How Rock Singer Chuck Ragan Pursues Fly Fishing While on Tour

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Rock fans of a certain age likely remember the gritty nineties punk band Hot Water Music, rose to fame amid the mainstream success of Green Day, Blink 182, Rancid, and other groups of that era. If you attended the Van’s Warped Tour (which I did, multiple times), you probably saw them live.

Hot Water Music was co-founded by guitarist and singer, Chuck Ragan, who is also a passionate fly fisherman. These days Ragan, 50, operates his own river guiding business at his home near Grass Valley, California, and he continues to tour as a solo artist, as well as with Hot Water Music. We caught up with Ragan to learn about blending rock music with fishing.

OUTSIDE: How do you make time for fly fishing when you’re on tour?
These days I tour with two entities: Hot Water Music and my own solo stuff. Touring with Hot Water Music makes it tougher to fish, because I have less control over the agenda, so I just try to get out whenever I can. It’s rare, and it takes a lot of effort. Recently we were playing a show in Denver, had a night off, and then had another show in Phoenix. I was able to get out with my buddy Jim to a lake outside of Denver the night after the show while the rest of the band traveled to Phoenix. We fished for white bass. Then I had to jump on a flight that night.

When I’m touring on my own, I sometimes set up my traveled based around fishing—the time of year, the species that’s running, stuff like that. My agent may suggest I play in Detroit in January. Well, I love to fish there in March, so that’s when I’ll go.

Ragan: Did you fish much when you were on tour 25 years ago?
I remember it took me years to realize the fishing opportunities I was missing when we were on tour. Now, I look back and think that I was just blowing it. We were going to these amazing places, but we’d be staying up late, ripping it too hard, and then the next day just wake up feeling worthless. You walk outside the hotel room and here we are on the Blackfoot River or some other gorgeous place. I’d love to hit rewind and do that over. I remember on one tour thinking ‘Man, one of these days I’m going to visit these places again and really get out and explore.’

What advice do you have for people who travel frequently but also want to fish?
You really have to plan ahead. These days I find that pretty much everything I do—other than little opportunities that pop up—was planned out a year in advance. I sit down at the beginning of the year and black out the obligations for family, then guiding, then the tours. And I look at the days of the tour and just see where the opportunities lie. For my fishing, sometimes it’s based around moon phases, or when different species are good to chase.

When I do fish on tour, I’m all for supporting local guides, so I’ll usually hire one and use their gear. My advice: if you’re following a guide on social media and you admire then, and they’re chasing a species you like, reach out to them and drop them a note. Find a good time of the year when you may have a trip there, and hire them. For me, fishing on tour is more about the experience of being on the water and connecting with people and learning new methods than actually carrying fish. If we catch a fish, that’s great. But I’ve already caught plenty of fish in my life and I don’t need to chase any records while I’m out there.

How does fly fishing inform your music?
I’m always working on melodies and phrases and recording them to my phone when I’m on river trips. In the old days I’d walk around with a cassette recorder and more or less do the same thing. When I’m guiding there’s a lot of down time—commuting, standing in the water—and this is when my brain starts working on my music. A lot of times I end up singing into my phone, or reciting some phrase that comes to mind. Then I go back and sift through the stuff, and every once and a while something good comes out of it. I’ll listen back to my voice memos and I can hear me howling lyrics while the river is raging behind me, and I remember that at that moment something came into my mind that made the hair stand up on my neck. I knew at that moment it was important and I that I should document it. It’s been this way for a while. A lot of those classic Hot Water Music songs were either started or finished out in the woods or at the lake. A lot of my songs have been written this way.

Are there any similarities between professional river guiding and playing music?
There are a lot of parallels between being an independent musician and a guide. I’m out there to have a good time and to share something I believe in with people. If my clients or fans can leave their troubles at the door and enjoy themselves for a minute, then that’s all the better. Playing music is just like going on those fly fishing trips—I’m not there just to catch fish. If I do catch one it’s a bonus. If someone leaves my show and enjoys the music and gets something out of it, then that’s a big bonus too.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.