For the last six years, we've closed up shop and chosen to #OptOutside on Black Friday. In years past, that meant early start times and a little bit of extra travel out to the Deckers section of the South Platte. But this year, we ran a different post-Thanksgiving playbook and decided to keep the festivities close to home.

In fact, this year's Black Friday River Cleanup was held on the stretch of the Denver South Platte right behind the Denver shop. A different style of river cleanup in some ways - it was amazing to see so many new and familiar faces choose to spend their Black Friday with us, alike.

We all know that Denver South Platte is a "well-loved" stretch of water utilized by an entire city of people. Thank you to each and every one of you who volunteered your time for the betterment of the Denver South Platte.

We can't wait until the next one.

A big thanks to our sponsors: Orvis, Umpqua, Rep Your Water, & Backcountry Hunters & Anglers for their support of the 2022 Trouts #OptOutside River Cleanup!

By far, this year was the biggest turnout we've ever had for a Black Friday Trouts #OptOutside River Cleanup. Check out this jovial bunch before the festivities started. Again, thank you to everyone who took time out of their holiday weekend to join us in cleaning up the Denver South Platte!

It was a beautiful day to make our home river a little bit cleaner. There were plenty of classic pieces of trash found like some giant soup spoons, full-sized footballs, and of course safety glasses (SAFETY THIRD!)

Throw in some traffic cones, disassembled bikes, old tvs, some classic Jack London prose, and we had a pretty decent haul from a couple of hours well spent on the Denver South Platte. After posing with half of our bounty, we headed across the river to Trouts Denver to fill up the dumpsters.

Filling up our dumpsters with trash and recyclables wrapped up the do-gooding for the day. It was the only thing standing between us between hot dogs, cold beverages, and some prize packs from our generous sponsors.

After some refreshments, it was time to pick some winners. We had one Orvis Helios 3 Blackout fly rod to giveaway for the weirdest piece of trash and plenty of raffle prizes to hand out to more than a handful of the day's participants.

A quick look at all of our raffle winners. As you can tell, the proverbial STOKE was so high. THUMBS UPS for days! Shoutout to this year's sponsors: ORVIS, Umpqua Feather Merchants, Rep Your Water, & Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

With a passport and glove-wrapped smoking instrument, we had a clear winner! Have fun with that new Orvis Helios 3 Blackout fly rod.

Looking for more photos from the day? CLICK HERE.

Looking for hi-res photos? Shoot me an email at ivan@troutsflyfishing.com!

Just a man and his trash. Big thanks to our own Rootin' Tootin' Scooter Battista for coordinating this year's Trouts #OptOutside River Cleanup.