Colorado TU Turns the Tying Season Into a Gift for the Next Generation

A statewide tying challenge asks members to stock fly boxes for youth programs before April 1. Image courtesy of Colorado Trout Unlimited

Colorado Trout Unlimited has turned the winter tying season into a statewide competition. The organization’s new Tie-4-the-Future Challenge, launched in January, asks members and chapters across the state to tie and donate flies that will fill the boxes used in CTU’s youth conservation and education programs. The chapter that submits the most flies by the April 1 deadline takes home the Tie-4-the-Future Trophy and gets recognized at the CTU Spring Rendezvous.

The flies go to work 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 organization’s STREAM programs, which blend science, art, and angling into watershed education; and Trout in the Classroom, which brings river ecology into schools statewide.

Patterns That Fish

CTU isn’t asking for museum-quality work. The Alamosa Citizen‘s SLV Outdoor Report put the ethos plainly: tie anything you’d feel good fishing with yourself. Woolly Buggers, Pheasant Tails, caddis, midges, foam dries, terrestrials — durable, proven patterns that a kid can drift through a run and actually hook something. Perfection is beside the point. Function is the standard.

Chapters Are Already at the Vise

Local chapters are using the challenge as an excuse to gather. In the San Luis Valley, SLV Trout Unlimited has scheduled two Tie-In events: February 28 at Colorado Farm Brewery in Alamosa and March 14 at Spare Keg Brewerks, also in Alamosa. Both run from 1 to 4 p.m. Bring your own vise, tools, and materials. Other chapters around the state are hosting similar fly-tying nights at shops, breweries, and chapter meetings.

Members who can’t attend a Tie-In can tie at home and either mail flies directly to CTU or coordinate with their local chapter contact to make sure flies count toward the chapter total.

How to Participate

Tie as many flies as you can before 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

Questions can go to [email protected]. SLV chapter members can also reach Kevin Milder at [email protected].

This is the challenge’s inaugural year, and CTU is framing it as the start of something lasting — a tradition that turns the slow months between seasons into a pipeline for the next generation of anglers and river stewards.