The Magazine of The University of Montana

The Fly-Fishing Lure

Pastime lands students, faculty, staff at UM

By Daryl Gadbow

UM junior Jamie Rogers takes some time out of his day to fly-fish on the Bitterroot River.

Phillips Exeter Academy is recognized as a traditional launching pad for students en route to an Ivy League college education. It’s a good bet that the 50 percent of its graduates who don’t blast off for Harvard are likely to land at Yale.

Coming from a long line of Yale grads, Jamie Rogers’ future trajectory seemed preordained when he finished up at the exclusive prep school in Exeter, N.H.

There was no doubt in his mind, says Rogers, regarding his college destination.

“From an early age,” he says, “my dad instilled in me a love of rivers and fish and good books. So, when it came time to consider college, those passions were factors. The University of Montana popped up on my radar pretty quickly, and it wasn’t long before it was my first and only choice.”

So, as much as UM’s reputation for academic excellence, it was the close proximity of the Bitterroot, Blackfoot, and Clark Fork rivers, and Rock Creek—internationally renowned fly-fishing waters—that drew Rogers from his home in New York City to the Missoula campus.

Rogers catches his first fish of the day on the Bitterroot River. Above: Rogers, who also works at Grizzly Hackle, says it did not take much for UM to become his first, and only, choice for attending college.

He’s certainly not alone. He joins a lengthy procession of students, faculty, and staff from across the country, who have followed their passion for fly-fishing to UM. Many of those students, after completing their education, have chosen careers in the sport.

Rogers, now a junior majoring in English at the University, with emphases in creative writing and literature, has become an official spokesman for attracting prospective students to UM through fly-fishing.

He stars in a promotional video featured on UM’s Undergraduate Admissions Web page. Along with other videos on the site highlighting the diverse aspects of student life at the University, Rogers’ fly-fishing video is designed as a recruiting tool, says Jed Liston, assistant vice president for enrollment.

With the idyllic setting of the sparkling Bitterroot River in the background, Rogers speaks casually and articulately in the video about the value of fly-fishing as an integral part of his experience at UM.

“My hobby is fishing,” he says. “And being at The University of Montana is convenient because now I’m standing about five miles away from campus on a Blue Ribbon trout stream.”

In the video, Rogers traces graceful arcs with his fly rod, casting from a raft as he drifts solo along a tranquil stretch of the Bitterroot. His stylish efforts are rewarded with a gorgeous rainbow gleaming in his net.

Above: Tony Tomsu holds his new hopper pattern. Left: The stonefly body cutters developed by Tomsu’s company, River Road Creations.

His narration continues:

“Balance for me is being able to go study literature with my favorite poet in the morning, and then I can, between classes in the afternoon, go fish on one of the most famous trout streams in America. And then go to class again. That’s balance for me.

“Fishing keeps me in Missoula for sure,” he adds. “You know, I like to get around the state, because there are a lot of beautiful places. But there are so many trout within 20 miles of Missoula, there’s no reason to ever leave.”

Videos on UM’s Web site such as this one can be particularly effective in recruiting new students, Liston says.

Surveys of all incoming students—as well as students who are accepted into UM but don’t enroll—indicate that 93 percent of all students do the majority of their research about college choices on the Web, Liston says. And 85 percent of students apply to colleges online.

“With this age group you have to tell a compelling story,” he adds. “They’re the most savvy consumers who ever walked the planet. But if you get students who are a good fit, they’ll stay, like Jamie. He’s a great fit.”

The incoming students are asked in the survey why they decided to come to UM.

Opportunities to engage in outdoor recreational activities often are listed as a primary reason, according to Liston.

“Outdoor recreation is a cornerstone for us,” he says. “Especially for kids from out of state. We use it in recruiting. We tell them it’s the culture of Missoula and the University. It’s what we do. The kind of kids we attract love this outdoor concept.”

Fly-fishing shows up frequently as a primary influence in students’ decisions to enroll at UM, Liston adds. And that’s been especially prevalent since the hit movie A River Runs Through It came out in 1992. Based on the novella by the late Missoula native Norman Maclean, the movie is set in Missoula and Western Montana, and fly-fishing figures prominently as a major backdrop to the story.

“The movie, when it came out, was such a sensation,” Liston says. “It caused an upsurge in interest in fly-fishing.”

Although the Missoula area, more than UM, was closely identified with the movie, he adds, “We certainly benefited from that. Generally, we attracted good fly-fishing students who were already committed to it. The movie enhanced our community and the University. We haven’t seen a push like that in years.”

However, as popularity of the film waned, says Liston, the interest in fly-fishing it sparked led to more people reading Maclean’s novel and other classic fly-fishing literature.

“That’s important for prospective students,” he says. “As dean of admissions, you want them to be readers. Many had read the great (angling) writers. What we’ve seen is students very well-read, not only in the how-to, but the philosophy of fly-fishing.”

Occasionally, says Liston, some prospective students admit to feeling intimidated by the idea that everyone in Montana and at UM are all expert anglers.

“I tell them that everyone is willing to share it with others–all the students and faculty,” he says. “It’s not a closed group. I think that’s what’s unique about the University. What I convey to the prospective students is that we can line you up with someone to teach you.”

Avid Anglers

In fact, UM provides students opportunities to learn how to fly-fish through classes offered by both the Campus Recreation Outdoor Program and the Department of Health and Human Performance.

In recent years, the Outdoor Program’s fly-fishing courses have been taught by George Kesel, owner of Kesel’s Four Rivers Fly Shop in Missoula.

An ultra-high-speed camera image of casting techniques (shown here) is used by McCue to analyze potential injuries.

An expert fly-fisher, fly-tier, and angling instructor, Kesel teaches two classes a year at UM—one during spring semester and one in the fall. For the past two years, the classes have had more than twenty-five students each—the maximum size allowed.

Kesel’s course includes four, two-hour classroom sessions, and winds up with two class days on the stream. Each classroom session is divided between an hour of discussion—covering topics such as “reading the water” to deduce where trout live, aquatic insects and their imitation fly patterns, fishing tactics, and trout behavior—followed by an hour of casting instruction outside.

“Most of the students—I’d say 80 percent—are from out of state,” says Kesel. “They’ve come here, and they’re trying to learn to fly-fish, which is part of why they’ve come to Montana from where they were. They want to do the things Montana offers—outdoor activities in general. And intrinsic to that is fly-fishing.”

Fly-fishing classes offered through the Department of Health and Human Performance in recent years have been provided by Missoula’s Kingfisher Fly Shop, conveniently located just across the Clark Fork River from the UM campus.

Kingfisher owners Matt Potter and Jim Cox—both UM alumni—as well as several of their fly-fishing guides, have taught the classes at UM. Three classes are offered each year–spring, summer, and fall. Two are coed, and one is exclusively for women. Enrollment is limited to about thirty students in each. Demand is high, according to Cox and Potter.

“They’re hugely popular classes,” Cox says. “They fill up in about an hour, as soon as they hit CyberBear (UM’s online class registration service).”

Rogers paddles down the Bitterroot River after a long day of fly-fishing.

“Typically,” adds Potter, “90 percent of the students are seniors because they get preference. I expected most to be from out of state. But it’s an even mix. Half the kids at the University are here for the fishing or outdoors activities. They’re a huge part of our customer base.”

And since the shop opened a dozen years ago, UM students and alumni have been a mainstay of the Kingfisher’s guide staff and shop employees, Cox says.

After researching colleges around the country Potter came from Connecticut to UM specifically for its fly-fishing opportunities.

“I talked to the registrar, and he says, ‘A river flows right through town and I’m going fishing as soon as I get off the phone,’” Potter recalls. “After talking to a lot of people, I found out UM has the closest fishing to campus of any university in the U.S.”

Cox, a Missoula native, decided to stay home to attend UM because of his obsession with fly-fishing.

“I fished all the time,” Cox says. “I scheduled all my classes so I’d be done by 11 a.m. every day. I’d take any class to fit that, whether it was Latin or social statistics, so I could be on the river by 11. I ended up with an English degree because that’s what I happened to accumulate the most credits in. It kept me fishing all the time.”

Hooked On Fly-Fishing

Ask around any academic department at UM, and you’re likely to find at least one or two faculty members who were pulled in by the lure of fly-fishing. And many top educators who could leave UM to join other prestigious universities will tell you they choose to stay, in part, because of the Missoula lifestyle—including fly-fishing.

Diana Six is a professor of forest entomology and pathology and interim associate dean of graduate programs in the Department of Ecosystem Sciences of UM’s College of Forestry and Conservation.

She didn’t originally come to UM to fly-fish.

“But it certainly is one of the things keeping me here,” Six says.

A couple of years after arriving at UM, during which she was consumed with setting up a research program, “my husband bought me a little $25 fly-tying kit for Christmas,” she says. “I tied up all five flies it was equipped to make and was hooked. I promptly went out and maxed out several credit cards on tools and feathers and fur. And I tied, and tied, and tied.

“I also should have had a bumper sticker on my car that stated, ‘I brake for road-kill.’

“After a few months of obsessive tying, I started tying realistic flies, some of which took more than 30 hours to complete.”

Soon her home was overflowing with flies, she adds. So she decided to go fishing to lose some and make room for more.

“I’ve been fly-fishing ever since,” Six says, “both here in Montana, and now for tigerfish in Africa, where I work (on research projects) part of each summer. It’s not only fun, but one of the best ways to beat the stress of a demanding job.”

As spring arrives, Jamie Rogers eagerly anticipates the skwala stonefly hatch that sets off an annual fly-fishing frenzy on the Bitterroot River. So, of course, he’s arranged his school schedule at UM to allow him to fish and attend class in the same day.

“Bottom line is not many universities in the world make that so easy to do,” he says. “And just like every other year I’ve been here, I’m sure my grades will experience a three-week lull. It’s a small price to pay.”

Staffers Fulfill Fly-Fishing Fantasies

Two UM staff members not only came to UM because of fly-fishing, but also have since become widely known for their endeavors in the fly-fishing world.

Dr. Tim McCue, the head team physician for UM’s Intercollegiate Athletics programs, also is considered perhaps the world’s leading authority on fly-casting injuries.

After conducting an extensive survey of certified fly-casting instructors across the United States, McCue started the nation’s first Fly Casting Institute in 2004, a multiday clinic designed to analyze a fly-fisher’s casting technique and prescribe specific methods to prevent future injury and alleviate existing pain associated with casting a fly rod.

And, according to McCue, there’s a surprising amount of pain to go around in fly-fishing—an activity generally described as contemplative, relaxing, gentle, and graceful, as much an art form as a sport.

In his survey of casting instructors, he found that of the 292 who responded, virtually all reported experiencing some form of pain or discomfort in their shoulders, elbows, and wrists.

From the results, McCue estimates that up to 73 percent of America’s 13 million fly-fishers may be enduring painful side effects of their pursuit.

Using ultra-high-speed cameras to record casting technique in his institute clinics each summer, McCue and his partners can analyze fly-casters’ technique and help them learn to alter their casting style to avoid injury. In their clinics they also prescribe physical therapy for existing injuries.

“There’s nobody else out there doing what we do,” says McCue. (On the Web, see www.flycastinginstitute.com.)

McCue, who originally came to UM from Billings as an undergraduate student in 1991, says he was attracted by the outstanding fly-fishing available in the vicinity.

“I’d get done with class at 11:30 in the morning, and have a chemistry lab from 3 to 5 in the afternoon,” he says. “In between, I’d run down to the student cafeteria, grab a sandwich, and then run down to the Clark Fork to fish.”

After completing medical school, says McCue, “there was no happier guy in the world to see they were advertising for a team physician at The University of Montana. It was a chance for me to come back to a community that I love and be able to enjoy some great fly-fishing.”

Tony Tomsu is UM’s associate director for Institutional Research and Planning.

He moved to the Bitterroot Valley just south of Missoula from Texas in 1993, motivated by a desire to be closer to top-notch fly-fishing.

“I’d been a fly-tier all my life,” he says. “And although there are no trout in Texas, I’d started trout fishing seriously in Colorado. I spent six or seven years trying to decide where I wanted to live. I did a lot of research and decided Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley were ideal. It has the right combination of urban and country and the University. Plus, it’s trout central.”

Eleven years ago, as an offshoot of his interest in tying flies made of foam for his personal use, Tomsu started a company to manufacture tools to produce foam flies.

Making the tools by himself in his garage at first, Tomsu built a new facility in 2003 and hired three employees to help in the manufacturing process. The company’s sales growth nearly doubled every year.

Today, his company, River Road Creations in Stevensville, is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of foam cutters to form fly wings and bodies.

Initially, foam flies offended the sensibility of some fly-fishers who favored the traditional patterns made of natural fur and feathers, Tomsu says. But because of their exceptional effectiveness, durability, ease of tying, and especially their inherent unsinkable quality—not to mention their popularity with professional fly-fishing guides around the country—foam flies have now gained widespread acceptance.

Tomsu’s company makes foam cutters to produce realistic flies in myriad sizes and patterns, from giant saltwater and bass creations to tiny mayflies for discriminating trout.

In addition to making the foam cutters, Tomsu’s company also distributes a variety of foam fly-tying materials around the world. His Web site (www.riverroadcreations.com) not only markets his products, but also contains detailed instructions for tying many innovative fly patterns.

About the Author

Daryl Gadbow ’75 is a retired reporter and editor after working for twenty-eight years at the Missoulian. He is now a freelance writer enjoying fly-fishing and hunting.