Why Bluegrass Is Fly Fishing’s Official Soundtrack

Steamboat Springs’ WinterWonderGrass music festival runs for three days – two of which I showed up to in ski pants, the other with toes still thawing from a few hours standing in the Yampa River swinging streamers for brown trout.

Each day, my first stop in the parking-lot-turned-festival-venue, naturally, was the bar for a drink. The après-ski beer – and the less-talked-about après-fish beer – are two of the best beers I know.

Both come with fresh air, time with friends, and often the sound of bluegrass nearby.

Bluegrass, Skiing & Fly Fishing

Skiing and fly fishing have taken me to many mountain towns, and I’ve found that bluegrass music is never hard to find. Many of the people making that music turn out to be anglers and skiers themselves — including several of this year’s WinterWonderGrass performers, who had plenty to say about the connection between bluegrass and time spent outdoors.

Brown trout fishing — A brown trout from the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. | photo by Jasper Taback

Where Bluegrass and Fly Fishing Meet

Few people are more familiar with the connection between fly fishing and bluegrass than Chris Pandolfi, banjo player for the Infamous Stringdusters and a lifelong fly angler and conservationist.

“Bluegrass music is a very organic, analog, in-the-moment activity, and fly fishing is very much the same,” Pandolfi told me.

“The reason that I fly fish, especially as I get older, is because it's my most present time that I can create. When I go out and fish, hours go by in the blink of an eye, and my attention is so locked in on this very tangible, really sacred thing that’s right in front of me.”

Simple on the Surface, Endless in the Details

For Brad Larrison, pedal steel guitarist for Colorado-based Clay Street Unit, the connection between bluegrass and fly fishing lies in the details.

“Both are very simple on the surface,” Larrison said.

“Bluegrass is pretty stripped down acoustic instrumentation, and fly fishing – if you look at it on the surface, you have a stick and a line and some ‘bait.’ But the more you get into either one, it gets so much more complex, and you can just get lost in the minutiae.”

A smooth fly cast and a clean solo both look effortless—but anyone who’s worked on either knows how many small steps go into making them appear that way.

Why Bluegrass Thrives in Mountain Towns

Bluegrass was born in the mountains, and it still feels most at home there. The music traces back to Appalachia, shaped by the same culture so closely tied to outdoor pursuits like fly fishing.

Jesse Davis, mandolin and guitar player for Montana-born TopHouse, explained:

“Being around mountains clearly influences the sound of the music that you play. I couldn't point to a specific thing that's ‘mountain music,' but there's a carefree, pastoral sense to it.”

That same carefree feeling is a big part of what draws anglers to mountain rivers and streams in the first place.

Winter fly fishing — Winter fishing on the Yampa. | photo by Jasper Taback

Catching the Bluegrass Bug

A weekend of listening to and talking bluegrass made me want to play a little myself. Between time on the river and on the mountain, I tried to recreate the mandolin breaks I’d heard at the festival.

I had my Bourgeois mandolin with me — an instrument that gives me the same feeling I get from casting an excellent fly rod. It makes you want to pick it up and use it, and it’s incredibly hard to put down.

The bluegrass bug is about as easy to catch as the fly fishing bug — and once you’ve caught both, it’s hard not to feel like the two belong together.

Listen to Tony Rice while standing in a river, and tell me I’m wrong.