in a single day’s work. The next time I go, I will be sure to finally make some images of the landmark, Scotty’s, as well as the catch and kill park and CNR area. I am sure not a lot has changed since previous posts on the Blue River, but it often helps to see things are still where they were the last time we were there, right?

Tomorrow – A father-daughter story from their trip to the Blue River

NOTE – This post is looking back and forward, so if you are lost, just do a search for “Pagosa Springs,” or any other topic from this post that you think would fill in the blanks.

If I had to choose a part of Colorado, not the smallest state by the way, to settle in for the long haul, it would have to be the southwestern plot that includes Pagosa Springs, Durango, Silverton, and east to the Conejos and (cheating just a little) south into New Mexico’s Navajo Quality Waters.

It is an area that isn’t completely overrun with non-natives (humans that is), is a bit warmer, and not the center of all things tourista. It doesn’t have a university dominated culture like the People’s Republic of Boulder, and it isn’t the conservative hotbed of Colorado Springs.

For a place that qualifies as fly fishing mecca, I am having trouble locating sources when it comes to fresh current information on fly fishing that area of the San Juan or the Animas. And that makes me think about the entire process of a Do It Yourself, or DIY trip.

The Gathering of Information

Before the explosion of information access provided by the internet, there was probably more miss than hit when it came to nailing down the possibility of catching fish in some faraway place. I would imagine guides felt a lot less threatened talking to one person on the phone, unlike now when the entire world hangs on their every written word. It reminds me of the Police song, “Too Much Information,” often times, when not only is there information, there’s too much of it that isn’t any good, or is completely out of date.

There should be an expiration date on information on the internet, unless it qualifies as universally necessary and always good. There are places that we fly fish, where mother nature has changed the actual course of things in recent years, and right now there are message board conversations about going to Texas Hill Country rivers that are completely dried up! Why is that? Old information.

And once a fly fisherman, local sage, or a guide, grabs an audience by the eyeballs, and knows he’s got them reading, look out. You could be in for a cat-and-mouse game of “secret spots,” “secret fly recipes,” and whatever else they can think of to extend their readership and power over others. In this decade of writing about fly fishing, I am finding that typically, it’s not what a fly fishing “informant” puts in their information, but what they leave out that leads to “wasted” time and effort. (see the story on the current Texas red tide for example)

Start At The Beginning and Begin At The Start

Fly shops are still the last bastion of the most valuable thing we can’t readily buy – information. There are two of those in the Pagosa Springs area, and they are Wolf Creek Anglers, and Let It Fly. I have been into both shops. Sometimes you will want to hang out for awhile for a couple of reasons -

1 – to shake off that “typical Texan” thing that says, “hey, I’m just here to drain your brain and catch your fish. Then, I’ll be gone.”
2 – You never know who’s going to walk in with wet waders and muddy boots. How much more fresh can information get? If they smell fishy, even better. I never get that close though. I shut up, and listen – I listen hard.

Wherever you may go, if you are going to take, you need to give. That’s the plain truth. Here in cyberspace, everything is free – good, bad and otherwise. And these days, I’ve discovered that’s about all anyone is willing to pay – zero. Information has value, and good information has higher value. Think about walking out with some flies, or a local t-shirt to show you appreciate the knowledge. My closet is half full of t-shirts from mom-and-pops, and you better believe I’ll be wearing one of theirs the next time I walk in their shop. If you are cybersearching for information, feel free to give back to your favorite website sources as well.

If you know anyone who’s spent considerable time where you’re going, or just gotten back – that’s a start. For me, that’s Joel Hays. He sprang to life when I told him I had a job in Pagosa Springs last month. Joel and Alvin Dedeaux both said “get ahold of Pops at Let it Fly.” That is a pretty heavy endorsement. The post on Pops was well received and you can look back on it here – Let it Fly Pagosa Springs.

Besides Texas Fly Caster posts on Pagosa Springs, and the fly shops, there are a few discussion boards on the topic of fly fishing in the Pagosa Springs area. You can definitely glean information there as well, but beware of the dates on the posts.

Most guides live by the mantra; “Get a guide!” They know how much time a guide will save you when wanting to actually catch fish, and it’s true. Guides take virtually all the guesswork out of an unfamiliar location and can reduce days of search and guesswork down to hours of zeroing in with current information and conditions. IF you can get a guide, do it. In Pagosa Springs, both of the fly shops are a great source for guides.

Pagosa Springs Colorado Late Season Fly Fishing in Town Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

END OF THE SEASON

As the cooler weather sets in and the aspens begin to turn, Pagosa Springs fly fishing goes into a new mode. Summer crowds have been gone awhile, there’s snow in the high mountains, and if it’s still fall temperatures, there’s probably runoff just about everywhere. The days of wet wading in town are over for this year. Opinions on what can catch are varied, with some preaching big meaty flies to entice fish seeking those last shots of high protein, and others preaching nymphs and smaller terrestrials like ants. If you have the time, try them all. I didn’t. In five days on the ground, I had roughly six hours on the water, so I quickly went rogue (again) and tied on a #10 sparkly black woolly bugger with a tungsten gold beadhead. Drifted down, I caught some cutthroats along Williams Creek below the reservoir, as well as a couple of rainbows.

I was tiring of driving, so for the next outing, I decided to fish in town. I had heard of some good successes recently (big fish), and the water was looking pretty agreeable. The City of Pagosa Springs makes it pretty simple to fly fish along the San Juan in town. Just park behind the Malt Shop in the park parking spaces and walk in. Really. The video is from there.

I headed east along 160 for my last shot, to East Fork, along East Fork Road stopping at the bridge. This area is a showcase of the rugged beauty of Colorado. The water runs fast and the grade is steep. This is classic water that requires all your knowledge of holding spots, how to approach it, and what to use. I did not see a single fish, so if any were present, they were likely in the deep pools, and I had nothing to bring them on. In the two hours I had on the water there, the fish count was zero, but I was able to take in some wonderful scenery and make some new images as well.

All in all, it’s easy to forget the fact that a huge portion of Colorado’s trout population, caught throughout the warmer spring and summer, are stocked just like everywhere else – except in greater numbers – much greater numbers. And in order for the economy to be stimulated, (my speculation is) they will go a bit heavy in town. So start in town.

As the season winds down, so should the trout populations. Folks from the “Chicken Fried Nation” like to eat their trout, and they do. Don’t worry though, an entire new crop will be there next year waiting for hefty folks in waders to do their weeble wobbling wading, just to throw them something they saw a day ago. Of course I’m going back, I hope a bit more trim and wobble free.

Be sure to go to the right side of the site and enter search terms to find older stories on; Pagosa Springs, Navajo Quality Waters, Bridge Campground, the Conejos River, the Piedra River and more.