Category Archives: Equipment Selection

As the days get longer and the sun shines a little brighter, the fly fishing in Montana slowly gravitates from winter mode to spring time consistency. Cut to the scene: It is mid-March on a trout river in southwest Montana. The riverside vegetation is greening but the mountains in the distance are...

Streamer fishing can be one of the most exciting ways to catch fish when fly fishing. It is also a successful way to target large trout. Anglers who regularly fish streamers know the rewards may not come as easily as when fishing tandem nymph rigs or when a hatch is thick and the trout are hungry...

Catching a fish is the result of several things all coming together at the same time. To have success in fly fishing, most people talk about fly rods, flies, casts, and presentations. But an often overlooked component to catching a fish is choosing the correct leader. With an abundance of lengths...

If you’ve spent any amount of time interested in fly fishing you’ve probably come across Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It.” Even if you’re not interested in fishing, you’ve likely seen or heard of Robert Redford’s film adaptation of that story starring a young Brad Pitt as Paul Maclean. The...

On a recent hosted trip to Jurassic Lake Lodge in Argentine Patagonia I tested 5 of the 6 rods from the 6 Weight review. I chose not to take the Sage LL along as it was definitely not designed for high winds, big flies and bigger fish. Jurassic Lake is an incredibly windy place littered with giant...

No fly rod is the perfect rod on every river, on every given day. I have often fallen in love with a rod on one river, fishing in one style; only to curse it later under different circumstances. I have also found that over and over again that the rod I enjoyed most behind the fly shop is not the one...

Fly of the Month: April 2018 El Camino, Skwala Stonefly tied by Andrew Grillos April fly fishing in Southwest Montana brings a wide variety of options, a favorite option is trying to hit the skwala stonefly hatch on one of our Montana Rivers. Certain rivers have larger populations of these small...

A fun and effective method of trout fishing is the down-and-across streamer swing. The popularity of trout spey fishing in Montana has grown exponentially over the last few years and for good reason. The simplicity of spending a day stepping down a run casting and swinging is a refreshing change...

Many of our guides at Montana Angler enjoy chasing steelhead in the fall. Trips to the Pacific Northwest are priorities on some of our calendars, time chasing these elusive anadromous fish can be highly addictive! A fun aspect of being a steelhead angler is spending time tying flies for fish that...

Flies for Montana Rivers: Soft hackles There are few things in fly fishing that are more satisfying than tying flies that adhere to the adage “less is more.” Soft hackle flies are a perfect example of flies that play off of simplicity, clean lines, and perfect proportions. They’re also very fun and...