Across this country, many rivers see heavy fishing pressure.

But like our national parks, a little effort can lead to a completely different experience.

Today we're heading into one of the most iconic rivers, the Gunnison,

and we're going to uncover the best way to escape the crowds,

immerse yourself in the wild canyon, and tap into some of the most amazing dry fly fishing this legendary water has to offer. This is the Weft Fly Swing podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back to fish species we all love. How's it going? I'm Dave, host of the Wayfly Swink podcast.

I've been fly fishing since I was a little kid, grew up around a little fly shop, and created

one of the largest fly fishing podcasts in this country. Today, John Radle, general manager for

Bauer and Winston now is at Sims, has been a guide, has done quite a bit of things out there. He's going to talk about the Gunnison. We're going to go pretty deep into the Gunnison, this amazing river journey where you've got to hike in miles. You've got to hike your boat in, you know, a mile down the canyon. And we talk about how good the fishing is here. So we're going to find out what this is all like, what sort of experience you need to get through the white water in this remote canyon.

We're also going to find out where, a big trout lie in this river, how you can find them in the canyon by looking for splashes on the wall, what this stonefly hatch is all about.

And also we're going to find out how to choose the right weight for a reel for your next adventure.

We're going to talk about that balancing the reel.

It's something that I'm not sure we always think about, balancing the reel.

And it's going to be a good one.

Plus, we're going to hear the story of John Bauer, Bauer Reel's founder, how he was a Porsche race car driver and how he uses some of the tech in those Porsches to create the Bower Reel you used today. All right. Finally, we've got a Gunnison podcast for you. Let's put it together. Here we go. Here he is. John Radle. How you doing, John? I'm good, man.

Thanks for having me on the podcast this morning.

Yeah, yeah.

Thanks for setting some time here.

We are going to jump into quite a bit today.

I think the challenge is going to be to rein in the topics because you're in a pretty

cool place in Montana, you know, the big hole, the beaverhead, a bunch of famous waters. Plus, you are working for Sims now. You've been with Bauer, Winston, all that stuff. So we're going to talk reels and gear as well, but maybe take us back real quick. I always love to start out on the fly fishing piece just to see how you came into where you are today. Have you been doing this a while, or you know what I mean or do you get started later in life? Yeah, totally.

No, I was pretty fortunate came into where you are today. Have you been doing this a while or are you, you know what I mean?

Or do you get started later in life? Yeah, totally. No, I was pretty fortunate to get introduced to earlier on. No one in my family really fly fished. So that was all that was kind of a, I had an

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