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RYAN ALLRED
If you needed a one-word summary on Ryan Allred it would be hard to do better than rivers. He has logged almost two decades as a rafting guide, he is a class-V kayaker, he has represented the United States in multiple world rafting championships, and has guided fishing trips for over ten years in northern California, and on Oregon's famous Rogue River. Ryan now owns a rafting company as well as a fishing guide service and is the Area Director for Young Life in the Rogue Valley. He has a master's degree in stream ecology, and has a photographic memory for trailheads, fishing holes, and rapids. He proposed to his wife Rachel over a picnic by a river, and got married by a creek. He started the fly fishing class at the high school where he taught, and also instructed students on the basics of rolling a kayak on the weekends.
Ryan was taught to fly fish by a family friend who survived the depression by mining the streams of northern California for gold, and fishing them for food. Outfitted with a bamboo rod, Burlaps, and 80 years of experience, Ryan (then ten-years old) was coached into his first steelhead and a life-long fascination with fishing. After that lesson, Ryan taught himself or learned by mimicking other anglers. With the lack of formal coaching, Ryan explains, he learned to fish well long before he learned how to cast well. Instead of taking formal fishing classes when he was young, Ryan decided his time was better spent, with his tackle on his back, biking the dirt roads outside of Ashland, Oregon with his best friend in search of trout. Later, he polished his skills and acquired his FFF Certification as a fly casting instructor, and guides professionally.
One of Ryan's greatest attributes is the generosity with which he shares his fascination with rivers. He is just as excited about guiding beginners into fish as he is about catching them, is as enthusiastic about teaching young people to roll a kayak as he is about running rivers, and still loves introducing guests at Paradise Point (his rafting company's headquarters) to the water he's known for twenty years.
It is, of course, impossible to summarize a person with one word and there is much more to Ryan than rivers. His work as the Area Director for Young Life in the Rogue Valley is marked with the same kind of passion he's devoted to fishing and boating, and he cares far more about the hundreds of young people who he takes rafting every summer than the rivers that they run. And now Ryan is finding joy in sharing his favorite rivers with his favorite two young people, his daughters Avery and Campbell.
Somewhere in the world, there might be better oarsmen, or more fearless kayakers, or more seasoned fishing guides, but you would be hard pressed to come across anyone who is more fascinated by rivers than Ryan is, or more willing to share his fascination with you.
www.jeffersonflywater.com
www.awwrafting.com
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