At the Colorado TU Rendezvous, prior to passing the gavel on to new President Marshall Pendergrass, Past President Rick Matsumoto shared a video highlighting the "State of Colorado Trout Unlimited" over the past year - it has been a great several months for trout and watersheds in Colorado. Check it out!
And the winner is...Doug Nielsen!
Congratulations to Doug Nielsen of Lakewood, Colorado! Doug is the lucky winner of our Spring 2015 Statewide Raffle and a weekend getaway to the Madison Valley Ranch in Montana. Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets!
Help trout - and yourself - with Post-Gala Sale!
Pictured: A trophy brook trout caught in Labrador. Our post gala sale includes a package offered for a week in Labrador with Three Rivers Lodge.
On March 13, more than 200 people gathered for the 2015 Colorado TU River Stewardship Gala. We recognized Richard Adkerson for his leadership in addressing the legacy of abandoned mines in Colorado and the west. We had a fabulous jazz trio providing music during the reception. Boathouse Distillery hosted a tasting of a special CTU-label bourbon. Youth participants from our annual camp and in-school programs shared their stories with the audience. And we raised nearly $40,000 to help support TU efforts in Colorado. It was a great evening!
But even if you missed the Gala, you can still participate by purchasing one of several special items we are offering through a post-gala online sale! Your purchase will help support the work of Colorado Trout Unlimited, and we have some great items available - from a week of wilderness fishing for trophy brook trout in Labrador or at Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed, to fishing closer to home on the world-class San Juan tailwaters, from two tickets to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra to spring skiing lift tickets at Winter Park. Don't miss out on your chance to enjoy these great experiences while giving back to the Colorado rivers and fisheries you love.
To look at the items available for this special online sale, click here.
Colorado TU Gala: March 13, 2015
Reserve your seats for the Colorado TU River Stewardship Gala on Friday, March 13, and join us for an evening celebrating Colorado's rivers and helping raise funds for their conservation. This year we will be honoring Richard Adkerson of Freeport-McMoRan with our River Stewardship Award, in recognition of his leadership and support in restoring streams impacted by abandoned mines. The evening also features a wide-ranging live and silent auction, with trips and items for the angler and non-angler alike. Tickets to the Gala include admission, dinner, and complimentary beer and wine, and can be purchased online for $100 - table sponsorships (with reserved seating for 10) are also available for $1000.
The Gala will again take place at the Arvada Center, conveniently located by 68th and Wadsworth in Arvada, with ample free parking available on-site.
The Gala will feature an outstanding auction with diverse fishing and nonfishing experiences including a one-week trip for trophy brook trout in Labrador, a five day horsepack trip in the Yellowstone backcountry, a week-long Alaska fishing lodge experience, a five-day five-hunter package for wing shooting in Argentina, a one-week photo safari in South Africa and more! Check out our Auction Sampler to see some of the great items that you can bid on. Of course, along with our larger packages we'll also have a wide array of other items including regional fishing trips, performing arts tickets, ski packages, and more.
Make your plans to join us for an evening to remember on March 13! Click here to reserve your tickets.
About Richard Adkerson and Freeport-McMoRan:
Richard Adkerson is the President, CEO, and Vice Chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. Under his leadership, the company has invested generously in restoration efforts aimed at healing rivers impacted by the west's legacy of abandoned mines - sites where no responsible party remains to clean up waters being impacted by mine tailings and drainage. Among other projects, Freeport-McMoRan has helped TU, the Bureau of Land Management and other partners to advance an award-winning restoration partnership on Kerber Creek in Colorado's San Luis Valley - where a wild brook trout fishery again thrives in waters that were once too polluted to support self-sustaining fisheries.
Fraser the Fish - The Man… The Fish… The Legend…
Behind that beautiful scaly head (ok it’s actually furry) is a hard working volunteer!! CTU staff lucked out when we found Dustin McCory. Or is it that he found us?
Dustin made a phone call to CTU one fateful day in 2013 “How can I get involved?” Not a member of any one chapter, nor aware of what he was about to get himself into, he remembers the pause on the other end of the line…
“Are you available this weekend?” - CTU Outreach Coordinator Stephanie Scott had just recruited her next Fraser.
“I was scared to death…terrified. As soon as I put the head on, all the fear went away”
“It is difficult - I can’t see very well, and it is very heavy. I almost fell off a stage once.”
Without further ado; the man behind the fish…
Dustin McCory
Dustin’s transformation into our hardworking fish began a deeper very personal transformation. A web developer by day, he once allowed work to consume his life. “I lived in Avon for two years, and never once fished…TU brought me back to fishing.” In his journey back to himself, he is compelled to leave the computer screen behind every chance he gets. Dustin spent every weekend in 2014 from June through October camping, hiking, and fishing. “I just get in my car and go.” It seems he is finding a more balanced life; time alone, time on a river, new friends, and fish heads…
by - Rachel Kohler
Next Sighting: 2014 Fly-Fishing Rendezvous – November 22/23 – The Apex Center, Arvada CO.
This weekend he is traveling with CTU staff to the Fly Fishing Rendezvouz!! Come on down, meet the legend, and start the conversation with your kids about why we must protect headwaters like the Fraser River.
"Will Work for Water"
The Fraser River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, flows from Berthoud Pass to the town of Granby. Denver Water is currently draining most of the Fraser River’s flows through its Moffat Collection System pipeline—and it wants to take more.
8 River Rodeo Helps Support CTU
Last week, Clint Crookshanks - the event manager for the 8 River Rodeo fishing competition - stopped by the Colorado TU offices to pass along a $1000 contribution from the event proceeds to help support conservation of Colorado rivers.
The 8 River Rodeo is a unique event that takes teams of two anglers across eight rivers in two basins over two days. Each team member must catch at least one fish from each of four rivers in the Colorado basin on day one - the Colorado, Crystal, Fryingpan, and Roaring Fork - and then one fish from each of four rivers in the Gunnison basin on day two - the East, Gunnison, Taylor, and Spring Creek. Teams that catch the required fish from each site qualify for prizes, with first place going to the team with the most total inches among their 16 fish. Participants get to enjoy an intense two days fishing eight great rivers across central Colorado, followed by a Sunday barbecue and award presentation in Almont. It takes place the final weekend in July. For more information on the 8 River Rodeo, click here to visit their 
website.
Net proceeds from the event are donated to support charity - this year, they contributed to Colorado TU as well as an additional $1000 to Project Healing Waters. A big thank you to Clint and all the participants in the 8 River Rodeo for their support!
Sportsmen aim to put Browns Canyon on Denver Map
Preserve Browns Canyon as a national monument
Denver—On a beautiful October evening, a crowd gathered in downtown Denver to watch Browns Canyon come alive on the façade of the McNichols Building, in an eye-popping display of light and images. The Oct. 17 event, called “Browns Canyon Live,” was sponsored by Sportsmen for Browns Canyon, a grassroots coalition of hunters and anglers committed to preserving Browns Canyon as a national monument. Here’s a recap video of the event:
Click here to read the whole story
The group also paid for two billboards along I-70 through Denver from early September until the first week of November. One billboard features a striking image of an angler fishing in the canyon, and another shows the canyon awash in a starry nightscape, with the message: “Monumental: Protect Browns Canyon.” The billboard messages will reach an estimated 180,000 people a day who travel this major east-west corridor.
“We’re getting the word out: We have to protect this place or risk losing it,” said Kyle Perkins, Campaign Manager.
For more information, go to www.sportsmenforbrowns.com.
And the winner is...
Jim Mills of Littleton, Colorado. Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets in our Colorado TU fall raffle!
Water Conservation Day at H2O Car Wash in Highlands Ranch!
That’s right, you can help protect rivers by washing your car, but only at H2OCar Wash in Highlands Ranch! Saturday, October 11 is Water Conservation Day at H2O Car Wash, the most water-efficient car wash in the state. Swing by from 10-2 pm, choose any self or full service wash, have your picture taken with Fraser the Fish, and get some goodies from river-conscious businesses. Join us for hot dogs and fun!
All proceeds go to Colorado TU to protect our rivers.
H2O Car Wash
1101 Town Center Drive
Near the corner of Town Center Dr and Lucent Blvd.
Highlands Ranch, CO
***Water Conservation Day is sponsored by:
The Rocky Mountain Flyathlon
I have long believed that the best fly fishing spots in Colorado can’t be found by flipping through the majority of guidebooks that you currently have sitting on your shelf. Nor are they frequently updated in colorful chalk on the big board of flow conditions at your local fly shop. And they certainly aren’t in locations that most guides choose to venture (at least not with clients). No, to get to my best fly fishing destinations in Colorado, you are going to have to work harder than that. Because these special places are “back there”. Way back there. To get to these waters, you will have to drive on paved roads until you get to dirt roads until those dirt roads narrow and then run out. Even then, you will still have many miles to go, on foot, often up crushing inclines on trails that may or may not have not been maintained in a while. And when you finally get there, you will not catch twenty inch brown trout or pig rainbows. But you will be happy. Alone, exhausted from the journey and surrounded by the most majestic landscapes that the Centennial State has to offer, you can catch a piece of Colorado’s natural history. And when you see that signature orange slash along the lower jaw, in an instant, you will know that the effort was worthwhile. Because this is fly fishing in Colorado.
It is the relentless pursuit of this native high that can only be found within the high mountain lakes and streams contained within Colorado’s many wilderness and roadless areas, and within the remotest of remote reaches of our national parks, that led me to discover what I call the “flyathlon”. As the father of two young girls, my time away from home is inherently limited, so to be a good dad and still get my cutthroat fix, I pack lightly and carry a seven-piece, three-weight stick. And I run. I run so that I can maximize my minimal free time reaching out to these beautiful fish. I run so that I feel like I earned it. And then, back at the trailhead at the end of that remote and narrow dirt road, I typically enjoy another of Colorado’s finest, our superior craft beer.
run. fish. beer. Simple as that.
It turns out, while I may be the first one to formally put a name to this Colorado multi-sport experience, I now know that I am not the only flyathlete. One afternoon several years ago, as I eagerly described the concept to a friend, he quickly cut me off, indicating that this is something that he has done for years. And the movement has grown quickly from there.
Last August, fifteen brave pioneers dragged themselves out of their tents/beds to make the journey to Monarch Lake in Grand County, Colorado, to compete in the inaugural (yet entirely unofficial) Flyathlon race event. Many toed the start line having endured wave after wave of soaking rain as they stood around the pre-race campfire the night before, drinking some of Colorado’s finest craft beer. The race day premise was simple. Run around Monarch Lake, catch a fish, and do it as quickly as possible. The bigger the fish you caught, the more time that was taken off at the end of your run. Of the 15 race participants, more than half hooked, landed, and documented their catch. And while some were thwarted by the fishing gods, everyone had a wonderful time.
After that first event, the feedback that I received was amazing. S othis year, I am taking the event, and the concept, to the next level. The 1st Annual Rocky Mountain Flyathlon will be held near Saguache, CO, the weekend of August 15th-17th. The event will be permitted through the U.S. Forest Service, making it “official.” The course will be approximately 7 miles total length, with opportunities to catch brown, rainbow, brook, and cutthroat trout (bonus time off for the native fish!). Participants are encouraged to spend the weekend in the San Luis Valley, as camping sites will be provided with the event registration for Friday and Saturday evenings. The event is sponsored by several fine Colorado breweries, so the post-race celebration will likely be legendary. So that we can give back, we’ll also include some fundraising to help benefit native trout conservation through Colorado Trout Unlimited. There will be cool prizes for the top finishers and top fundraisers. If you are a closet flyathlete, or just want to give something new a try, please consider joining us in Saguache in August.
For more information about the Flyathlon or to participate in the August event, please visit my website at www.flyathlon.com, or send me an email at cutthroat@gmail.com.
--- Andrew Todd
