Like most fly-fishing guides at the South Fork Lodge in Swan Valley, ID, Zach Mertens used to spend the early mornings of summers ’93 and ’94 perusing the fly bins, choosing the best flies for the working day ahead. He noticed that most of the flies were made overseas in Asia. The locations reminded him of scenes from his international childhood, spent traveling in the wake of his father’s career in commercial agriculture. "Philippines" reminded him of preschool games on a pineapple plantation on the island of Mindanao. "China" made him wince a bit as he thought of two years of language lessons taught by a non-smiling master in southeast China. "Hong Kong" was a relative paradise for high school, but light years away from the paradise of clear waters, powder snows, trophy trout rivers and mountain vistas that marked his current horizons in the Rockies. No doubt about it, the Rocky Mountain west was where Mertens wanted to put down roots if he could. What he really needed was a good ide
