Like most fly fishers, I have many mentors who have helped me as I’ve pursued the craft over some 50 years now. Some, like both of my grandfathers, physically delivered me to trout water as a kid. Others, contemporaries like my friend Kirk Deeter or our shared mentor, Charlie Meyers, the late, great outdoor writer and editor for the Denver Post, helped me hone my craft and instill in me not just the desire to go fishing but to get at the root of the passion.

I’ve had the good fortune — or the extreme displeasure, depending on either your perspective or your fondness for self-immolation — to spend many days and evenings fishing some of America’s most difficult trout water. Fabled rivers like the Henry’s Fork, Missouri, and Delaware, where mayfly hatches can be dizzyingly complex and the fish are so conditioned from almost non-stop interactions with humans that tricking them with one of your fur-and-feather imitations requires delicacy, skill, and a tremendous amount of both practice and patience.