Gardiner, Montana is a great home base for your Montana and Yellowstone Park fly fishing trip, and Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing is your top bet for guided trips in the area. Our owner and head guide Walter Wiese has been guiding the Gardiner area since 2001, sixteen years longer than any other guide based there.
Whether you’re looking for float trips on the upper Yellowstone River, hike-in wade trips in remote waters in Yellowstone Park, or a private lake boat trip, we’d love to introduce you to our favorite waters. Some of these are famous names like the Yellowstone. Some are “back pocket” areas that most visitors—and most guides—don’t know about. We operate year-round, and we love guiding clients of any skill level.
All photos on this page were shot within 15 miles of Gardiner as the crow flies, and most were shot less than ten minutes away. Give us a call so we can start planning how to create your picture-worthy memories.
Top Gardiner Montana Guided Fishing Trips
Gardiner, Montana is in a great location for many of our trips and destinations, but not all. Here are some of the best options for anglers staying in or near Gardiner:
River Float Trips
Gardiner is near all the best launch points for floating the upper Yellowstone River. This stretch sees less traffic and produces more trout on dry flies than any other stretch of the Yellowstone, and it’s our favorite stretch overall. With boat drift boats and rafts at our disposal, and both private and public launch points available to us, there are lots of ways we can put this great stretch of water together. Ask about Yankee Jim Canyon trips! We’re one of the few outfitters to run this fun, productive whitewater stretch.
Walk & Wade Trips
Gardiner is the place to stay for wade-fishing Yellowstone Park, especially for anglers eager to hike. Our favorite wade waters are the Yellowstone River in its canyons, the Gardner River, and a bunch of small streams we aren’t about to name on the Internet. How good is wade fishing near Gardiner? When our owner Walter Wiese lived there, he’d sometimes start guided trips by climbing down to the river from his house.
Private Water Trips
Private ranch lake boat trips on the Story Ranch Lakes and Merrell Lake offer big fish and uncrowded conditions within 30 minutes of Gardiner. We’ve been guiding these lakes since 2010, and love the change of pace they offer from the ‘usual’ trips.
For experienced clients who’d rather hunt spooky fish on foot, the Paradise Valley spring creeks are 45 minutes away.
Multiday Trips
Want to check out the full range of fishing Gardiner can offer? Check out our “Gardiner Go-Getter” package. This trip offers three days of fishing at a discounted rate. If your travels take you elsewhere within our operations area as well, one of our other packages might be interesting, as well, or give us a call and we’ll set up a custom package just for you.
What Our Clients Have to Say
If you are planning to fish the great trout rivers around the Livingston region Walter is your man. And if you do, tell him Bud and Dave say thanks!
Also, we had bad weather/water conditions on the scheduled day but were able to reschedule for another day on our trip, which made us very happy!
Overall, great day on the river. Would definitely recommend booking with him.
The whole experience was excellent from start to finish and made for a very memorable day. I would definitely book another trip with Yellowstone Country Fly FIshing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Fishing tackle is included, but you are also welcome to bring your own. Flies are also included, including many custom fly patterns our guides have developed specifically for local waters. Do you like to tie your own? No problem. We'll let you know what to tie, and you can check out our YouTube fly tying tutorials to learn how to tie some of our specialties.
We do not supply wading gear. It is not needed on our most popular trips, and may be rented from local shops if required.
Gardiner offers the most year-round opportunities of any community within our operations area, so it’s a good place to stay almost any time of year. The most popular period is from July through early October, but March and April are also a great “sleeper bet,” especially for experienced anglers hoping for bigger trout. There’s even great fishing in the dead of winter, as long as it’s warm enough you can stand it.
July probably sees the most available options nearby overall, while mid to late May sees the least.
There are. The biggest downside is the driving distance to float rivers besides the Yellowstone. While 50+ miles of the Yellowstone is within an hour’s drive of Gardiner, it’s 2+ hours to other float rivers. If you’re looking to float several rivers or during the Yellowstone’s spring melt in May and June, you will be better off staying elsewhere.
The other downside of Gardiner is that wade-fishing opportunities nearby are almost all inside Yellowstone Park. While the nearby Gardner River is open year-round, other waters in the park are not. When the Gardner is in its spring melt in May, there are no nearby wade fishing options.
This all adds up to mean that anglers looking for a trip in May or perhaps early June will probably be better off staying somewhere other than Gardiner. Give us a call and we’ll talk options.
Good options are present near Gardiner for anglers of all skill levels. For beginners, the best water for float trips is about half an hour north, while the best wade-fishing is on small streams requiring a 30-45 minute drive followed by a short hike. For experienced anglers, all sorts of good options are available, some of them within walking distance of town.
The best timeframe for beginners near Gardiner is from mid-June through September, and April isn’t bad, either. For experienced anglers, there are great options whenever temperatures are warm enough to fish.
Wading gear is not necessary on most summer float trips, though you’ll want waders from mid-September through early June. On wading trips, we usually wet wade from mid-June through early September, so you will want wading boots with rubber soles during that period and wear waders the rest of the year. Old sneakers and water shoes are poor choices except on a few gentle streams.
Almost all of our wading trips require at least a short hike, so you’ll want to have a lightweight day pack to carry water, raingear, etc. Many of our trips involve longer hikes of 2-4 miles one-way to shed crowds and see “the real Yellowstone.” For these trips, you’ll want a pack large enough to carry your wading gear, and you’ll want to wear good hiking boots on the trail.
Our owner and head guide Walter Wiese runs almost all of our Gardiner-based trips, especially those that take place in Yellowstone Park. Walter lived in and guided out of Gardiner between 2001 and 2018. In fact, Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing was based in Gardiner between 2014 and 2018. He actually hired many of the guides currently based in Gardiner for their first guiding jobs.
So why’d we move? Marital bliss and greater float trip opportunities. Walter’s wife is a software engineer, and her commute from Gardiner to Bozeman for work was way too long. In addition, our home base in Livingston, 45 minutes from Gardiner, offers far more opportunities for float-fishing than Gardiner does. Gardiner is in easy range of 50 miles of the Yellowstone. Livingston is in range of 115 miles of it, plus the Boulder, Madison, and Stillwater Rivers.
Absolutely. While we don't include lodging in any of our rates, we have some preferred hotels and campgrounds that work best for our clients. Give us a call and we'll give you our recommendations based on your budget, timeframe, and fishing goals. We'd also be happy to help with other travel planning.
Are You an Information Junkie?
If so, our website will be just the ticket. You'll find plenty of additional info about our guide services, our specialty flies, and more. We also provide more helpful content about area fisheries and fishing tactics than you'll fine in many guidebooks. All this is intended to help you plan your trip - whether you decide to fish with us or not.
Sound good? Grab a cup of coffee or something stronger, click or tap the button below, and get ready for a deep dive into fly fishing Yellowstone Country.
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….
