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NEWSLETTER
#41 - OCTOBER 2005
If you have access to Microsoft Word, open the
attachment above to see the information below in a
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Leland Fly Fishing Travel Newsletter - October, 2005
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN “PRIVATE WATERS” FLY FISHING RANCHES FEATURED AT THE BUSH STREET SHOP, THURSDAY, OCT 20
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“PRIVATE WATERS” FLY FISHING RANCHES REVIEWED
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Fly Fishing Greatest Adventures: THE HUNT
is in print…..finally!!
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NEW COMBO TRIP – CHRISTMAS ISLAND AND NEW ZEALAND
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OUR FAVORITE CHILEAN LODGE – 50% DISCOUNT OFFER
We are in the fourth year of
publishing our monthly newsletter with updates on
great fly fishing venues and insights for our
traveling fly fishers. We want to help you match
the right location with your fly fishing goals and
objectives and properly prepare you to fully enjoy
the experience. We’ve been to most locations and
pride ourselves on our ability to research new
sites. One of our services is to compare and
contrast different lodges/outfitters. Whatever
unbiased information on timing and locations we can
provide comes at the same cost to you as booking
direct – i.e., no extra cost.
THURSDAY, SEPT 20, BUSH STREET SHOP DESTINATION DAY
WILL FEATURE “PRIVATE WATERS” ROCKY MOUNTAIN FLY
FISHING RANCHES
Thursday, Sept 20, during our monthly Destination
Day in the Bush Street shop, the featured topic will
be Rocky Mountain Fly Fishing Ranches. My wife,
Marte, and I just returned from an exploratory trip
to one such ranch, the Pecos River Ranch in northern
New Mexico (see review below). I’ll have slides of
my trip plus discussion of the other top end ranches
of this sort. We’ll have scheduled slide
presentations on this topic at 12:30 and 5:00 on
Thursday.
As usual, I’ll be available during the day for
individual appointments to view slides and discuss
many of the world’s great fly fishing destinations.
“PRIVATE WATERS” FLY FISHING RANCHES REVIEWED
This past week, we did an exploratory visit to one
of the newer “private waters” fly fishing ranches –
the Pecos River Ranch (owned by actor Val Kilmer) in
Northern New Mexico. Several of our Leland clients
have been frequenting other such “high end” type
operations in the West for years. Their comments
have been very positive so I decided to check out
this new lodge to see for myself.
These type of ranches have many things in common.
Among those features they share are these primary
ones:·
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The streams
and/or rivers are for the exclusive use of their
guests and they monitor the waters carefully to
be sure they do not get too much pressure.
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The average size
of the fish has been enhanced making a 20 inch
fish the norm rather than the exception, and the
opportunity to get a 25 inch or larger fish is
very real.
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Accommodations
are very comfortable and the overall ambiance is
outstanding.
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They are
expensive and not for everyone’s budget.
The Pecos River Ranch is located at 7,000 feet at
the southern tip of the Rockies, a 30 minute drive
from Santa Fe and 90 minutes from Albuquerque. It
has a very Southwestern feel from the shrubbery
which varies from cactus to Ponderosa Pines, the
cuisine, and the lodge itself which could be a large
ranch owners home in a western movie. There are
stables with excellent riding horses and hiking
trails, but the main attraction is the seven miles
of the Pecos River which traverse the 6,000 acre
property. This is a “friendly river” which is easy
to wade and runs at between 80 and 110 cfs for most
of the year – the exception being during run-off
when flows can exceed 2,000 cfs during early May
through mid-June.
An early winter storm had dumped 4 inches of rain on
the area the day before our arrival so fishing
conditions were very tough – water temps were cool,
levels were up about 20% from the previous week, and
it was off-color. Bad timing!! Although conditions
were far less than ideal and we did only fish a day
and a half, we were able to release about 15 fish,
with five of them fat, healthy, rainbows of between
18 and 22 inches. I experienced enough to know the
potential of the Pecos River on this ranch was very
good.
For a non-fishing spouse (or occasional fishing
spouse), there are activities such as hiking, horse
back riding, and a day trip into Santa Fe – an
appealing, upscale Southwestern community. One of
the interesting aspects of the Pecos River Ranch is
that it is a small, personal operation which only
takes in 6 fly fishers a week (a maximum of 8 can
work if it’s a self-contained group or family).
Another unique feature of the PRR is that it is far
enough south that it fishes well much earlier and
later in the season than it’s Colorado Rocky
Mountain private water “cousins.” Cost is $750 a
day for guided fly fishing based on double occupancy
and a shared guide. Non-fishing guests pay $400 per
day.
Those Colorado private water “cousins” referenced
above are fabulous fisheries and wonderful
operations. I’m referring to Elktrout Lodge and
Three Forks Ranch. Both of them are well
established with loyal followings of clients who
return year after year. Also, both of them are more
pricey than Pecos River Ranch. I think that PRR has
a good chance to join the ranks of these “cousins”
in providing an outstanding Rocky Mountain trout
fishing experience and we’ve added them to our
roster of properties.
Fly Fishing Greatest Adventures: THE HUNT
is finally in print
After several years of gathering the perfect photos
and 18 months in production, our book is finally in
print and on a slow boat from the Asian printers,
due to arrive in the US in a week or so. The early
reviews we’ve had on the preliminary copies have
been very encouraging and rewarding. The key
phrases from those reviews:
“….without
a doubt, the finest collection of fly fishing
photographs ever….”
Jeff Mironuck, Publisher
Fly Fishing the West
"THE HUNT is one of the great fly fishing
classics of all time…...unbelievably good work."
Lani Waller, author or
River of
Dreams and reknowned globe-hopping fly
fisher
More news on this next month after they are in stock
and ready to sell – price $45.
NEW AIR SCHEDULE ALLOWS NEW ZEALAND – CHRISTMAS
ISLAND COMBO
Two of the finest fly fishing destinations on the
globe are now possible to combine in one trip to the
South Pacific for those with the desire, budget, and
time. Christmas Island, a premier bonefish
location, and New Zealand, the world finest rainbow
and brown trout experience, are now connected by the
new scheduled weekly air line flight that goes from
Hawaii to Christmas to New Zealand (through Fiji).
If you have the desire and the bucks, this is a
great combo of salt water flats and stream trout
fishing. Personalized New Zealand itineraries are
one of our specialties – both couples trips and the
hard core fishing variety.
2 FOR 1 OFFER AT OUR FAVORITE CHILEAN LODGE – EARLY
SEASON
Patagonia Base Camp Lodge is, we believe, in the
finest trout fishing area remaining in South
America. It is a lodge which has received rave
reviews from every client we’ve sent there in the
last few years. They have an offer on the table to
try and beef up the early season for them. If you
can travel in November or December and want to visit
the Chilean Andes, this is a great offer – two for
the price of one ($3,850) on their regular week
package. In the southern hemisphere, this is late
spring/early summer time. I have both a DVD and a
slide presentation on PBCL which illustrates the
outstanding variety of waters they fish – will have
it with me this Thursday at the shop.
An enthusiastic traveling fly fisherman,
Don Muelrath
Leland Fly Fishing
Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
www.flyfishingoutfitters.com
e-mail Josh Frazier at
Josh@flyfishingoutfitters.com
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