I love to fly fish, it was one of the few thing my father ever taught me and I try to go as often as possible. That is a beautiful river.
Up until I moved to my current location, I had only fly fished in the blackwater tidal rivers of the SE, but once I moved up here, I was able to drive a couple of hours north a try "real" fly fishing in trout streams. Much, much harder than back home...lololol
Also, I know you are a Vet and if you haven't already, you should check out the app Expert Voice. It gives military, law enforcement, first responders, outdoorsmen, etc pretty significant discounts of tons of products and brands. I bought an Okuma rod and reel from there about 60% off. Not all the deals are worth it though so I would still shop around. I bought my CampChef smoker from there as well. It is similar to govx, if you're familiar with them.
I think it would be really cool to learn fly fishing. There are a lot of spots up the canyons that people go here and do really well.
I will have to look into that app. It sounds pretty cool.