Once Upon A Time In Mexico...

The Dean of the Roaring Fork Valley: Tim Heng


Stats Box:

Started fly fishing: 1964.

Reason: Reading Outdoor Life.

First Rod: Cane rod from Sears & Roebuck.

First Fish on the Fly: Bluegill.

Official Age of Addiction: 17.



John Gierach in “Even Brook Trout Get the Blues,” describes his experience floating the Roaring Fork as a “Montana-style, fast paced, big-water assault where you get one cast per spot, and then your line is in the air as you look downstream for the next place that ought to hold a fish…. It was one of those rare times when something just short of telepathy was going on between the guide and the sport…. There were moments when we were functioning as a single unit with two oars, two fly rods and three heads.” This was 1992, the guide, Tim Heng.

Once, affectionately known as “Curly,” more has changed since Tim arrived in the Roaring Fork Valley than the deepening smile lines etched at the corners of his eyes. In 1981, Tim started Roaring Fork Anglers, a fly shop and guide service out of Glenwood Springs. In 1985 Tim sold Roaring Fork Anglers and continued working there until 1990 when he was approached to manage Taylor Creek Fly Shop in Basalt by Bill Fitzsimmons.

Tim describes the early eighties as a relatively quiet time in the valley—there were only two guide services floating the Roaring Fork and Colorado. Talking with Tim I began wondering about how good the fishing must have been with so few boats on the river, but Tim adamantly shook his head saying that it has only gotten better over the years with increasing trout populations.

As some of you might have heard, Tim has been semi-retired for the past few years now. That is, he and his wife Cheryl pack up the house and travel from October through May to Mexico. I asked Tim if this is a retirement and he said “It’s a semi-retirement. The chance for me to fish my &^%! off for the next five months.” If there was ever any doubt about how passionate Tim is about fly fishing, even after a lifetime of it, let it come to rest.

Tim and Cheryl are planning to work their way down the Pacific Mainland, cruising through places like Mazatlan, Kino Bay, and San Carlos with kayak and fly rods in tow. “Not a lot of fly fishing has been done along that coast,” says Tim with a knowing grin. He’s planning on catching his fair share of Sierra Mackerel and hopefully some Rooster Fish before heading states-side in the spring to continue his fly fishing exodus before joining us at Taylor Creek in June.

Reflecting so far on his life-time of fly fishing, Tim says it is “the constantly changing environment” of fly fishing he appreciates most. “Whether it is your favorite river you’ve fished hundreds of times and you suddenly see it in a different light, or you find yourself in a new location, there is no question,” says Tim, “Roderick Haig-Brown might have said it as well as anyone: fish live in beautiful places. And I’m not entirely sure if it is the fish that brings you to the place, or the place that brings you to the fish.”

Back in late December 2008, as Kirk and I were helping Tim move some of the books from his fly fishing study in his house to the shop, I was admiring pictures, cards, and old awards and began thinking about how much of an effect Tim has had on fly fishing in the Roaring Fork Valley. “Oh, I don’t know,” Tim replied when I asked him. “I mean you don’t want to be a wallflower, you want to get out there and make things happen.”

Written by Cameron Scott, fly fishing guide/poet, Taylor Creek Fly Shop
Reprinted from TC's annual publication, Fly On the Wall, 2008