By Drake Staff
Photos courtesy of Anglers All
In my experience, the best fly shops typically have shop dogs in them. And if the owner is a hockey fan, then that dog will be named Stanley. Such is the case with Littleton, Colorado-based Anglers All fly shop, which owner Chris Keeley, a native North Dakotan, bought in 2009 from Terry and Lori Nicholson. (More on the history of Anglers All here.)
The Anglers All Boathouse in Littleton, Colorado
Keeley recalls his early years of ownership as “survival mode,” but once conditions at the shop stabilized, he knew he wanted to expand. Keeley saw an opportunity in the boat business, in which the shop had dabbled, “but we were always selling those products out of catalogs and didn’t have the space to stock them.” Just over two years ago, in Spring of 2023, Keeley and company opened the Anglers All Boathouse right behind the fly shop. It’s rare for a fly shop to have the space necessary to display fully inflated 14- or 16-foot rafts, much less staff members that are sufficiently fluent in the language of inflatables. Anglers All has both. This standalone showroom features an array of fully framed rafts, float-tubes, pontoon boats and SUPs from brands like Outcast and NRS, along with oars and other gear from Sawyer, Cataract, and Down River Equipment. There’s always a Boulder Boat Works drift boat on hand to check out as well. This building is 100 percent solar-powered and has become a community gathering space. “People just love to hang out and have a beer by a boat,” says Keeley.
Anglers All’s Denver Location
But Keeley’s expansion wasn’t done yet. As a resident of central Denver, Keeley had the desire to own a shop in the heart of the city, but didn’t want to upset the delicate equilibrium of fly shops maintained along the Front Range. That balance disintegrated in 2023 when Trouts Fly Shop closed its doors. Keeley jumped on the opportunity right away. In Spring 2024, Anglers All opened a second location on 6th Avenue in the heart of Denver, in a building that had at one point been a Trouts Fly Shop.
The fly and gear selection at both Anglers All locations, along with the customer service, has been superb whenever I’ve visited. In addition to Patagonia, Anglers All carries most of the marquee brands in the sport, including Sage, Scott, Simms, Orvis, G. Loomis, Rio, and Scientific Anglers. Above the Littleton location is the Anglers All classroom, hosting clinics and instruction on fly-tying and entomology.
Anglers Alls’ Flagship Fly Shop in Littleton, Colorado
This weekend, Anglers All celebrates the 10th year of their annual “Mile High 25 on the Fly,” a two-day event that is the gold standard for dispersed fishing tournaments. One tournament veteran calls it “a multi-week tactical endeavor scoping water, chasing species and strategizing a plan of attack, which inevitably is thrown out the window.” More than fifty teams will spread out across the state, aiming to catch as many species as possible.
When asked about the transition from one to three shops, Keeley responded, “It’s been like drinking from a firehouse.” As we spoke on the phone, Keeley was in the process of updating the company’s software across all three locations, which he predicted would produce a headache every day, once an hour for the next month. But Keeley said all of this with what sounded like a smile, and went on to clarify, “It’s been rewarding, challenging, busy, but it’s been great.”
Visit Anglers All in Colorado at either their Littleton or Denver Locations, or online at anglersall.com
Hayward Fly Fishing Company
If you’ve ever flyfished for musky, or even seen a video of others doing so, you have in part to credit (or blame, for those of you who caught the bug) Larry Mann and Wendy Williamson. The pair had cut their teeth guiding in Colorado but in the late 1990s familial obligations brought them to Hayward, Wisconsin. “Our friends in Colorado pretty much thought we were crazy,” remembers Mann. “Then they came and fished with us. And they said, ‘maybe not so crazy…’”
Into the Bear’s Den
Over the years, Bear’s Den Fly Fishing Company in Taunton, Mass., about forty minutes south of Boston, has earned a reputation for knowing not just the best new gear, but also the value of vintage. It’s a robust shop with an unusually wide range of rod brands: Beulah, Diamondback, Douglas, Echo, G. Loomis, Hardy, Nam, Orvis, Redington, Sage, Scott, St. Croix, TFO, Thomas & Thomas, and Winston…
Madison River Fishing Companies
“I don’t really want to talk you into coming here,” said Capt. Joe Dilschnieder, owner of the Madison River Fishing Company in Ennis, Montana, while chatting a few weeks ago. I’m personally not a huge fan of the Madison River, well, mostly the crowds that come to fish this iconic Montana stream. In fact, when I was an outfitter in Livingston, I judged our fishing by how rarely I was forced to make the drive to the Madison. But even back then, I always enjoyed running into Joe. He makes everyone feel welcome, whether on the river or in his shop. I also found Joe’s path to being a fly shop owner and renowned guide on the Madison to be a compelling tale…trout bum makes good.
St. Peter’s Fly Shops
In the late 1880s, a stone mason in Fort Collins, Colorado began building a home out of materials he had salvaged from the decommissioned county jail. After its completion in 1889, this structure would go on to house several mayors, serve as a hospital, and enter the national register of historic places before becoming a fly shop. The shop’s founder had a brother who was a Trappist monk so he named the shop after St. Peter, the great fisherman and disciple of Jesus. Since 1992, St. Peter’s Fly Shop has been servicing, outfitting, and educating Colorado’s Front Range.
Hungry Trout, Tasty Flies
Evan Bottcher grew up in the Hungry Trout Fly Shop located in the heart of the Adirondacks. The Shop is deep in upstate New York about 90 minutes south of Montreal, Canada. “I would get off the school bus at my dad’s fly shop and hang out until my mom got home,” Evan says. “In those days, it felt like it was full of old timers. It was all anglers older than 50.” Evan, who took over the shop from his father in 2011, explains that in the last decade the younger guides and patrons have given the shop a new, cooler spirit. “The industry has evolved. It is more affordable for people to get into the sport now with less expensive packages, new techniques, and new flies,” explains Evan. “But there is so much knowledge from the old timers that will be lost if it isn’t written down.”
Lary’s Fly & Supply
“Are you Lary?” is a question Ebon Robinson, shop manager, gets asked often. He is not, but you can’t blame folks for asking the question. He is standing behind the counter of Lary’s Fly and Supply in Columbia Falls, Montana. And he is a dude.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.