Master Stillwater Fly Fishing: 5 Tips from a Kindred Anglers
With: kindredanglers
We caught up with Travis, a Colorado-based fly fishing guide and the founder of Kindred Anglers. In this interview, Travis shares how a childhood fascination with fishing turned into a lifelong passion, the challenges he faced starting his guiding career, and his top tips for tackling Colorado’s Stillwater fisheries. Whether you’re a seasoned angler or just getting started, Travis’s journey and advice will leave you ready to hit the water.
Travis, how did you first get into fly fishing, and what led you to pursue guiding as a career in Colorado?
Well, I’ve had a rod in my hand since before I could walk… moms always gotta show off the embarrassing pictures of me casting tweety bird push button rods across the living room when I was 2. But I’ll NEVER forget the first time I saw giant brown absolutely crush a Damsel fly top water and then fly out of the air when I was about 7-8. That memory forever lives in slow motion in my brain. The explosion on the water, the crazy long set from the rod as he was explaining to me how to cast, the click drag peeling to the other end of the lake… I’d never heard anything like it before… my dad always made fun of fly fishermen and the ridiculous amount of money they would spend to catch smaller fish. He told me if they won’t eat jerk bait they won’t eat anything… so naturally I also thought they were silly. But in that moment I turned to my dad and said, “I wanna do that!”. Haven’t been able to put it down since.
As for guiding, I honestly never knew I had any interest in it until it found me…. I was working on my EMT in Jamestown while I was 17, helping rebuild the town after it had flooded away with my dad. I found myself taking a few guys from work fishing almost every day, and after a while one of the volunteers up there finally asked me if I had ever considered doing this as a career. I explained to him how I wasn’t sure if I could handle watching people do what I love so much all day instead of doing it, and I tried the professional bass tournament fishing with family down south but never like it. He then explained to me how he was a pilot for a renowned fly fishing lodge in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and all I’d been doing was guiding him and the rest of the crew the entirety of the time I spent up there after work while I was “fishing”, simply trying to get them to enjoy it as much as I did. “If you want a job up there I’ll make a call.”
It was right then and there that I realized how much I actually enjoyed trying to get other people involved in this sport… to see the look on someone else’s face rather than my own from that very special moment. Took me about 2 seconds to answer, and I told him absolutely. He made a call, and about 20 minutes later I got a call from the head of Bristol Bay Adventures telling me if George said I was good I had the job. No questions asked.
8 years later I thought I’d never stop going back to Alaska. The fish, the people, the bears… it’s everything I’d ever dreamed of. But life had other plans and a few years ago my dad fell ill with cancer and worse, his time in the Marines was catching up with him causing seizures and memory loss from shrapnel in his head. So after one bad incident, I dropped everything and came back home to take care of him as best I could and try to spend as much time on the water with the man who instilled my obsession and made my dreams possible. After all, he was the only reason I ever had any passion for this in the first place, he had taught me everything I knew up until that point I left home. And he was still the only other guy I knew at the time who wouldn’t go to bed packing fishing gear all night to hit the lake at 4 am the next day.
When I got back, medical bills were crushing me and every outfitter close to him was either already overstaffed, or could only hire me part-time in a totally different part of the state I wasn’t familiar with. I’d be driving more than guiding and definitely not making enough to help my dad and still get him out. Then after taking a deep look into the painstaking and expensive process of doing it on my own here in Colorado, I knew I didn’t have the mental capacity or capital to fund the dream. And I really thought the dream was over… I began to sell my guiding gear, truck, tools, and anything of value to help out with the surgeries my dad needed and even started looking for a “real” job even though I had dedicated my soul into this.
Well, a guardian angel actor and entrepreneur named Han Soto swooped in saw me selling all of my things, and managed to get me on the phone somehow asking why. We ended up discussing some very hard questions as to why I wasn’t chasing my passion anymore… which actually brought me into real tears for the first time in my life on the phone with a complete stranger. I felt his kindness. In the end, he asked me out to lunch, but before we ended the call he asked me to come up with a foolproof business model of how would operate a guide service if I had the opportunity… “take it seriously” he said. And I did... Maybe too seriously. I took every peace wisdom I was ever lucky enough to be handed down to me by anglers who have been doing this for generations longer, and laid it out on a dream board of what I envisioned a guide service looking like in my eyes.
When we finally met in person, ideas and sparks instantly flew and an incredible “kindred” energy came through both of us that we knew we had to take advantage of. We weren’t creating another guide service… we were gonna build something special. Something different…
He explained didn’t know all there was about fishing but he had an extreme passion for the outdoors, and he absolutely knew everything about creating a business from the ground up. Making sure paperwork, permits, and logistics were handled was what he’d done, and if I actually knew how to operate it safely… he could handle the rest.
Well after many more meetings, months of paperwork, planning, and gear prep, a Kindred relation was built between us and thus, Kindred Anglers was born. And although now my father recently passed at the end of 2024, he not only got to be a part of what we built here on our home waters but became a staple of what we’re creating in the years to come. I now live on the same property I saw that giant brown eat a damsel where it all started… and get to take care and stock the same waters I have those Tweetie bird pictures. So I couldn’t be more thankful for what guiding in Colorado has actually done for me the last 2 years. I can’t wait to see where it takes us going forward!
As a guide, what do you find most rewarding about teaching others to fly fish in the diverse waters of Colorado?
Showing how much Colorado has to offer to so many different levels of anglers is a pretty incredible part of what we do… whether it’s your first time casting a fly rod or you’ve been all over the world knocking off species we can always surprise people with what we have to offer. Keeps people wanting more even from the most diverse of places.
What unique challenges do you face when guiding clients on Stillwater compared to rivers and streams?
Typically with streams and rivers no matter how blown out, overfished, or low the water is we can confidently read the river and find where fish will hold up… eventually one will make a mistake if you stay persistent arent’t afraid to try something they likely haven’t seen.
Still water fisheries in Colorado on the other hand are so prone to change, even overnight, it can sometimes be difficult to feel confident going onto bigger lakes here if you’ve never fished them. You can know every single bug in the food chain on the lake and even visually see the food fish are looking for, and still have tough days. Even the best of anglers can lose their confidence quickly on a day when everything lines up but the fish just won’t play ball… stay persistent, find the food column, they still water fish here or worth working for!
Can you describe some of your favorite stillwater locations in Colorado and what makes them stand out for fly
I personally grew up with the mentality I need to catch all of the biggest fish I can find… Blue Messa, Grand County and South Park all live in the legendary fly fishing class we look for when I think of that, and they all have a PHENOMENAL variety of big and little fish alike to catch on the fly. That being said, I’m pretty Parshall to South Park just because it resembles Bristol Bay so much where I started guiding, and some of the fish are debatably bigger…
Travis, what are your top 5 tips for anglers looking to improve their success in Stillwater fly fishing in Colorado?
1. Don’t be afraid to put the time in. Fish are constantly moving in our small Colorado lakes which means moving to much might mean you're missing fish. Find the food source, adjust your depth, and work an area hard with what you’re confident in before making big moves. There will always be times when an area doesn’t fish well at one time of the day and fishes great at another.
2. Even if you think you do, you don’t always know more than the guy next to you… don’t be afraid to stop, listen, watch and learn. The beauty of this sport is there’s always more to learn. Even from a novice.
3.Watch your own bobber… might sound silly but you have no idea how many fish I’ve seen missed due to people watching their buddies fly, indicator or whatever instead of their own. Telling myself more than anything haha.
4. Get a good map and use it… it’s 2025 and the information we are constantly being handed is incredible but putting in the time on your own and looking for those new areas to fish and explore is half of what this sport is about.. a lot of people just expect information and fish these days when they start watching a couple of YouTube videos. Do a little hard paper mapping mixed in with the digital and you’ll be amazed where you’ll need up.
5. Expect to adapt and be ready for the challenging days just as much as the rewarding days. I’ve learned far more on my toughest days rather than on the trips it just happens. Sometimes, you’ll have a tripled digit day in one spot, then go back the following day for 1-2 eats. You just never know, and because of that, it’s why I’ll never knock a spot just because you had one bad day.
How do you adapt your guiding techniques for different skill levels when taking clients out on Stillwater trips?
Communications is critical before taking anybody out on the water and I always ask what they’re looking to get out of the trip. Whether it’s just trying to see if there is interest in the sport, or they're looking for that fish of a lifetime, my job is the same. To ensure they leave hungry for more, and they leave having actually LEARNED something that will help them progress in the future toward that goal.
