Montana Flyfishing

f you have even a passing interest in flyfishing, you probably know that Montana is viewed as the Mecca of the flyfishing world. Particularly in southwest Montana, we have an unmatched assortment of blue-ribbon rivers. Within a hundred mile radius of Bozeman, there's the Yellowstone, Madison, Gallatin, Jefferson, Beaverhead, and Big Hole Montana flyfishing on the Bighorn River

rivers, not to mention a host of tributary streams. Expand that circle by another hundred miles or so, and you can include the Bighorn, Missouri, Smith, Blackfoot, and Clark Fork. Up in northwest Montana there's the Kootenai and the forks of the Flathead. And we haven't even gotten to the lakes. My gosh, the fishing opportunities are nearly endless, so if you want to check many of them out in your lifetime you'd better get after it!

We can offer advice about current conditions and hotspots, but if you want to maximize your fishing enjoyment, you ought to consider hiring a guide. One side effect of Montana's fishing popularity is that, particularly in the most popular rivers, you're fishing for educated trout. The guides we work with are on the rivers daily, and know what is and isn't working A nice Blackfeet Reservation rainbow trout at any given moment. In our opinion, though, that kind of knowledge is a given, and any guide worthy of the name will have it. The main thing we look for in determining who we want to book clients with is a more nebulous concept, that for lack of a better term we'll call "personality". Too many guides are basically trout bums, hopelessly addicted to flyfishing, and view guiding as a way to support their habit and get paid for fishing. The problem is that they're not the ones who're supposed to be fishing; you are! This can breed a degree of frustration, also occasionally encountered in ski instructors and other recreational guides, that we call the "gynecologist syndrome"; an occupational hazard of people who try to take something that's basically fun and turn it into a vocation. Trust us, you don't want to spend a long-anticipated day or week on the water with somebody who, subtly or otherwise, is expressing that frustration.

The best guides enjoy seeing you hook up with a big fish as much as if it Nice fish! were themselves, and will do everything in their power to help you do so. That requires a broad range of talents, of which fishing ability is only one component. They need to be teachers, psychologists, and it sure doesn't hurt if they're enjoyable companions to boot. That's the type of guide we'll set you up with!

So whether you want to float one of Montana's blue ribbon rivers in a driftboat, fish a world-famous spring creek or other private access stream, float-tube the trophy lakes of the Blackfoot Reservation, take a packtrip to seldom-fished wilderness lakes and streams, or just spend a day wade fishing in Yellowstone; call 1-877-613-0404 or e-mail and we'll put you on the water with the best guides in the business.