{"id":23480,"date":"2019-05-10T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/master-fly-fisherman-schools-summit-daily-editor-on-a-surging-and-swift-lower-blue-river\/"},"modified":"2019-05-10T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T23:44:00","slug":"master-fly-fisherman-schools-summit-daily-editor-on-a-surging-and-swift-lower-blue-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/master-fly-fisherman-schools-summit-daily-editor-on-a-surging-and-swift-lower-blue-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Master fly-fisherman schools Summit Daily editor on a surging and swift Lower Blue River"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\" readability=\"6.840769903762\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-365786-429\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com | Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"9\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1.jpg\" alt=\"Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.<\/strong><br \/>Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Trent Jones \/ Special to The Daily | Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero hold up the rainbow trout he caught on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8 while guided by Summit County native and Cutthroat Anglers guide Trent Jones of Frisco.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"7.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero hold up the rainbow trout he caught on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8 while guided by Summit County native and Cutthroat Anglers guide Trent Jones of Frisco.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero hold up the rainbow trout he caught on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8 while guided by Summit County native and Cutthroat Anglers guide Trent Jones of Frisco.<\/strong><br \/>Trent Jones \/ Special to The Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Summit Daily File Photo | Cutthroat Anglers fly-fishing guide Trent Jones of Frisco is the son of the late Mark Jones, a native of New York's Adirondack State Park who relocated here in 1973 to ski, though he also was an avid fly fisherman, one of the sporting hobbies he passed down to his son here in Summit County.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"9\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"Cutthroat Anglers fly-fishing guide Trent Jones of Frisco is the son of the late Mark Jones, a native of New York's Adirondack State Park who relocated here in 1973 to ski, though he also was an avid fly fisherman, one of the sporting hobbies he passed down to his son here in Summit County.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Cutthroat Anglers fly-fishing guide Trent Jones of Frisco is the son of the late Mark Jones, a native of New York&#8217;s Adirondack State Park who relocated here in 1973 to ski, though he also was an avid fly fisherman, one of the sporting hobbies he passed down to his son here in Summit County.<\/strong><br \/>Summit Daily File Photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com | Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"9\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/LowerBlueFishing-SDN-051119-1-3.jpg\" alt=\"Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.<\/strong><br \/>Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/master-fly-fisherman-schools-summit-daily-editor-on-a-surging-and-swift-lower-blue-river\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/master-fly-fisherman-schools-summit-daily-editor-on-a-surging-and-swift-lower-blue-river\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It\u2019s May 8 on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne. To Summit County native Trent Jones, these cold and fast 45-degree drifts below the Dillon Dam make it feel more like June or July 8. That\u2019s when the Blue River through Silverthorne typically runs this swift with the annual, melting Rocky Mountain snowpack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">This cold, partly-cloudy morning\u2019s 393 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs) river flow on the Lower Blue? It\u2019s about four times as fast as normal \u2014 well, as normal as a Colorado river at 9,000 feet can be, anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cYeah,\u201d Trent says, \u201cShe\u2019s cooking, i\u2019nt, she?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">A Summit County son<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trent would know. He\u2019s in tune as much as most anyone with the ebbs and flows of this stretch of Summit County\u2019s central river, one that was here naturally before the Dillon Reservoir was constructed as a water source for the Denver metro area in 1963.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trent knows because the 32-year-old Frisco resident learned how to fly fish before can remember from his father Mark Jones. Mark moved cross-county to Summit County a decade after the Dam was completed, in 1973.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But Mark, Trent says, didn\u2019t come here for the fly fishing. Like so many others who set roots in this county during that exciting time about a half-century ago, he did so atop skis. In fact, Trent\u2019s father was the first freestyle skier at Copper Mountain Resort and was part of the crew that built the first ski lift at Copper Mountain. Plain and simple, he\u2019s on the short list of candidates for a Summit County skiing Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Many Summit County old-timers know Mark\u2019s story well. For years he coached young skiers in the county, including his son. But he also was an avid hunter and fly-fisherman, one Trent said helped to design the very river structure on which Trent, working for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, will guide me on today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trent\u2019s father drafted and had input on the shelves and drops \u2014 the rocks under the water \u2014 on this stretch of the Lower Blue. They are details in the riverbed\u2019s structure that create the kind of slow-moving eddies that include the fishing holes Trent will have me cast my fly rod in today. Trent truly has a blood connection to this Rocky Mountain water, from the base of the Dillon Dam, where we are today, all the way to the river\u2019s inlet to Green Mountain Reservoir in Heeney, where I live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">An Adirondack connection<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As Trent unpacks his seasoned, black Tacoma and hands me my fly rod, I learn the Lower Blue River and Heeney isn\u2019t my only link to Trent\u2019s story. Before Mark relocated here in 1973, he came from his native home of Tupper Lake, New York, a beautiful, remote mountain town nestled in a deep nook of the Adirondack State Park. It\u2019s a spot many Adirondackers would describe as \u2014 maybe, just maybe \u2014 home to the state\u2019s most beautiful waters. When I moved to Summit two years ago, I also came from this cradle of the Adirondacks. It\u2019s at the foot of New York state\u2019s High Peaks, known as \u201cThe Tri-Lakes.\u201d So, I can\u2019t help but smile to learn Mark learned how to ski there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trent chats about his own Summit County story when we take breaks from fishing at a popular spot known as \u201cThe Cable Hole.\u201d In telling that story, Trent says he, like most Summit County youth, took to freeskiing as a child and adolescent over fishing. It was skiing for a teen-aged Trent, even though his dad taught him how to fish so long ago Trent can barely remember.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen you\u2019re in high school, and stuff, you\u2019re not trying to go fly-fishing, you know what I mean?\u201d Trent says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trent was an accomplished freeskier here in the county. He still coaches some park and pipe skiing, and he loves to backcountry ski around Vail. But fly fishing, that\u2019s what he travels the globe for now \u2014 to reel in monsters as far as New Zealand and fatties half-a-world away in South Korea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019m a nut for it,\u201d Trent says as he adjusts the length of my line and the amount of weight on it in order to dial in the location and depth on the river\u2019s shelf, or seam, where he is confident a good-sized rainbow or brown trout will bite for a fly-fishing novice like myself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Globetrotting Trent<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For visual proof of Trent\u2019s fly-fishing escapades, all you need to do is check out his Instagram, @tct_hustle. The \u201chustle\u201d part of his profile name, that becomes evident to me as Trent wades up and down from The Cable Hole fishing spot up toward another nearby hole named \u201cRodeo.\u201d It\u2019s all with the aim of helping me to hook a trout in these waters he describes as high, fast and technical. For a relative-beginner to this style of fly-fishing, nymphing, this angling in these flows isn\u2019t beginner-level. Hence the hustle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now the \u201ctct\u201d part of his name, that\u2019s less obvious. The other guides back at the Cuththroat Anglers shop in Silverthorne, they kid with Trent that it means \u201cTrout-Catching Trent.\u201d Truly, the \u201ctct,\u201d Trent says, stands for \u201cTrench-Coat Trent,\u201d a name that harkens back to his younger days more than a decade ago when he\u2019d wear big, baggy clothes out freeskiing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Skiing versus fly fishing \u2014 for Trent, it\u2019s not a choice of one or the other. He not only chooses both. Rather, like many Summit County lifers, he has extensive experience with all of the outdoors elements that our, as he puts it, \u201cparadise\u201d top-of-the-Rockies existence has to offer. With the Gore Range\u2019s Buffalo and Red peaks in view behind us, he\u2019ll speak of stories hiking and skiing deep in the Gore. He\u2019s even hunted it, though if you want to do that, he advises knowing somebody with a horse beforehand \u2014 motorized vehicles aren\u2019t allowed that deep in the Eagles Nest Wilderness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Re-finding fly fishing<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Of all those Summit County hobbies, though, if Trent had his choice day here in \u201cparadise,\u201d it\u2019d be fly-fishing. But that wasn\u2019t always the case. Trent said he didn\u2019t really pick the sport up seriously until a few years after his father died, which was in 2005. Trent says it was about seven or eight years ago when he got into the sport again, when one of his buddies asked him to join him for a day. Picking up his dad\u2019s old gear, a new chapter of his Summit County sporting life commenced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAnd it\u2019s just been something I obsess about and do all the time now,\u201d Trent said. \u201cIt just became this crazy passion for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">The catch<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Just about two hours into our time fishing, Trent is confident I\u2019m where I need to be \u2014 both physically wading in the water and skill-wise \u2014 to reel in a fish in this technical, fast flow on the Lower Blue. As I focus on the nymphing fundamentals Trent taught me, which help me to cast into a tight, 3-foot pocket along the river shelf, I tell Trent I feel like I look weird.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWelcome to being a fly fisherman,\u201d Trent says with a smile, his polarized glasses continuing to scan the river\u2019s seam. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a stylish sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Then, the bobber dips beneath the surface.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere ya go,\u201d Trent screams quickly as I lift my right arm to set the hook. \u201cFish, nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAlright, slow down,\u201d Trent says as I struggle with the fight. \u201cLet him run if he wants. Remember that, OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cYep, yep,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cNow, if he wants to run again, let him run,\u201d Trent says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nineteen seconds after we set the hook, we reel in a glistening, good-sized rainbow trout. These are the kind of big, beautiful fish visitors from all over the country tempt the challenging flows of the Lower Blue River for. They are the kind of fish that feast on mysis shrimp this close to the reservoir, enhancing their visual vibrancy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cYessir! Good job, man,\u201d Trent says, placing the fish into his net, which rests half-deep in the water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat was awesome,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cGood job, that was killer,\u201d Trent says. \u201cThat\u2019s a good fish. As long as he\u2019s in the water and breathing, it\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Against the current<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">After snapping our customary photos with the fish, Trent releases the rainbow back into the swift waters. Trent relays the obligatory \u2014 that when releasing a fish back into the river, you do so by facing the fish upstream, against the current.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As I come down from the high of reeling in the rainbow, Trent\u2019s words and instructions \u2014 as well of his story of his connection with his dad \u2014 remind me of one of my favorite mantras from my own father. Growing up, whenever things got tough in life, especially in sports, my dad would tell me something along the following lines. That, metaphorically, if you want to succeed in life, you have to swim fast enough to gain ground against the current. Because life is the equivalent of swimming upstream. If you don\u2019t swim at all, you\u2019ll quickly be taken down stream. And, if you swim just fast enough, you\u2019ll stay in the same spot. So, if you want to continue ahead, you have to fight even harder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I haven\u2019t always lived by that life rule. There have been times when I\u2019ve stayed in the same spot or had the flow of life push me backward. But, in this moment, angling on the Lower Blue River with Trent, I can\u2019t help but smile at how this Summit County local has continued to swim up the stream of his own sporting life no matter what life\u2019s river has thrown his way. He may have lost his father at a young age, but he re-discovered fishing not only here in Summit County, where his family and loved ones helped to improve the sport, but across the globe as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Though Trent has fished in many spots across the world, he says he\u2019s never fished back in the Adirondacks. I tell him about the legendary fly-fishing on the AuSable River in the Adirondacks, near where his father used to ski at Big Tupper Mountain or Whiteface Ski Area. He says maybe one day he\u2019ll check it out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trent then wades deeper into the river away from the shallows, and points the rainbow trout up-river. It\u2019s just another moment along a journey that is quite the Summit County sporting story of swimming upstream.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAnd away he goes,\u201d Trent says. \u201cLet\u2019s get another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/master-fly-fisherman-schools-summit-daily-editor-on-a-surging-and-swift-lower-blue-river\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trent Jones of Frisco, left, a fly-fishing guide for Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, instructs Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero while nymphing on the Lower Blue River in Silverthorne on Wednesday, May 8.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com Summit Daily sports &amp; outdoors editor Antonio Olivero hold up the rainbow trout he caught on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 19:53:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}