How to Plan Your Fishing Trip

Happy May! We hope everyone’s first few months of 2022 have been relaxing and safe. If you have not started already, it is time to plan your 2022 Montana fly-fishing trip. Is your family planning to take a trip to Yellowstone this summer and are interested in spending a day or afternoon on the river learning how to fly-fish? Or, are you and your 5 best fishing buddies looking to go somewhere new for your annual 5 day fishing trip? Yellowstone Country is an incredible place to fish and now is the best time to start your planning! When planning your trip, you should think about when you want come, how many people want to fish, and what type of experience you are looking for.

When to visit Montana and Yellowstone?

This is the million dollar question, and we get asked this all the time. The short answer is: when you can, there is always a place to fish and YOU need to be here to cast a line! The longer answer is:

January-March- These are our quiet months here in Montana. The weather is normally more conducive to skiing than fishing, but if you really have the itch and you are already here you can still go target some trout on our local Spring Creeks. We generally recommend afternoon half days as the mornings are chilly. But, if the weather permits, the Creeks are a really peaceful and scenic place to fish this time of year.
April-midMay- This is a fun time of year as things start to warm up, and floating the Yellowstone River becomes an option. There are not many anglers fishing, so it is nice to have the river to yourself. We can generally float the Yellowstone, fish the Spring Creeks, or float our Secluded Lakes.
End of May-June- This is our favorite time to fish! Yellowstone National Park opens to fishing May, 28 this year, so we will see you in the Park! The Firehole and Gibbon Rivers, as well as alpine lakes and small creeks, warm up and have less run-off. Our guides are in the Park everyday in June, so we know where to take you. Bring the whole family, we love teaching the next generation how to fish! June is mainly a walk-wade month as the Yellowstone River is still high and muddy. For float trips, we can target the big boys on our secluded lakes.
July-September- This is prime time in Montana! We have endless locations to both float and walk-wade fish. During this time or year, you can cast dry flies from the Lamar Valley to Big Timber. The weather is nice, the water is clear, and these are our most popular months.
October-December- Yellowstone National Park’s fishing season stays open through the first Sunday in November and the Yellowstone River can produce some great days with little pressure from other anglers.

How many people want to fish?

This is an important factor when planning your trip because the number of anglers dictates the number of guides needed for your group.

Generally speaking there are one or two clients per guide on a fishing trip. On float trips our boats are set up for a maximum of 3 people (guide included). So, if your group has 4 anglers, you will need 2 guides for your trip. If there are 5 anglers, three guides are required.
Conditions can change rapidly in Montana. Having a 2 to 1 client to guide ratio allows for maximum flexibility to switch a walk-wade trip to a float or vise-versa the morning of the trip.
For walk-wade trips in Yellowstone National Park, we can take 3-5 anglers with 1 guide. We love teaching kids and families how to fish on our family trips . Most of our 4 or 5 angler trips are families with 2 or 3 kids. Walk-Wade trips with more than 3 adults we strongly recommend 2 guides for maximum client instruction.

What type of experience are you looking for?

Between fishing in Montana and Yellowstone National PArk, there are endless amounts of bends, riffles, streams, rivers, and lakes to fish. Yes, it is a good problem to have. The great diversity of our fishery offers anglers many different types of experiences when targeting trout!

Walk-Wade trips are generally in Yellowstone National Park. On these trips, you meet your guide and generally go on a bit of a hike (.2-3 miles depending on conditions) to your fishing location. We really don’t like to fish right next to the road!
When walk-wading, you are oftentimes in the water casting up-stream. You continue to move up the river as you fish treating it as your trail for the day. Sometimes we take an actual trail to the fishing location and sometimes we go cross country. If you are looking for a wilderness fishing adventure…. This is the trip for you!
When floating the Yellowstone River, we use either Drift Boats or Rafts depending on the stretch of river. Floating is a great way to effectively fish a big river. On a typical full-day float trip, we cover about 12-15 miles of water. Float trips are also a great way to see the scenery as you float down the river.
We do float some smaller rivers in the state of Montana such the Boulder and Stillwater Rivers. These Rivers are amazingly scenic and require expert rowing as there are lots of rocks and rapids. These smaller rivers have a limited floating window and cater best to more advanced anglers.

We truly love what we do. Let our expert yellowstone fishing guides take you on a trip that you will never forget. Whether you are a family of five fishing for the very first time, or an experienced angler…. Everyone can learn something new from a guided fly-fishing trip. Yellowstone Country is a pretty amazing place, and we love sharing our passion of this place and fishing with our clients! Give us a call with any questions or to book your 2022 fishing trip!

Tight Lines,

Yellowstone River Outfitters