Family Flyfishing Festival with Team USA

The World Youth Fly Fishing Championships are coming to Colorado this August (click here to learn more about the event and how you can take part)!  In conjunction, on August 15^th at the historic Camp Hale, hosted by Nova Guides Lodge, families will have the opportunity to interact and learn from the best young flyfishers from around the world including the three-time defending gold medal winners of Team USA. Whether you are the next aspiring Team USA member or a first time angler, the Family Fly Fishing Festival has something for you.

Just as the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships will bring together anglers from around the world, Colorado Trout Unlimited aims to bring our State together for the Family Fly Fishing Festival and Conservation Symposium. Youth of all ages and adults alike are invited to have some fun with the tournament’s competitors while learning some new skills along the way.

On the private ponds of Nova Guides, instruction - including from members of Team USA - will be offered for anglers of different abilities. Other outdoor activities from partners like Colorado Parks and Wildlife, River Watch, and the Eagle River Watershed Council will be available for the whole family: fly casting, fly tying, entomology and fish art and more. Lunch will be provided during the Conservation Symposium where guests can learn about the waters of Colorado and the groups who work to protect them - including learning about restoration efforts planned in the Camp Hale area with the National Forest Foundation.

When:  Saturday, August 15, 2015 What Time: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Activities:  Fly fishing demos and learning, fly fishing on lake, speakers Where:  Nova Guides at Camp Hale Directions:  directions or smart phone map link

Registration is $10 per person or $30 for a family of four.  Click here to sign up!

Chase Moore, Youth Education Coordinator, Colorado Trout Unlimited

Chase is excited to bring his leadership skills and background in environmental education to strengthen CTU’s youth education programs throughout the state.  While bicycle touring and backpacking have been Chase’s passion and means to explore the Pacific Northwest, Southwest deserts, and the great state of Colorado, he always watched anglers gracefully dot the stream banks along many of his adventures.  Curiosity and the necessity to see what the fuss was about led Chase to give fly fishing a chance via a Tenkara rod.  Simply put, he was hooked. Chase is now joining CTU to help youth across the state understand the importance of a healthy watershed, not just from an angling standpoint, but from a resource management perspective.  Not only trout but wildlife and people need access to clean, fresh, viable water.  Chase has been on the front lines helping people of all ages learn about their natural world and watershed, leading conservation projects and residential science camps in the Pacific Northwest, working on riparian restoration projects in central Oregon, and teaching environmental science in the Rocky Mountains. Most recently he worked with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies – connecting kids with the great outdoors right in the heart of the famed Roaring Fork watershed.

A colleague and friend once pondered what makes Chase a great teacher and said “It has to do, I think, with making teaching a craft rather than a formula.”  Needless to say, Chase is looking forward to applying his craft – and more importantly getting young people excited about their waterways.  Who knows, maybe there will be more young anglers enjoying our streams as they learn to take a moment and slow down.  Chase and his saddle are glad he did, and are even more thankful to join the family at Colorado Trout Unlimited.

Where Are They Now? Youth Camp Alumnus Collin Papuga

Collin Papuga has been living in Alaska and is living his dream; he has been an Alaska resident for the last 3 plus years where he just completed his first season running his own guiding company, Tightlines Alaska.  Collin graduated from Kenai Guide Academy last April and passed the test for his guide license in Coopers Landing, AK.  He is an alumnus from Colorado TU's 2^nd youth camp in 2007 held at Peace Ranch near Basalt, CO.   I remember Collin as a very passionate and experienced angler at the ripe young age of 14.  Growing up in Grand Lake, he had already spent some time working an internship for Mo Henry’s Fly Shop in Winter Park, where eventually guided for the shop as well.   Once at camp, Collin was happy to show all of his fellow campers his advanced double haul skills.  Collin was a natural leader during the camp and it is great to see him living his dream with his own Alaskan guide service. Fish on!  Collin fishing the Frying Pan during the 2007 camp.

The Colorado TU youth camp strives to ignite the passions of young men and women to become future stewards of our coldwater fisheries.  Here are a few of Collin’s accomplishments since attending the 2007 camp:

• Internship for MoHenry's Fly Shop in Winter Park as a Fly Fishing Guide
• Volunteered countless hours for the Colorado Division of Wildlife
• Youngest youth ever to electrofish on the Colorado River for the Division of Wildlife's annual fish count
• Selected to compete in America Cup Fly Fishing Tournament on the Youth Team
• Graduated from Kenai River Guide Academy in 2014.

Collin explains how he has grown as angler from a very early age:

"When I was 10 I found my Dad’s old fly rod and this was the point at which I put the spinning rod down and I was literally “hooked” on fly fishing! My Grandma bought me a fly tying kit and I began tying flies. I went fly fishing any chance that I could.

My Dad took me on my first trip to Alaska when I was 11 to go fishing, backpacking, hiking and touring the inside passage. When I returned home I told my Mom, “I’m going to move there someday”. I returned every summer thereafter to Alaska to continue this awesome experience of The Last Frontier. The day after I graduated from High School my parents put me on a plane to Alaska and I’ve been pursuing my passion and dream ever since."

Subsequently, Collin says: “I saved my money the last three years to enable myself to pursue my dream of starting my own business. I’m a well-rounded fisherman and Fishing truly is my passion. I would love the opportunity to share my craft with you and give you the thrill of catching an Alaska fish on the Kenai River. Let’s go have some fun together!”

Collin will be back in the Denver metro area attending the International Sportsman Show and will have a booth in front of the casting pond, booth #659.  Look for his banner name, Tightlines Alaska.   He will have many pictures of the first season hanging on display and two video slides shows of Alaska.   Collin will be tying flies he uses on the river and telling stories of his passion about Alaska, and rekindling old and new friendships.

- Story contributed by Larry Quilling, CTU Director at Large, founding camp director of the Colorado TU Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp.

River Explorers continue their journey

Colorado Trout Unlimited is happy to say that the River Explorers program at the Mapleton School District in Thornton will be continuing into its second school year. This will be the beginning of the program’s vertical alignment in which students have different experiences in sequential years centered around healthy watersheds, in this case the South Platte, and fishing. We will also be bringing the program to the Adams-12 district for its first year in that district. As the years go by, we hope that this approach will be an ongoing success showing the value of consistent and stepwise programming to outdoor education. Students who are “River Explorers” will see four years of new activities. One step on the path is Trout in the Classroom. State-wide this year, Colorado Trout Unlimited and its chapters are sponsoring eleven tanks in which students raise trout from eggs to be released into the wild when they grow large enough in the spring. All classrooms have now received their eggs, and many have actively swimming and feeding fry.

River Watch is another piece of the River Explorers curriculum. As its own nonprofit, River Watch utilizes citizen science through school groups and volunteer organizations to collect and formulate water quality data from across the state. Colorado Trout Unlimited works with River Watch to host a few sites through partnering schools and local chapters. As a part of the River Explorers, students will become intimately familiar with the local water quality on the South Platte, and through River Watch provide that data to the public for anyone to use. This real world applicability is something CTU is proud to bring to the South Platte River Explorers, and we think the addition of two new monitoring sites is an exciting undertaking.

Rounding out the River Explorers experience are two more years of programming:  Stream Explorers, the introductory portion hosted at the middle school level, in which students learn the basics of a watershed, stream ecology, and fishing; and National Fishing in Schools Program where they hone their fly fishing skills. Connecting all of these pieces together we hope will foster students’ love of the outdoors, of fishing, and ultimately the desire to protect the places and resources they connect with. With generous support from local sponsors, Colorado Trout Unlimited is thrilled to be educating the next generation of river stewards through the continuation of River Explorers in the Mapleton School District, and the expansion to Adams-12 district.

LAST CHANCE to register for the New Leaders Training!!

In Colorado there are 24 local Trout Unlimited chapters that are an essential piece to Trout Unlimted's mission of conserving cold water fisheries. Every chapter has its own leadership board, programs, dedicated volunteers and most of the time they raise their own money for operations. Running a chapter is extremely rewarding, but it can also be challenging. To help Colorado chapters be most effective, Colorado Trout Unlimited hosts an annual New Leaders Training for chapter leaders. Training is October 18th and 19th in Grand Junction!!

This training is for both new and old chapter leaders who are eager to learn how to be more effective leaders and build stronger chapters. The New Leaders Training Weekend will have numerous trainings, networking opportunities, and each attendee will walk away with resources to help their chapter reach its full potential. The Colorado Trout Unlimited Council's Fall board meeting is also held this same weekend in between training sessions. All participants are encouraged to attend the board meeting to become more familiar with the council and what their responsibilities are in Colorado.

Registration for the full weekend is $70.00; however to show our appreciation for new participants all first time attendees get their registration fees waived. To show our appreciation even more, this year Colorado Trout Unlimited is also providing a $100 scholarship for the first 10 chapters to have a first time leader attend to help with travel expenses.

Please contact Stephanie Scott (sscott@tu.org) or 720-354-2647 to apply for one of the scholarships or for general questions about the training.

Follow this link to see the agenda and register for the New Leaders Training: Register Here

Registration Deadline is October 13, 2014.

2014 Camp Essay Contest -- Honorable Mention: Abby

Abby's home river is The Poudre, right here in Colorado.  Her essay highlights her experience at the TU Youth Camp this year.  Great job Abby!!  See you on the water...

West Denver Chapter cleans up Clear Creek

September 27^th saw several miles of Clear Creek Canyon made beautiful again, thanks to many volunteers organized through The West Denver Chapter. The effort brought help from Colorado Women Flyfishers, and youth from Achieve Academy of Mapleton School District.  These 6^th & 7^th graders got down and dirty as part of their involvement with the South Platte River Explorers Program.  This clean-up was the inaugural activity in a series of educational experiences centering on watershed science and fishing!  Volunteers gathered at Mountain Tool and Feed in Idaho Springs, who generously offered their site for parking, and a BBQ lunch following the clean-up. The West Denver Chapter does a great job organizing this clean-up annually in the fall.   Thanks to its proximity to the Front-Range, Clear Creek is second in the state for recreational users, including anglers, rafters, and kayakers.

For more information on Youth Education Programs, contact Garrett Hanks ghanks@TU.org

CTU New Leaders Training Registration is Now Open!!

In Colorado there are 24 local Trout Unlimited chapters that are an essential piece to Trout Unlimted's mission of conserving cold water fisheries. Every chapter has its own leadership board, programs, dedicated volunteers and most of the time they raise their own money for operations. Running a chapter is extremely rewarding, but it can also be challenging. To help Colorado chapters be most effective, Colorado Trout Unlimited hosts an annual New Leaders Training for chapter leaders. This training is for both new and old chapter leaders who are eager to learn how to be more effective leaders and build stronger chapters. The New Leaders Training Weekend will have numerous trainings, networking opportunities, and each attendee will walk away with resources to help their chapter reach its full potential. The Colorado Trout Unlimited Council's Fall board meeting is also held this same weekend in between training sessions. All participants are encouraged to attend the board meeting to become more familiar with the council and what their responsibilities are in Colorado.

Registration for the full weekend is $70.00; however to show our appreciation for new participants all first time attendees get their registration fees waived. To show our appreciation even more, this year Colorado Trout Unlimited is also providing a $100 scholarship for the first 10 chapters to have a first time leader attend to help with travel expenses.

Please contact Stephanie Scott (sscott@tu.org) or 720-354-2647 to apply for one of the scholarships or for general questions about the training.

Follow this link to register for the New Leaders Training: Register Here

Registration Deadline is October 13, 2014.

Outdoor Mentors - connecting kids with the outdoors

Young people today experience the world in a very different way than a generation previous. Time once spent exploring neighborhood fields, splashing in the creek down the street, and strolling through a nearby forest has been replaced by time spent navigating online worlds, diving into the latest season on Netflix, and scrolling through Facebook. Friendships and adventures now are built out of online interactions rather than shared journeys in nature. The people who care about and protect our fisheries and watersheds came to care about them by spending time in them with other people who also cared. If youth lose their connection to the outdoors, it has repercussions for our tomorrows which cannot be ignored even in our successes of today. Be it through a family member or a friend, it is likely somebody else introduced you to the magic of the natural world. That connection usually won’t come as a single moment of insight but rather as an ongoing path, eventually leading to the love of the places you have been and the desire to protect those places. Imagine what your life might be like had you not had such experiences. Colorado Trout Unlimited has developed a program to reach youth who otherwise might not have those experiences, and giving them the chance to fall in love with Colorado’s outdoors, fish, and rivers.

Outdoor Mentors is a coalition of conservation organizations, state agencies, youth development organizations, and other key outdoor recreation stakeholders coordinating their efforts to expand opportunities for disadvantaged youth to participate in outdoor recreation and learn the importance of our conservation heritage. Based on a successful model from Kansas, Outdoor Mentors in Colorado now involves multiple youth mentoring groups, from Big Brothers Big Sisters to Denver Kids Inc. With two large festivals held annually, as well as individual programs offered by sportsmen’s groups, Outdoor Mentors continues to get kids outside. Colorado TU’s participation includes fishing days, science camps, fly fishing day trips, and overnight outings.

On August 16, the coalition held its Outdoor Mentors Festival at Barr Lake State Park, drawing participants both from mentoring organizations and individual families. The event featured the brand new archery range at the Park. As hosts for the festival, and by providing a central point for sportsmen’s groups to coordinate efforts, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been a leader in the ongoing success of Outdoor Mentors. At Barr Lake, kids and their mentors had the chance to try archery, birding, flycasting, fishing, geocaching, and target shooting.  The Park and the festival provided a great opportunity to showcase the fantastic outdoor resources on our public lands.

Fly fishing is just one way for kids to experience the outdoors. Colorado Trout Unlimited is hopeful that Outdoor Mentors will be the vehicle for many youth to find a new hobby or passion in our state’s wild places. Whatever it may be which interests a youth in your life, I encourage you to be a mentor in your own way. If you care about the amazing places in which you fish, hunt, and recreate, there is no better way to care for them than to pass on your passion.

For more information on the Outdoor Mentors Collaborative, to become a partner, or to volunteer as a mentor, please contact Garrett Hanks at ghanks@tu.org.

Fish On with the Greenbacks and Big Brothers Big Sisters

What is better than hearing the excitement in a child’s voice when they have hooked into their very first fish or chased down a grasshopper and finally caught it? That excitement and enthusiasm was exactly what we experienced these past couple weekends in the annual Greenbacks and Big Brothers Big Sisters fishing and river exploration events. The event consisted of a two part session on consecutive Saturdays. The first session was held at Reynolds Landing in Littleton where the kids had the opportunity to learn about several different aspects of fishing, ecology, and entomology. We started off the day learning about the differences between spin fishing and flyfishing. After a quick lesson in the technique of fly-fishing the kids had the opportunity to practice their casting skills!  Once these skills were honed, we moved onto bugs! What kid doesn’t like bugs? The kids were given the opportunity to observe and identify the aquatic insects that live in the South Platte, conduct some experiments to understand the impacts of temperature and light, and then tie some flies that imitated the insects that they previously identified. The day ended with the kids chasing and catching grasshoppers, which were used in their bottle ecology experiments. The day was a huge  success, and all of the kids were anxious for the following weekend where they would be given the opportunity to apply everything they learned.

The second session of this event consisted of fishing.The weather was perfect on Saturday when approximately 15 matches arrived at Lake Lehow, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife area. The energy and excitement in the air was buzzing and everyone was anxious to get on the water. These kids, and their mentors, came out to build some new relationships, get a little dirty, and try their hand at catching some fish!  After a safety briefing and a discussion about the practice of catch and release we were off.  It wasn’t soon after that we had lines in the water that you heard squeals of excitement “FISH ON”!!!  Fishing that day was absolutely amazing. We’re pretty sure every kid caugh at least one or maybe five fish. With the help of CPW and The Greenbacks volunteers, we were able to share our love of the outdoors and fishing knowledge to the next generation of anglers!

Be sure to visit our website for more information and sign up for our newsletter. http://thegreenbacks.org