VAIL — It’s a rare day on the water when the guy who catches the most fish is the one buying dinner and drinks. Customarily, that “reward” goes to the guy most closely acquainted with the skunk.
Then again, it’s an equally rare day when a guy with a fly-fishing rod goes home with a paycheck big enough to spring for a night on the town. And even after a night in Vail, Theo Anest might still have a little change left over.
Anest managed to line his pockets with $1,000 and his closet with another couple thousand dollars’ worth of gear offered to the champion of the Teva Mountain Games’ two-fly X-stream fly-fishing contest Sunday. The owner of Colorado Skies Outfitter in Parker outfished the field of 90 anglers in three rounds of competitive casting and fishing, landing 16 trout and a big fish of 20 inches for a winning score of 36 points in Sunday’s money round.
But wait, this isn’t Bass Masters. It’s fly-fishing. Is it supposed to be competitive?
“I think so. I’d like to see more competitive fly-fishing,” said Anest, 25. “I think when you get to a certain level, it’s always kind of fun to go toe-to-toe with whoever the best of the best is. Teva Games brings that. There are guys that didn’t even get to the (semifinals) yesterday that could just as easily win it on any given day.”
Attracting an overflow field of anglers and selling out weeks earlier than any other event at the four-day festival of mountain sports, the TMG two-fly event is arguably the biggest fly-fishing contest in Colorado. It may soon serve as the poster venue for competitive fly-fishing nationwide. The contest breaks down into two parts casting and one part fishing, for the eight men and two women who advance that far.
Unlike the prestigious Jackson Hole one-fly fishing contest, considered the granddaddy of U.S. fly-fishing tournaments, and the elite America Cup invitational that comes to Colorado in September, anglers must work their way through the open field to earn the right to fish at the Teva Mountain Games.
Casting competition for distance and accuracy determines the finalists, who then select two fly patterns used for a day of fishing. Typically, anglers are allowed to carry six flies to last a day on the river, but high flows on area rivers forced competition to the safe, fishable, still-water venue of five private ponds made available by the Cordillera Metro District. As a result, competitors were given only four flies in two patterns for the day.
“It leveled the playing field and tweaked with some guys and gals, for sure, because it changed their tactics,” said event coordinator Rick Messmer. “They usually expect to fish rivers, so it became a totally different event. But it turned out both technique and fly pattern are what made the difference.”
Anest did most of his production with a size 8 Prince Nymph, including the landing of a 20-inch trout as he slowly twitched the tattered remnants he described as “a gob of peacock herl” after losing his first fly. Contestants were allowed to measure only one fish, and Molly Eyler’s 22-inch fish netted her $500 as the largest of the day — and of her life.
Second place went to Vail Valley local and 2007 champion Mark Sassi with 30 1/2 points. Third place went to Sassi’s Costa Del Mar teammate, Michael Pukas of Gypsum, with 30 points.
None of the top competitors are ashamed to admit that they train hard for this contest, setting up targets of hula hoops and dinner plates, even casting from ladders to replicate the sloping angle of the competition venue on Vail’s International Bridge.
“I think contests are good for the sport,” said Sassi, the general manager of Gore Creek Fly Fisherman, who began training May 1. “There’s a core group of people that don’t believe in competition for fly-fishing, that think of it as more of an individual sport. But this has been a good draw. This is the biggest crowd you’ll probably see at any fly-fishing venue, probably anywhere in the world.”
As Messmer points out, fly-fishing often is considered a “secret sport,” the quiet sport in which anglers commune with nature in pristine settings to get away from life’s pressures. Perhaps that’s the reason a contest circuit has yet to truly take off.
For others, though, adding the pressure of competition only increases the appeal, even if they know they’ll never make a living doing it.
“It’s fun, but it’s really nerve-wracking,” Pukas said. “Because I did well last year, I had big expectations to do well again this year. But with any competition, you never really know how well you are going to do until you step up to the plate.”
