Time to award(?) another ASTTDSC mention. Today, it goes to friend of Troutrageous! and one of the most interesting anglers I know, Jonathan Antunez.
To put it simply, Jonathan is a student of the game. And when I mean student, I mean someone who kind of zigs while others zag. While everyone’s all about euronymphing and tossing streamers these days, Jonathan’s pouring hours into reading books from the 17 & 1800s to gather nuggets of information that can help his fishing today.
While taking this tour down fly fishing’s past, Jonathan’s also become quite an acclaimed fly tyer, adapting some of those pre-classic patterns (like the stiff hackled wet flies of H.C. Cutcliffe as well as soft hackled North Country spiders) for his fishing in Colorado, subsequently becoming their modern-day champion. He does tying clinics all around the greater Denver area; you may have even recently seen him on fly tyer’s row at the Colorado stop of the The Fly Fishing Show.
Jonathan has also written web & magazine articles, entries in books, done videos, and even appeared on podcasts to discuss his active style of (mostly) fixed line fly fishing. In the process, he’s singlehandedly brought phrases like “dibbing the bob“ into modern anglers’ vocabulary. If there’s a definition of a humble influencer, it’d be him. He shares because he has a passion, not in a quest to become famous.
I’ve had the pleasure of being able to fish with Jonathan on quite a few occasions, a few times in Wisconsin & a handful more in Colorado. He knows his stuff, is a great speaker, and better teacher. Heck, when I had the opportunity to host some guests from Japan, Jonathan was the first person I immediately thought of to join us – he presents and represents so well. I’ve literally never heard anyone say anything bad about Jonathan.
Jonathan goes by the Trout Conjurer on Instagram where you’ll find photos of just monster browns and rainbows he brings to net all Spring through Fall. He’s even started a YouTube channel of his fly tying, so give it a watch, and like, & subscribe if you’re so inclined.
Anyway, hats off to Jonathan, yet another doer of cool shit!