Battle at Boxwood 2013

Ben Lewis

Ladies and Gents you are in for a treat! We have, for the first time ever, a guest writer on JFFJ. Ben Lewis fished on a team in this year's Battle at Boxwood. He asked if he could do a write up and I told him absolutely on the one condition that he keep it real (the only "rule" I have for the blog). Ben's write up is good. Almost too good. I might have to rethink this guest writer thing.... Without further ado, Mr. Ben Lewis.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing - 2013 Battle at Boxwood

Battle at Boxwood (BaB) is a Fly Fishing tournament hosted by Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF).  “Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled Veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings.”

I watched 2012’s Battle at Boxwood on The Fly Rod Chronicles hosted by Curtis Fleming last year on the Outdoor Channel. It immediately hit me that I want to be part of the 2013 event. What could be better, helping wounded Vets while fly-fishing, what a brilliant idea! Both Jamie and I work for a large IT firm named World Wide Technology and I approached my Regional Manager Scott, who worked with our Marketing Business Unit to snag the last open slot out of 10 available. WWT promotes community service, so this event lends well to WWT’s core values. Unfortunately there was only one open spot, so Jamie was not able to be an official participate, however, he is now WWT’s official event photographer.

I was initially informed that Curtis and the Fly Rod Chronicles team would not be at the 2013 event. No problem, that was not the reason I wanted to attend, it is about the Vets. Admittedly it would be kind of cool to meet Curtis, he seems like a really decent guy, at least on TV. Then in early Aug, BaB event coordinator Steve Payne (yes former NHL-er Steve Payne) let me know FRC will be there filming and showing the event in Oct! Steve is a really nice guy who has a huge heart for our wounded heroes. I knew this was going to be a great time before doing any fishing.

Boxwood Gulch is a private water ranch on the North Fork of the South Platte River. They have multiple guide services/outfitters which will put you on some huge S. Platte Rainbows, Browns and others.

Now, on to the fishing…….

Aug 17th, 2013 5:06 AM my text to Jamie . . . “you up”, Jamie . . . “no”. It is going to be a heavy coffee day for Mr. Roth! We needed to leave around 5:45 to be there by 7:45. Jamie showed up on time and off we went.

On the ride up

The drive on 285 W from E470 is incredible. We get to Boxwood at 7:45, once in the gate we drive by pool after perfect trout water pool, we start to drool…the trout-pool-drool. Oh this is going to be good.


After meeting up with Steve Payne, Jamie gets his 5th tub-o-coffee and we all get ready for the day’s events. I was assigned to a team with two guides and two Vets. Mike and Vince are the Vets, both awesome guys and about as easygoing as it gets, funny how people that have gone through life changing events are the easiest to get along with. I have heard it puts life into perspective. Our pro celeb was Jimmy Johnson of the San Jose Sharks. The team was rounded out with our two guides, Ken Robak and Tom Caprio of Ken’s Anglers. It was apparent, with the first fish hooked 5 min into the tourney, that Ken and Tom knew their stuff at Boxwood. Vince hooked a BIG bow, I think he got a bit excited and horsed it a bit too much, bink it was gone. Once I saw that I knew it was going to be an excellent day.

JJ fighting a hog

After a couple here and there, admittedly it seemed a little bit of a slow start, it started picking up. JJ (Jimmy Johnson) proved to be the ringer of the group in the morning. He was picking up fish, it seemed, every 5-8 mins. Once we (that would be Ken and Tom) figured out the right pattern, I held my own as well as Vince. One Vet fished in the morning, and one in the afternoon (Mike joined us in the afternoon).

Vince showing us how it's done

We hit two beats of unbelievable water in Long Meadow in the morning session, with the “hogs” waiting for us later that day in Boxwood. About an hour before
lunch I guess I was a little too hot, so I decided to take an unexpected quick dip. A refreshing swim will do you wonders! I did seam to focus my fishing though and I think I landed 3-4 more. I am not sure how many fish the three of us landed, it must have been 20-25. BaB measured total length of fish, I think we had an average of 18” or so per fish, so we were off to a pretty good start.

JJ and Ken with a 24" bow

Lunch was great, it was catered by a BBQ company, forgive me I don’t recall the name of the company, I think we were all recalling the great session we just finished. After a huge steak, potato and corn lunch, we headed out to Boxwood Gulch. Expectations were high, we knew some very large trout call this place home. We were fortunate enough to get two more very good beats. Once again Jimmy started off strong and stayed that way the remainder of the day. Mike Sugar was the second Vet to join us, and he jumped right in and did very well. It was hard for me to

Mike and Tom gettin er done

tell how many my teammates were landing because I was concentrating on my drifts, cast, back casting etc. With the help of Ken and Tom, they once again dialed us in and I started to pick up quite a few, some on the first cast through a riffle, sometimes it would be three or four. I KNOW Jamie was eager to hit this water and I felt really bad that he couldn’t be officially part of the team. Jamie WAS part of the team in helping spot fish, taking photos and video, getting the nets to the guides, etc. He was careful not to do anything to disqualify us, but really this was an event for the Vets, not us, so even if that did happen as long as we were having fun, all is good.

Tom and Ben puttin up numbers

The afternoon session did not disappoint, I don’t think there were as many fish as earlier, but they were bigger for sure. I lost 3-4 really nice rainbows, 18-20 inch at least; due to the strong current, once hooked they headed straight for the fast water and would pull the hook. We were using 2 and 3X tippet and even that would break once in a while. That should tell you how strong these beasts were.

Right above a small waterfall, Jimmy hooked into a real hog, this one instantly headed up stream around a big boulder and headed for the next one. Jimmy did a great job of getting his line off the first boulder, but this is not this slab’s first rodeo, he broke off Jimmy on the second boulder. This must be a well known path for this chunk. The best part once he got off, he tail walked no more than 10-12 feet in front of me, so I got a great look. It was an easy 24-25” bow, that is not a fisherman’s guess that was genuine. The current makes it hard to land these things, but we did manage to land a number of good sized rainbows and browns. I think I saw Mike land a couple nice bows, so that mean all of us were doing well.

Vince, Ken, Ben, Tom, and Mike

The afternoon beat went way to fast, I actually thought we had another 90 min when the tourney ended. We all gathered and were like teenage girls chatting and laughing it up, no care in the world for any of us, Mike and Vince included, PHWFF mission accomplished.

Once back to the main building we all peeled off waders, talking of the day’s fish, friendships and life experiences. Jamie and I were at my truck getting cleaned up when Curtis Fleming of The

Me, Curtis, and Ben

Fly Rod Chronicles and David Folkerts Plans and Operations of PHWFF walked up and we had a great conversation. I was initially skeptical of a TV personality, we all know there are huge egos in and around fly-fishing, but Curtis was a GREAT guy. He is more down to earth than a lot of people I know. He truly cares for our Vets, BaB is not to sell his show, but is a true passion of Curtis’. His shared a story of a lodge that would not donate a week for two Vets, so Curtis pulled the plug on The Fly Rod Chronicles taping. He did not mentioned the name of the lodge, he isn’t that way, but it really showed his true Red, White and Blue colors! He has gain two big fans, I liked his show before this, but after BaB and meeting Curtis, it cemented me a fan for life.

Winners!

Jamie, David, Curtis and I were BS’ing for at least 45 min, maybe more, when Curtis mentioned he thinks he hears them doing the awards, so we head over to the big tent just in time to hear the second place team. So I thought maybe we got third and missed it, oh well, just as long as Mike and Vince
were recognized I’m good. They announced the second place team with roughly 730 inch of fish. Steve Payne then announced the winning team with Ken and Tom with 790 inches or so, WOW, that IS us. Both Jamie and I looked at each other, both a bit surprised, but sure enough, Ken, Tom, Mike, Vince, Jimmy and I had pulled it off!

What a great way to finish one of the best days on the water I have every had! I couldn’t have asked for a better team, JJ was really stoked to win this thing. I guess for a NHL coach winning is winning. I think it is his bragging rights over all the other NHL’ers at BaB. He was one cool dude, again, I thought maybe some of the celeb’s would be the high maintenance type. Not Jimmy, another guy I could fish with no problem. I don’t fish with A-holes, I don’t have enough time to do that!

Left to Right - Ken, Vince, JJ, Ben, Mike, Me, Tom

After a few rounds of photos, Jamie and I look at the water and want another few hours. Jamie spoke with Steve Payne . . . all Jamie heard was “sure, no problem”. We jump in the fish-pimp truck and

Bears cutting into my fishing time

head back down the last beat. Once there Jamie notices a cinnamon black bear and two cubs across the river. We snapped a few photos, and hit the water. I just fished up 6 hours of fishing and could do another 4! I didn’t get into any fish in the first 15-20 min, so I decided to man the net for Jamie and just watched and learned. He definitely schooled me once again. No hits forced him to change up to a Black Beauty, it must have been 8-10 fish in the next 45 min. Jamie in his element. Although none of them were huge, “small” in comparison to what we know are in those riffles. Small should be taken in to perspective though, because they ranged from 14-17” or so. I would call those nice anywhere we go. He did get into one big fish, but once again, and true to all fly fisherman fish are smarter than we are and he was broken off. We finish up right as night falls. We jump in the truck and head home, talked the whole way back about what an unbelievable day we had!

Looking forward to BaB 2014!

- Ben Lewis

Great write up Ben! What an unbelievable day. I even had to call Alicia on the way home to tell her I just had the best day of my life! She was thrilled.