About Me





Joe Egry Tenkara Fly Fishing

My name is Joe Egry and I started Dragon Flyfishing in January of 2004 after being continually asked by friends to tie flies for them. I started tying flies for the St Vrain Angler in Longmont, Colorado and that summer began taking clients out on guided fly fishing trips in the Rocky Mountain National Park just outside of Estes Park, Colorado. RMNP is a perfect place to experience fly fishing. I have been guiding for ten years now and know pretty well a lot of the small creeks and rivers within the park, holding Brookies, Browns, Greenback Cutthroats, and Rainbows. I guide on the weekends, as I has a regular job during the week in an environmental laboratory as their Technical Director. You can book trips with me by calling the Elkhorn Fly Shop at 970-227-4707 and requesting a Western or Tenkara Fly Fishing trip with me. I am a Zen Tenkara Certified Guide and a member of the Tenkara USA’s Guide Network.

Zen Tenkara Certified GuideTenkara Guide Network

Taking beginner fly fisher’s out on the water is my favorite kind of trip. Teaching is the focus of the trip. I want my clients to be able to go out on their own after the trip and having some basic knowledge about fly fishing and be able to catch fish. On these trips, we talk about:

  • Safety (Wearing Eye Protection, How to Wade, Securing the bottom fly in the Hook Keeper)
  • Tackle (Rod, Reel, Backing, Line, Leader, Tippet, and flies
  • Casting (Roll Cast, Pick Up & Lay Down Cast, and False Casting)
  • Basic Knot Tying (Improved Clinch Knot and Surgeon’s Knot)
  • Reading Water (Calories, Current, & Cover)
  • Basic Line Control (Upstream & Downstream Mends)
  • Entomology (Mayflies, Caddis, Stoneflys, Midges, & Terrestrials)

I try to make it fun and teach while fishing. At the end of the day, if you can tie on a fly, Roll Cast to where a fish may be, you can catch fish!

I have fishing in my blood.  I am originally from Kansas and have lived from coast to coast with two years spent in Germany while in the Air Force. I did live in Colorado as a kid and finally made it back for good in 1995. I caught my first fish at two years old and haven’t stopped since. I began fly fishing 23 years ago and started fishing Tenkara almost exclusively for the last three years. For more information on Fly Fishing and Tenkara, check out the Flyfishing and Tenkara Links and Information  page.

I have given fly tying presentations around Denver at the Fly Fishing Show, the West Denver Chapter of Trout Unlimited fly tying clinic, and at my fly fishing club events for a number of years, focusing on Tenkara flies for the last three years. I am available to give tying demonstrations and clinics to your organization, just contact me.