Pass It On: Learning with Joel Walker

Fly fishing has a bit of “legacy” at its heart: one angler passes his or her knowledge (and fish stories and tall tales) to another. This learning may take place at the vise, over coffee, or better — streamside. When you spend some time with Joel Walker, one of the guides on the Angler’s Covey crew, you hear a lot about this legacy. He talks about learning, continuing to grow as an angler, and teaching others. 

Getting Started

Back in the mid- and late-1990’s, Joel was running an outdoor ministry in Colorado Springs. During that time, he became friends with David Leinweber, co-owner of Angler’s Covey. At the time, David was building a relationship with the Boy Scouts Association. He asked Joel to help construct the pole barn up at Camp Alexander in Elevenmile Canyon.  Joel traded work on that pole barn for shop credit. The pole barn still stands (a legacy of its own). And Joel’s fly fishing journey began.

Joel hadn’t done a ton of trout fishing before then. His father was a minister, and he influenced Joel in that direction. It was Joel’s grandfather who was “the tremendous outdoorsman.” He lived on a lake in Michigan and would fish for bass and pan fish with both a fly rod and spinning rig. So would Joel’s grandmother. “That’s how my love for fishing started. Early mornings with my grandfather.  That’s where I cut my teeth on fishing.”

After that pole barn was built, David and Rick Murphy took Joel to fish some of the iconic rivers in Colorado. Joel calls the whole experience “one of the most fortunate things” of that time. “We went to the Roaring Fork, to the Taylor, to some small streams in the backcountry. That was a great education for western fly fishing.”  He laughs as he remembers. “That was fun. Really fun.”

Rick Murphy, who has his own long and rich story in fly fishing and with Angler’s Covey, took Joel under his wing. Legacies are passed along. “I would go over to Rick’s house and get a first class education. That guy really knows how to tie. Rick once said that he fishes so he can tie. That’s how much he loves tying.”

Around 1998, David asked Joel to guide for the Covey. “That’s really one of the most delightful parts of my story.” In the late-2000’s, though, Joel had another calling — to move to Nashville to minister there.

New Beginnings

When Joel moved back from Nashville after twelve years, his intention was to fish and not guide. After he got his real estate license, he knew he would be busy pursuing that as a livelihood. When he wanted to fish, it would be his personal time to get away, to rejuvenate.

Not long after he returned, though, he got together with David for a beer. David invited Joel to guide for the Covey. “I don’t think he got the question out of his mouth. It was as if I was as weak as Jello. I said, ‘ok.’”

What motivates Joel today as a guide is his love for the outdoors. And his passion for fly fishing interweaves with that love. “Well it’s more than passion. I can talk about fly fishing all day. I want to read about it. I want to watch shows about it.” He pauses and then says, “It’s an addiction.” (I don’t think he wants an intervention, either.)

The motivation to guide comes from his desire “to teach anybody that wants to learn. I love teaching people. Especially people who are eager to learn and new to the sport.” 

Joel’s life is reaching a very interesting balance. “I’m selling real estate in the winter and guiding full time from the spring through the fall.”

Joel’s why

Joel says, “I don’t like to sell anything, really.”

And his next sentence perfectly captures Joel purpose, what some people call their why: “I like to consult, teach, and guide people.”

It seems all three of Joel’s passions — ministry, guiding, real estate — center around providing guidance.

Interestingly, Joel has blended his passion for fly fishing with his life as a realtor.

“When a person uses my real estate services and purchases a home, they’ll get a $1000.00 gift card to Angler’s Covey or I’ll make a $1000.00 donation to Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.” It’s not often that we can come full circle and blend elements of our lives.

Customer Service

Since Joel we’ll be guiding on a full-time basis, he has set some goals for the 2022 season.

A huge motivator is to provide phenomenal customer service. “Really fulfilling the customer’s needs and desires for their trip.”  He says this past season when he asked the client about their goals for the day on the water, he was often surprised.  Many times those goals were not about numbers of fish or netting a trophy-sized brown. 

A lot of times their goals were “I really want to learn to set up a better nymphing rig. Or they’ll want to learn when they should switch from nymphing to fishing dries. How to identify hatches.” 

Lifelong Learner

Another goal for Joel is to become an expert fisherman.  “I want to grow in my expertise on what is happening in these western waters.  What does it take to fish under all conditions:  slow days, higher water, all that.”

To that end, the start of the new year was packed with learning from others around him. “Different guides have different approaches to teaching.  I want to observe and learn from them.”

He has already spent time learning from Phil Tereyla. “He was tremendous.” In the next few weeks, Joel will get together with Greg Blessing and tap into his 30-plus years of experience.  “And I’m doing a lot of reading. And a bunch of physical recon on the water.”

If that isn’t enough, Joel created a list of all the top patterns he wants to tie.  “Tying is extremely therapeutic.  These past two weeks, I said ‘ok, let’s go’ and got busy tying.” 

He’s come full circle: “Rick Murphy told me that tying flies keeps you tied to the water.”

Pass It On

Fly fishing is about learning from those who came before us, tapping into the energy of those fishing along with us, and then passing that knowledge on to others.  Joel Walker embraces that idea of legacy. If you want to book a trip with Joel in 2022, please check out our website.