2017 Annual Meeting with Josh Duplechian and Russ Schnitzer

We had a fantastic annual member meeting on December 6th. Thanks to all that attended. FHTU was privileged to have a private, exclusive screening of the film, A River's Reckoning. The film chronicles a Colorado ranching family's relationship and stewardship of the upper Colorado River, both in drought years and years of plenty. The film will premiere at the 2018 Wild and Scenic Film Festival. The filmmakers, Josh (TU national) and Russ were on hand to share with us the inspiration behind the film, the conservation success that this family has catalyzed in the upper Colorado basin, and the broader conversation that the film is meant to foster. We hope to see A River's Reckoning again at the 5 Point Film Festival, so please spread the word.

After the short film and stories from our backyard river, we took a trip abroad through a photo slideshow presentation of Russ's recounting of a mind bending fly fishing adventure to the Nubian Flats of Sudan. Russ's story was featured in The FlyFish Journal. If you missed our meeting, be sure to listen to Russ's interview with the DrakeCast below.

"When I was a kid, I dreamed about what it really meant to push the envelope of flyfishing. For me it was muskies. That’s what I experienced that busted up tackle and caused me to rethink how I did things and taught me a lot of hard lessons. But going to Sudan was like that to the nth degree. It’s like putting the whole musky thing through a kaleidoscope of LSD." -Russ Schnitzer Thanks to our sponsors Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures and Scott Fly Rods for their continued support. A few months ago, I sat down with Russ Schnitzer for a couple beers. Schnitzer is an adventure photographer and conservationist based in Denver, Colorado but he travels a lot with his camera. I had seen a couple of shots from a recent trip of his to Dubai and Sudan and was pretty stunned by what I saw - rods doubled over with a collection of the world's tallest buildings in the background, gigantic bonefish, triggerfish that could could consume a small child. While we enjoyed PBR silos, Schnitzer told me the story behind these mind-boggling photos. Make sure you check out the link below to see some of Schnitzer's photos. Alternatively, check out the Summer 2017 issue of The Drake magazine. He has a two page spread on pages 16 and 17 and he also took the shot for the Patagonia ad on the back cover. Visit drakemag.com or your local fly shop to get the latest issue of the magazine. http://www.drakemag.com/drakecast/1828-the-drakecast-flyfishing-podcast-9.html

Russ's storytelling ability rivals his skill behind the camera, which made the second half of our meeting action packed and every bit as informative and entertaining as the first. Below are just a few of the many incredible shots captured and shared with us by Russ. (All copyrights reserved by Russ). Thank you Russ and Josh!