The first female president of Colorado Trout Unlimited sounds almost evangelistic when she talks about fly-fishing. She took up the sport only 11 years ago, but she has now “converted” her dad, Felix Muldoon, and daughter, Nicole Fortin, and other relatives and friends to take up the fly rod. Lance, a certified financial planner by day, has moved well beyond fishing. She’s into preserving, protecting and restoring cold-water fisheries, which is also the long-term project of Trout Unlimited. The Colorado chapter just completed a statewide river cleanup
Why are you the first woman president of CTU? Don’t women fish? Women are just coming into the sport of fly-fishing. Many haven’t fished because they have wanted to learn from other women. That’s a comfort factor. It’s not always a good idea to learn fishing from your husband or brother.
What pollutes streams? There are 7,000 abandoned mines in Colorado, there are more and more roads in the backcountry, there is logging. They all pollute. We’d like to keep a lot of the backcountry areas roadless. There are 1,600 miles of streams in Colorado.
How many members are in Trout Unlimited and what does the organization do for conservation? CTU has 10,000 members in Colorado and National Trout Unlimited has 156,000 members. The Colorado organization began in 1959. CTU is putting $300,000 into preserving streams – monitoring and cleaning up. I spend 15-20 hours a week traveling the state, talking about our programs and being involved in the projects. I’m also on the National Trout Unlimited board of trustees.
Where is your favorite fishing place? Do you eat what you catch? No, I release all of them. I fish mostly for trout and I love to fish the Arkansas River because it has the most public access of any river. I usually do stream fishing.
You also fished in Russia? We fished on the Kamchatka Pennisula. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get there by helicopter. The Russians are very interested in conservation of freshwater areas.
