As it turns out, the first stop on his tour was Clear Creek near Golden. Couldn’t find the paper where I’d written down the exact directions, but I knew it was near the historical park and such, right by the intersection of Highways 6, 58, and 93. With a couple of my sons, I drove around looking for a good place to fish, and finally wound up across from Lion’s Park. When I dragged out my copy of the fishing regulations to figure out if there were any restrictions on this stretch, I found the paper inside the front cover. Turns out we were just in the right place, by the kayak park. Fortunately, in January, there were no kayakers in the area.

I’m not really any good at picking the correct flies, so I tied on something that looked like a scud and fished lots of promising looking riffles and current edges. My sons did the same, only with whatever flies they had selected.

Lots of snow and ice on the banks, so we had to be careful, and there was certainly no wading involved. We had some nicks, but didn’t hook anything. Guess they’re pretty lethargic in January.

Born in the mountains of Japan, Tenkara fishing is simple and elegant. Daniel W. Galhardo founded Tenkara USA to bring it to America. He did the presentation at the show.

Basically, Tenkara involves a long (11-14 foot) telescoping rod with a line tied to the end of it. There is no reel. Because the rod is long and the mountain stream is small, you can toss a fly pretty much anywhere you need without a lot of line, or hauling, or the other techniques normally used with flyfishing.

It also doesn’t use the profusion of flies normally associated with standard “match the hatch” fishing. Each regional fisherman has a standard fly or two that is all he uses.

Daniel described these flies as “impressionistic” in that they don’t imitate a particular insect, they just look generally like food to an opportunistic trout.

Tenkara fishing in Japan is commercial fishing. Not large scale like a trawler, but more like a small farmer bringing vegetables to market. It has been refined down to the essentials of what works, in this specific situation. It’s made for small mountain streams, such as we have in abundance in Colorado, which makes it ideal for many of our locations as well.

Now, many traditional flyfishers will say, “Well, this is just dapping; I’ve done that before.” But Tenkara is not the same as dapping with a traditional fly rod. There’s casting, and drifting, and because you use the same fly all the time, presentation is even more important than usual.

All in all, I found Tenkara a fascinating concept, and I really want to try it. It’s not as expensive as traditional flyfishing because the equipment is limited. And it should prove very interesting on the small streams in Colorado.

Dad likes to watch the fly tiers, but for me one of the highlights was meeting Steve Schweitzer, who presented a seminar on “Fishing High Mountain Lakes of Colorado RMNP.” I’ve fished a couple of his lower altitude selections, but it was fascinating to learn about the techniques of finding fish at 12,000 feet.

Interestingly, he recommended against bringing float tubes (no big surprise there, if you’ve ever lugged one up a steep mountain trail) and waders. He made a good point that wading in such a fragile ecosystem as the bottom of a pristine mountain lake can be really hard on the environment and therefore the fish you’ve come to find. Disturbing the tiny plants that feed the tiny bugs that feed these fish can be devastating and take years for recovery. Plus, you can cast clear across many of these small bodies of water and fish the most productive parts of the lake from shore with ease.

Nymphing is the obvious choice at this altitude, where ice out may not last long enough to allow many fly hatches, but Steve recommends using an attractor and a dropper for maximum effect. Since these fish see food only sparsely, then tend to be opportunistic and may just as easily take either fly. He showed some photos of beautiful fish during the presentation, though his projector was acting up a bit.

Steve says he has fished every body of water in Rocky Mountain National Park, and the results are in his book, A Fly Fishing Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park. He’s planning (and fishing for) similar books about the surrounding area.

Steve is fascinating to listen to, and would likely be even more fun to fish with. The first printing of his book has already sold out, but his web site says more are coming soon. Meanwhile, I’ve got my autographed copy to dream through until ice out.

This is the kind of fishing I enjoy the most; not to far from home, beautiful scenery, not too crowded. Now I’m armed and getting ready to explore!

There are so many great flyfishing opportunities all over this great state, and I love to discuss them when I’m not fishing them. Love to hear comments from others who flyfish in this beautiful location.