Custom Guided Trips for Avid Fly Anglers
Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing is a small fly fishing guide service specializing in personalized trips on the Yellowstone River and other waters near Livingston and Bozeman, including Yellowstone National Park. Because we’re a small operation, we’re flexible. Got something special you want to try? We’d love to accommodate, whether you’re looking for a half-day of fishing or a week straight.
Owner Walter Wiese handles all inquiries. Feel free to e-mail or call to plan a guided trip, order some flies, or just talk fishing.
Who We Are
Walter Wiese is our owner/outfitter. After twelve seasons running the guide service for a historic Montana fly shop in Gardiner, he opened Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing in 2014 to to run a leaner and more flexible operation. Becoming his own boss was a major side benefit.
There are many “corporate” guide services in Montana. That ain’t us. We cap operations at three parties daily to avoid overfishing our top spots and to preserve our standards of personalized service.
Our Specialties – Top Trips 365 Days a Year
While we made our name as Yellowstone River fishing guides, we guide all sorts of waters for all sorts of fish. Here are some specialties that get our blood pumping, and ought to get yours pumping, too.
- Rowdy Raft Floats: Fast-paced dry fly fishing on the least-fished sections of the Yellowstone, Boulder, and Stillwater Rivers. Late June through September.
- Meat for Monsters: Big sculpin imitations and big fish on the Yellowstone River. April and July–October.
- Off-the-Radar Blue-Lining: Small, pretty creeks in Yellowstone Park. Small, pretty trout. No competition. June–August.
- Beat the Winter Blues: Shed the crowds during the off-season. Geyser-heated water means great fishing from late fall through spring. October–April.
- Private Lake Pigs: Leech and dry fly fishing for trout averaging 16–20 inches, including some trophy brookies. May–June and October
Our Motto - "Fish the Corners"
Yellowstone Country gets fished hard. Therefore we always seek to beat the crowds, both in terms of where we fish and how we fish. Thus our motto: “Fish the Corners.” What do we mean?
- We strive to fish uncrowded waters: we float less-famous rivers or less-traveled sections of famous rivers and wade-fish “blue lines.”
- We start earlier, fish later, and/or use uncommon tactics.
- Are you a “dry or die” angler? Let’s talk. We fish dries on most trips.
- We primarily use our own custom flies. Standard flies = standard results.
- We love oddball options: native trout in tiny trickles, Tenkara from the drift boat, and more. Let’s get goofy.
Our Flies - Designed and Tied for Yellowstone Country
Our flies are one of the keys to “Fishing the Corners.” Walter has been a commercial fly tier and fly designer since 2002 and has designed dozens of successful patterns. While some might be available in your local shop, the fish see far less of them than standard patterns. The fish are also less wary of them.
Want to check out some of these bugs? Enjoy our latest fly tying tutorial or YouTube Video or click the button below.
Our Clientele
We’ve fished with butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers—literally! That said, we’re better fits for certain clients than others.
Who should fish with us? Small groups and solo anglers, anglers who want to focus on improving their skills as well as catching fish, anglers interested in the history, geology, and animal life, and anglers who would rather work to shed competition even though that sometimes means smaller (but not fewer!) fish in rougher water or terrain.
Our Resources for Every Visitor - From Beginners to Experts
We want anglers visiting southwest Montana and Yellowstone Park to be prepared, whether they’re booking with us or not. Therefore this site is full of trip planning help for DIY anglers.
From our detailed Montana fishing reports to our exhaustive trip planning and fisheries pages, it is possible to spend hours here getting prepared. As you absorb all the info on our site, we ask you to consider one thing: think about how much we hold back for our clients…