We hope you all are enjoying the wonders of winter in Aspen! The snow is abundant, the river is stunning and the fishing is fantastic!
As we enter the new year, we’re bursting with gratitude for all of the support you have shown us. It means the world to us as a small, family owned company that you voted us Best Fly Fishing Outfitter in Aspen for the fifth year in a row! We are incredibly lucky to call this Valley our home office, and even luckier to share it with all of you! We love this place, this river and this community. Thank you for sharing your stories, smiles and time with us. You are the reason we do what we do!
We had a lot of fun in the field this year, but we also had some great new additions to our shops. We expanded our selection of apparel and fishing gear by adding more Simms, Ohana and Topo Designs products. This past year was also our first full year carrying Ball and Buck at our St. Regis location, and what an amazing experience it has been! When we partnered with Mark Bollman, founder of Ball and Buck, we knew that we were gaining the opportunity to share high quality, American made products with our enthusiastic base of anglers and sportsmen. You loved their products as much as we did, and we are excited to bring this partnership into the new year. If you haven’t stopped in to check their stuff out, you should!
In the field, our Guidestaff had another great season full of hard work, fish and fun. We were excited to see our new guides flourish, and watch the veterans work their magic! Our guides constantly inspire the company, clients and each other to try new techniques and approaches to life. We love watching their hard work pay off, and want to give a special shout out to Flinn Pomeroy for being voted Best Fly Fishing Guide this year!
We are so lucky to have Gold Medal trout fishing in our backyard. The Roaring Fork watershed is a precious resource that sustains an incredibly vibrant community of insects, trout, birds and mammals. However, this past year showed us that this incredible resource is fragile. Reduced snowpack, which led to low flows, caused fishing closures on the Colorado River and lower Roaring Fork during the heat of the summer, and many other watersheds in the state were impacted by drought and fire.
Though our proximity to the headwaters of the Roaring Fork allowed us to safely fish through the summer, these issues impact the entire watershed and community. We hope that all of the precipitation that we’re getting right now will create enough snow-pack to encourage healthy flows through the year.
We all do our part to respect the natural resources that we value so highly. We encourage all of you to think mindfully about how you interact with the river, cultivate a personal conservation ethic, and pay those practices forward. Pick up after yourself, always handle fish with care, and respect others that use the resource!
Looking back on this year, we have a lot to celebrate. Though the pandemic challenged us all in many ways, it gave us perspective on what is important. The river, the mountains and the range are all places that bring us together and connect us. They force us to focus, to help each other, and take a step back. When we’re out there we’re the best version of ourselves. Let’s all carry that version of ourselves into 2022, and pray for even more snow!!! Cheers
Written by Cian McGillicuddy, Photos by Anna Stonehouse