The long-anticipated release of the 3rd rendition of the Short Bus Diaries is finally here! The Wild Fly Productions crew has invested in a new bus, that may just be the upgrade they needed to make it back out west. The new bus takes them to the Colorado Rockies where they fish some new water, meet new friends, and host a meet-up just outside of Denver. Adam from Wild Fly Productions shares a behind-the-scenes story of finding the new bus and the latest adventure to Colorado, check it out below.
One of the unique things about YouTube is that you’re able to connect with and grow a community of like-minded people. You get to interact with them online via messages, comments, and emails which is great, but you rarely get to have in-person interaction. With that being said, we wanted to plan an event that would include our fans. So, we hosted our first brewery event at 4 Noses Brewing in Denver and invited Short Bus fans to come out to have a beer, win some goodies, and tour the bus.
We were hoping for about 50 people to show up but we had many more fans show up than we ever expected. We had a ton of fun at the event and are looking forward to hosting more!
The next day, we left the brewery which felt like a big turning point in the trip. We took a travel day to drive South and re-load on supplies. It was a pretty long road trip from the Brewery to our next location, but we were able to take advantage of the new tying table to restock on some flies we’d lost the days before.
Flashback to last summer, water levels and heat made for questionable fishing conditions. The water levels had not yet recovered when we were there, but the cooler nights dropped water levels to prime temps for fishing. We headed to a river that we planned to float, only to find out (ourselves and through local intel) that it was un-floatable due to the continuing low water levels. So, we called an audible and picked out a few places to wade and got to it.
The fishing was tough. Although this river was one of the prettiest places we had fished, the fishing did not pan out. We decided to cut this location early and head to our next stop.
After getting the GPS fired up, we realized there was a road closure en route to our next fishing location and it would only be open during certain times throughout the day. If we didn’t make it through that night it would be the next afternoon before we could get through, costing us a day of fishing and filming.
The bus was on the clock to make it and we actually ended up getting there about an hour before it opened. We sat in a traffic jam for an hour until they let the line of cars pass for that window the road was open.
The next day we were pumped to float and got to the boat ramp super early to get hit with a squall headed our way. Rain, wind, and cold were not part of the weather forecast but yet, there it was. It was blowing a steady 20 MPH straight upriver with gusts 30+. We decided to head into town to get some breakfast and let the storm pass.
When we returned it was variable weather but the main brunt of the storm had passed us by. Streamer fishing this variable weather can be good and it was on fire that day. We dialed in the fishing with the BlueLineCo. Sculperino Fly and a few other BlueLineCo. patterns. Once we got going on the Sculperino though we never changed.
Fishing these variable weather patterns can make or break the trip, fortunately for us, we hit it right and had a fantastic day floating and streamer fishing.
We weren’t sure if some of the filming equipment had gotten wet or what was going on, but some footage from the day was unfortunately lost due to malfunction. We had a few days left in CO after this and we were hoping to continue with good weather and finding fish.
These trips are always an adventure. There’s always a hiccup somewhere, or something unexpected shows up that you must navigate around. Our biggest hurdle in Volume 3 was the lack of camping opportunities in CO. Admittedly, we should have checked regulations for these things, but we found the dispersed camping sites were largely “By Reservation Only.” So if you’re reading this, make sure you check for reservations at your campsites in CO!
The real star of this trip has been the “new” bus. With the old bus, we couldn’t have done this trip and we are thankful for all of our help through views and sponsors! We will definitely be able to make some more trips with this bus, hopefully to some water near you!
In case you’re in the Salt Lake area, we will be hosting a live film premiere event for the last episode on Jan 28, 2022, at Uinta Brewing. If you are around, come out to watch the last episode with us live, tour the bus, and drink a few beers. No ticket purchase is required, just show up. 21+ age restriction. The final episode of Volume 3 will premiere on YouTube Sunday, Jan 30th. See you then!
In case you missed the Short Bus Diaries Volume 3 Episode 2 Check it out below:
Article by Adam Hudson of Blue Line Flies / Wild Fly Productions.
Be sure to check out Wild Fly Productions on YouTube here.
Short Bus Diaries Volume 3: Behind the Scenes with Wild Fly Productions
