Ed Elkins’ profession is plumbing, but his passion is fishing. It was his love for fishing that brought him to Colorado where there is, in his words, “some of the best fishing in the world.”As a young boy, Elkins spent his summers fishing near his hometown in Pontiac, Mich. “At 5 years old, I fished for hours and hours by myself,” Elkins said. “I would go and dig worms and fish all day long.” At age 12, he took on the challenge of fly fishing.Elkins said he first learned to fly fish in ponds and lakes, and a couple years later he tried fly fishing for trout in the streams. When he was age 20, family friends taught Elkins how to tie his first fly. “I still have them in my fly tying room,” he said.After graduating from Pontiac Central High School in 1964, Elkins became a plumbing apprentice for five years. After his apprenticeship, he started his own business. Never lacking for work, Elkins decided he wanted to spend less time working and more time fishing. “I worked every single week a hundred hours. Every single week,” he said. “I worked every Sunday and every holiday and finally said, ‘This is enough of this.’ And (I) moved out [to Colorado] for one reason – the fishing.”With an easily transferable profession, Elkins took a leap of faith and moved to Colorado in 1985. “I had never been here before but did a huge amount of study and research,” he said. “I’m in the fishing clubs, reading the magazines and all the international sports shows. So I know an awful lot … I knew all the rivers here – knew an awful lot about them even though I’d never been here.”Elkins had no problem finding work as a plumber after he took the state master plumber’s test. With two children in high school, Elkins and his wife settled on Colorado Springs. “We just opened up a map of Colorado, and I’m thinking, ‘Where’s the best fishing?'” he said.Already an accomplished river fisherman from his days in Michigan, Elkins fished close to 100 days out of the year after moving to Colorado. “When I moved here, I was 100 percent river fishing. That’s all I did was rivers,” he said. “And every year, I caught over 2,000 fish. Every year. Guaranteed.”About 15 years ago Elkins started fly fishing in lakes. He studied the fly patterns and techniques. By fishing the lakes rather than the streams, Elkins said it gives him the opportunity to add a few more fishing days. “I would fish from March 1 until November in the streams, but at run-off time, the rivers are all swollen and muddy,” he said. “So, I started fishing the lakes for just a little bit for that one month period and got better and better at it.” He also said the lakes provide solitude, and there isn’t as much pressure. Plus, the catch is good. “I catch a lot of fish,” he said. “And I get big fish.”What’s a big fish to Elkins? “A nice fish is over 20 inches,” he said. “But a trophy fish is over 24 inches, I say.” His definition of the best place to go fishing includes a few more variables. “It depends on what you are looking for,” he said. “Do you want to go for numbers? Do you want to go for brook trout or salmon? Or do you want to go for beautiful scenery? And that changes all season long.”Elkins said there are three elements to lake fishing. The first is location. “You have to be in the right location, where the big concentration of fish are,” he said. Elkins said he doesn’t fish more than 5 percent of a lake.The second factor is depth. “In streams you don’t have the depth factor,” he said. “In the lakes it could be 20 feet or 40 feet or 10 feet or right on top.”Last, it’s all about the right fly. “You have to have a fly that is so good that when they see that fly, they’ll take it,” Elkins said.Those combinations produce “incredible numbers of fish,” he said. “Location, depth and fly.”Elkins said fishing in streams is about observing the elements. “You are looking at the insects and seeing what those fish are feeding on and doing your best to imitate that insect,” he said. Stream fishing requires precise casting. “There is an awful lot to the casting,” Elkins said. “That is something you practice all your life. You don’t ever get where you are satisfied with it.”In 2002, Elkins and his wife, Priscilla, built a house in Falcon. “What we wanted was a four-car garage with an attached house,” he said. Elkins said he has two boats in his garage at all times. “There is a huge amount of equipment and boats, and I don’t want them ever sitting outside,” he added.In addition to teaching fly fishing classes at the United States Air Force Academy, Elkins is the plumbing superintendent for DWG & Associates. However, as soon as fishing season starts, he’s ready to go. “I have to get everything done during the week because when the weekend comes, I’m gone,” Elkins said. “Not a lot of time for television.”Any catch over 40 would be a banner day for the average fisherman, but for Elkins a good day of fishing is catching over 100 fish. He credits his large catches to his precise system of documentation.Elkins has documented every fish he has caught for the last 35 years – more than 2,000 fish each year. He said his best year was 2001 when he caught 3,196. “That’s trout and salmon,” he said. “That’s not counting the bluegills, the bass, the perch, the pike, the walleye.” Elkins said he breaks each entry down by species, size and quantity. “I fish so much that I pretty much know where I’m going to fish, how deep I’m going to fish and what fly I’m going to use before I leave the house.”Does he dine on fish regularly? No. “I eat two fish a year,” he said. “I would rather have a hamburger or steak.”Elkins and his fishing partner, Jim Foster, teach fly tying classes and give presentations on fishing techniques on public lakes in Colorado. He is planning to give a presentation at Grace Community Church in Falcon next spring.A little more on Ed ElkinsWhat is your favorite thing about Colorado (besides the fishing)?We’ve got the greatest weather in the world. We’ve got the greatest scenery in the world.Name someone you admire and why:Pastor Pat Jeffrey. He’s a very, very special man.What is your favorite memory?My honeymoon when we camped in a tent in Montana. And survived 40 years after that. (He and wife, Priscilla, will be married 40 years on Aug. 12.)Favorite vacation?We usually take a cruise every five years to celebrate our anniversary. This last one, we took a cruise to Central America. It was great! I love that you can eat any time you want. They have great Las Vegas-style shows but they are good clean family fun. And, of course, stopping at all the ports.
