Montana Angler Fly Fishing Blog

Novelist and angler, Tom McGuane, once said that though fishing was the sport of kings, it is just what the deadbeat ordered. We may not all be lucky enough to live like kings and travel the world fishing—although some of you are— but fly fishing for big trout can be pursued regardless of your tax...

Magic Waters Lodge Trip Report: January 2025 For many anglers, myself included, fly fishing serves more dynamic purposes than the simple–and sometimes not so simple–act of catching a fish. Fly fishing is a conduit to explore some of the most gorgeous locations on Earth, a medium to create memories...

You’ve heard it before and time and time again: the Madison River is world-famous, the Missouri River has Montana’s biggest trout, and Bozeman is the epicenter of fly fishing in Montana. Well…you aren’t going to find much argument from us on those points. There are plenty of rivers, creeks, and...

The spring creeks and tailwater rivers of Montana serve up just the right amount of challenge and provide clear and consistent water when other rivers are in runoff or are too cold or too warm to fish. The most famous and the most fishy spring creeks are DePuy’s and Armstrong’s. These two are...

The cost of a Montana fishing trip can vary quite a bit depending on where you stay, where and how you eat, and if you fish with a guide. With some of the world's best destination fishing lodges and a diverse offering of waters from small streams and spring creeks to large tailwaters and freestones...

Spring and summer-time fishing in Montana is often defined by when snowmelt runoff begins and ends. From year to year, the exact timeframe of our runoff period varies, but it typically begins in mid-May and runs into mid-June. Montana’s freestone rivers like the Gallatin and Yellowstone often run...

Sometimes less is more. Such is the case when it comes to fly fishing in New Zealand. There are many that would find it peculiar that we choose to travel to the other side of the earth to catch less fish than we would at home. The truth is there is simply something magical about the quality of the...

You've heard it before: trout spend most of their time feeding below the surface. But how do you catch what you can't see? Seeing a trout eat a dry fly might be what we all dream about and what originally brought us to love fly fishing, but mastering your ability to fish a fly where you cannot see...

The foam Chubby Chernobyl fly was so chewed up that I had to change it, and I asked the guide if I should try something else. “It doesn’t matter,” he said nonchalantly, sitting in the middle of the raft. Sure enough, a couple of casts later another rainbow trout swam up out of the willows and...

Cut to the scene: snowcapped mountains are backdrop by a Montana river and snow falls softly on the water's surface, disappearing as they melt. Your cast lays out perfectly placing the fly into a fishy looking seam and the hope a fish will take grows. Winter fly fishing in Montana is a unique...