A statewide connecting difficulty asks members to equip fly boxes for youth programs before April 1. Image thanks to Colorado Trout Unlimited
Colorado Trout Unlimited has actually turned the winter season connecting season into a statewide competitors. The company’s brand-new Tie-4-the-Future Challenge, introduced in January, asks members and chapters throughout the state to connect and contribute flies that will fill packages utilized in CTU’s youth preservation and education programs. The chapter that sends one of the most flies by the April 1 due date takes home the Tie-4-the-Future Prize and gets acknowledged at the CTU Spring Rendezvous.
The flies go to operate in programs that put rods in young hands: CTU’s River Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp, a weeklong experience for 14- to 18-year-olds held each June in Almont; the company’s STREAM programs, which mix science, art, and fishing into watershed education; and Trout in the Class, which brings river ecology into schools statewide.
Patterns That Fish
CTU isn’t requesting museum-quality work. The Alamosa Citizen‘s SLV Outdoor Report put the principles clearly: connect anything you ‘d feel excellent fishing with yourself. Woolly Buggers, Pheasant Tails, caddis, midgets, foam dries, terrestrials– long lasting, tested patterns that a kid can wander through a run and really hook something. Excellence is next to the point. Function is the requirement.
Chapters Are Currently at the Vise
Regional chapters are utilizing the difficulty as a reason to collect. In the San Luis Valley, SLV Trout Unlimited has actually set up 2 Tie-In occasions: February 28 at Colorado Farm Brewery in Alamosa and March 14 at Spare Keg Brewerks, likewise in Alamosa. Both range from 1 to 4 p.m. Bring your own vise, tools, and products. Other chapters around the state are hosting comparable fly-tying nights at stores, breweries, and chapter conferences.
Members who can’t go to a Tie-In can connect in the house and either mail flies straight to CTU or collaborate with their regional chapter contact to ensure flies count towards the chapter overall.
How to Get Involved
Tie as lots of flies as you can in the past April 1, 2026. Mail them with your chapter name and fly count to:
Colorado Trout Unlimited ATTN: Cyndy Scholz 1536 Wynkoop St, Suite 320 Denver, CO 80202
Concerns can go to[email protected] SLV chapter members can likewise reach Kevin Milder at [email protected].
This is the difficulty’s inaugural year, and CTU is framing it as the start of something enduring– a custom that turns the sluggish months in between seasons into a pipeline for the next generation of anglers and river stewards.