Riverrun Through Basalt

May 7th, 2006 at 11:04am Michael Conniff 2

Yes, I admit, that’s me on the cover on the Aspen Times Sunday, the guy at the corner of the picture of the fly fishing class with his gut hanging out. I knew it, I just knew it, that if I worked hard enough in Aspen—I mean really worked without surcease, that some day I would make it on the front page of the Aspen Times‑‑and in the Sunday edition, no less, delivered to my door.

For a local, that’s the equivalent of the cover of the Rolling Stone.

Gonna send five copies to my mother.

More to the point, the story about a free fly fishing at the Taylor Creek Fly Shop http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20060507/NEWS/105070029/-1/rss02

by reporter/photographer Joel Stonington, tells the tale of how a gang of fishing neophytes first learned about nymphs, and larvae, and Green Drakes—about river bugs in other words. Nobody ever told me about bugs before, those beautifully nasty creatures at the soggy bottom of the food chain. I assumed fly fishing was about flies, but nobody ever said anything about their precursors and predecessors, the creepy crawlers, who provide a banquet beyond compare to the trout matriculating so luxuriously in our waters.

Attention must be paid, of course, but looking at bugs under the stewardship of Kirk Webb of Taylor Creek, a fishing guide and phenomenal teacher, I found the Frying Pan before us came to life, thanks to those damn bugs he kicked up into a seine for our greater scrutiny and edification. We learned the fresh-water shrimp sucked into the river from Ruedi Reservoir are the cause of our sumptuous rainbow trait, and we heard all about eddies and currents, oh my! There are three more classes to go the next three Saturdays, and I plan to be there for every minute.

But what I really learned from that hour along the river is that I have been living in Basalt for more than two years without realizing what it means to have the Frying Pan and the Roaring Fork intersect in our town. I knew how great the fishing is here: I knew it intellectually, but I never knew that learning how to fly fish would entirely change my relationship to and understanding of the river and everything in it—including me.

Entry Filed under: Sports, Basalt, Fly Fishing