Rocky Drift Co. — Colorado Tailwater
River guides, fly selection, and field notes from the South Platte — written from the water, not a desk.
Latest from the river
How I fish the Chubby Chernobyl on the South Platte — a foam attractor that doubles as a summer searching dry and a dry-dropper anchor, plus the sizes and colors I trust.
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Gear ReviewWhy nearly every bamboo fly rod is built from one species of bamboo grown in a single small region of China — and what makes Tonkin cane the only stuff that works.
Gear ReviewWhat fly rod action actually means — where a rod bends, how fast it recovers, and which action (fast, medium, or slow) is right for your fishing and your casting.
Field NotesPueblo guide Anthony Jimenez of Tailwater Outfitters on the fall mouse hatch, his three-fly rig, and why anglers overspend on rods instead of fly line.
Fly GuideThe Pheasant Tail Nymph is one of the most effective trout flies ever tied. Learn sizes, key variations, and exactly when to dead-drift it on Colorado tailwaters.
Field NotesTailwaters taught me to fish. Blue lines reminded me why I love it. The pull of small, off-map creeks — wild trout, no crowds, a 3-weight, and the finding that's half the point.
Field NotesThe fly fishing books worth your winter: the literary canon that makes you feel it, the technical ones that made me a better tailwater angler, and the Colorado writers.
Field NotesFrom a Macedonian hook dressed with red wool to a Blowtorch nymph in a Deckers seam — 2,000 years of fly fishing, and why none of it is ancient history.
Gear ReviewThe materials I actually tie with — Semperfli thread, MFC beads, Hanak and Fulling Mill hooks, UTC wire, Fulling Mill CDC. What earns shelf space on my bench, and what gets cut.
SeasonalA weak winter dropped the Dream Stream, Eleven Mile, and Arkansas to skinny flows — where to fish instead, the water temp that should end your day, and how to fish low water.
Field NotesWhy I tie my own Blowtorches instead of buying them. The economic case is backwards — the real reason is what tying my favorite fly changed about how I fish the South Platte.
Field NotesPolarized sunglasses are the most underrated trout gear you own. Lens tints, glass vs polycarbonate, and how to spot fish in gin-clear Colorado tailwater.
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