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Gotta have Hart
Longtime Gunnison River guide doesn’t let disease keep him from fishing


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By DAVE BUCHANAN The Daily Sentinel

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

GUNNISON — There’s something awfully comforting about fishing with Gene Hart. Maybe it’s because the former Gunnison Gorge fishing guide doesn’t seem overly stressed about catching fish, since he knows he’s going to do that, anyway.

Or maybe it’s the attitude he has adopted that every day fishing the Gunnison is a blessing not to be wasted.

Whatever the reason, fishing with Hart quickly becomes a lesson in Zen-like patience accompanied by a fascinating conversation, most times one-sided, coming from a man with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the art of fly fishing.

“I moved down here from Elk Mountain, Wyoming, in 1983 and started guiding for Hank Hotze in 1987,” said Hart as he tightened the laces on his boots in preparation for fishing a stretch of public water on the outskirts of Gunnison. “Back then, there weren’t as many guides working the Gunnison River like there are today and the entire experience was much different.”

Many things were different in the late 1980s. Like getting permission to fish private water on the Gunnison River, which Hart managed to do simply by asking the right person.

“I asked around and got the owner’s name and just knocked on his door,” said Hart as he recounted a story 25 years old. “The guy looked at me and said, ‘No one’s asked permission for 10 years. You go right ahead and fish all you want.’ ”

Hart laughed and shook his head. “Nowadays, you can’t get close to that water.”

Something else changed, too, but even the talented Hart wasn’t ready for this.

In 1997, he was diagnosed with Multifocal Motor Neuropathy, a progressive degenerative nerve disease that affects his hands and feet. The ailment is slow, painful and strikes men twice as often as women.

Similar to ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease), the disease seems to be immune-system related, and while some treatments offer relief, the cure so far is unknown.

At first MMN didn’t have much affect other than hinder his fly-tying, but by 2002 the ailment reached the point where he no longer could row a boat or perform the first-aid required of licensed guides.

“I had to give up guiding for Hank in ’97 and guided two more years before I quit for good,” he said with a deep shrug. “It was pretty devastating. I had a rough time for a couple of years but now I’ve learned to cope with it.”

He even gave up fishing for a while but in recent years he’s returned to the recreation he loves dearly.

He flicked a smooth loop into the Gunnison’s waters in the same fluid manner he’s done thousands of time.

“It’s not too bad right now,” he said, watching the strike indicator. “I can’t hold a fishing rod as well as I’d like, but I can still catch fish.”

And catch fish he can. He doesn’t fish hard, he just fishes smart. He knows how to read water, he knows where fish are found and after more than 20 years of studying the water, fish and insects, he knows which patterns are working and which aren’t.

“People always want to know my secrets and I tell them there aren’t any,” he said with a laugh. “I always tell people to fish the fishiest water they can find.”

His hands may show the ravages of the disease but not his mind.

“Fish the first place you want to jump into,” he directed his day’s companions, including his brother, Bill Hart of Gunnison, and Mindy Sturm, a Realtor from Crested Butte. “People wade into the river and they’re walking past fish. Last week, I caught a huge brown trout from water that wasn’t 8 inches deep.”

As if to prove a point, he dropped one of his artful fly patterns into water not quite knee deep and quickly had one, two, three trout netted and released.

“The Gunnison River is the only river I know that when you can get a downstream drift you just let the fly hang in the water,” he said. “These fish love to hit your fly when it’s just sitting in the current.

“Time for me to watch you fish,” he laughed and sat down to enjoy the day.

In spite of the nerve damage to his hands, Hart continues to tie the tiny, well-crafted flies that prove irresistible to trout everywhere.

“I’ve got five patterns with (commercial supplier) Brush Creek Flies,” said Hart, justifiably proud that he’s among the relatively small cadre of professional tiers good enough for international distribution. “That pattern you’re using is the Hart’s emerger.”

Hart’s history includes the tale of being a guide-trainee in 1988 when, on a training run through the Gunnison Gorge, a flood pounded the canyon walls and caused a landslide to form what now is known as Buttermilk Rapids.

“There were boulders as big as that Suburban being carried across the river, and for a while there was no water at all in Ute Park,” Hart said, the amazing scene of nature at work still fresh in his mind. “As far as you could see in Ute Park, there was nothing, not a bit of water.

“I asked (his guide instructor) if these things happen every trip and he couldn’t talk.”

And again Gene Hart laughed. It’s a fine memory, but then so is every day spent with good friends fishing the Gunnison River.

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Dave Buchanan can be reached via e-mail at dbuchanan@gjds.com.
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