Fellow Dirtbag Fly-fishermen

Fellow Dirtbags

Justin Armstrong

Justin and I go about as far back as anyone in my life can go back. I’ve known him for 7 years. After college he kind of gave up the whole “city” thing and has since relocated to Breckenridge where he can do all of his outdoor activities while maintaining full-time employment (rare in those parts). For a long time Justin not only looked like a dirtbag, but also had a hard time catching fish. The last several years however, he’s really improved his casting and earlier this spring demonstrated a fantastic aptitude for the technique known as mending. His future potential has a limit, but he’s not quite there yet. If you see him on the river he will no doubt be wearing a camo hat, either with or without earflaps and doing his best to completely ignore you.

Chad Bowers, Jeff Clonts, Michael Carr

Chad Bowers

Michael Carr

Jeff Clonts

These three guys really saved my ass up on the Taylor River this spring. If you recall, I was sleeping in my car at night and freezing to death. Luckily for me these guys took me in like I was an abandoned puppy. They gave me PBR and took me to an all you can eat fish fry. We’ve been friends ever since.

Greg Drapeau

Drapeau and I started fishing together in college and most of the time always fished together until he decided to move across the country. Drapeau is a total dirtbag. For the last 3 years he lived here I think he drove fishing maybe 4 or 5 times and contributed maybe $100 to the gas tank in that same amount of time. I’m still not sure how he made me feel good about that. He wears tennis shoes instead of wading boots, “Guns n’ Roses” t-shirts instead of a collared Simms fishing garment, and prefers a TFO over his $700 Winston. The kid has the full package, he could sell ice to an eskimo and he can really “lay it down”. Today you can find him in his natural surroundings, looking for Carp in side channels or chasing stocking trucks in Massachusetts.

Michael Gracie

Gracie is kind of like parental supervision. In his old age he has acquired both beauty and wisdom and tries to show us the path to both. His fly collection could be displayed in the Smithsonian and I admit, it is where I got the impetus for my collection. He also has a website that he uses to speak to the masses as well as keep up to date on all kinds of quasi unimportant stuff. If you have Gracie in shotgun, rest assured there will not be a silent moment as he brings you up to speed on everything that matters and somethings that don’t. He is also probably my favorite “navigator” while on the road mainly because a constant conversation is usually the only thing that keeps my eyes from slamming shut as hard as Bernie Madoff’s prison cell.

Tyler Kendrick

Even being naturally left-handed has not stopped Tyler from pursuing fly-fishing immortality. He has even gone so far as work in a fly-shop (which he now manages) and little does he know, he is now locked in for life. His ultimate goal is to break the Colorado Brown trout record on 4lb test (yes, it does get that specific, and yes, people actually care about it). I for one am very proud of Tyler, I haven’t had to read a fishing report for years and I always get my pick of the newest batch of flies, he has yet to let me down.

David Luna

Luna

Even though most of the time David Luna (AKA “Butters”) is lacing up his Chuck Taylor’s for an afternoon Carp expedition in the Platte, I can still tempt him with trout every once in awhile. David might just be the best man on the vice that I know, and uses his skills to invent some pretty wacky looking (gigantic) streamers. Plus, he needs to go trout fishing so he has an excuse to keep tying copper johns.

Scott Spooner

Spooner would be the guy you pointed at on the river and knew he was a dirtbag. Carhartt overalls and flannel seem to be his attire of choice, and for good reason. Spooner is nearly suicidal about fishing in colder conditions, every trip I go on with him I usually remember one thing, how I froze my ass off. He operates on roughly five hours of sleep per day due to the fact that he took his second job at the fly shop to get his employee discount. Don’t let his youthful appearance fool you, this savvy veteran has been around longer than anyone else I know, save Gracie and my father.

Sean Surniak

I met Surniak while fishing the Taylor in the middle of the winter. He was driving a mid 90′s Tercel with a few fly rods sticking out of the back window and a camo jacket with “mossy oak” design if I remember right. As he stood outside in the sub-zero temperatures ripping on Marlboro Lights I couldn’t help but think he was just another retard. Ladies and gentlemen it turns out Sean is no retard. Sean catches more 10lb trout in a season than I will in a lifetime. Sean is featured above with the new Colorado Snake River Cutthroat state record. Look for the state to update their website sometime this spring to feature Sean’s disgusting mug in the record books.

Clark and David Taylor

The original dirtbags, these two guys are old enough to have seen racial inequality, the counter culture, and Vietnam. After growing up in a poverty ridden area of Wichita Kansas, these two brothers took different paths, with Clark attending various institutions of higher education and David electing to wander the country in search of meaning. Today David still lives in Wichita, and Clark lives in Missoula, Montana.

Len Wright

If I were into giving people titles then Len would be “muscle” or “enforcer”. At first glimpse his 6’3, 320 pound frame makes you think that he would pound the water with the touch of an elephant. However, due to a long and successful athletic career Len is missing cartilage in most of his major joints and as such casts like a thirteen year old girl. Len hails from Texas where he cruises the Gulf in search of Redfish, sharks, and other salt species on the fly. In his yearly trips to Montana he never fails to impress the locals, despite being from Texas.

Fly-Fishing, Through the Eyes of a Dirtbag