Private Water Trips

We offer two types of Montana private water fishing trips: float/walk trips on small private reservoirs located on working Montana cattle ranches and walk & wade trips on the famous Paradise Valley spring creeks, located just south of Livingston. All of the private waters on which we guide as of this writing are located within 45 minutes of Livingston, making them the closest options to our home base beside the Yellowstone River and a few small streams.

All private waters require advance reservations and sharply limit the number of guests they accept. The Paradise Valley spring creeks in particular are often fully-booked months or even years in advance, while private lake reservations can usually be made less than a month in advance except perhaps during the peak early June season.

Private Lake Trips

Trips on area ranch lakes are our most popular Montana private water fishing trips. These private lakes offer big fish, sometimes including big fish caught using sight-fishing and dry fly tactics. These lakes are located on working cattle ranches. They hold the largest fish in our operations area on average. Most trout in these private lakes are rainbows. Some lakes also hold trophy-size brook trout, browns, or cutthroats.

Private lakes fish more consistently from April through June than any other bodies of water within two hours of Livingston and also produce well in September and October. On the other hand, they are poor in mid-late summer, are seldom “exciting” to fish, and offer less variety in their scenery and wildlife encounters than most other trips.

• When? All private lakes fish best from ice-out in early April through late June. They are the best options near Livingston during this period. One lake fishes well until mid-July. All lakes turn back on again once the weather starts cooling off in September and fish exceptionally well through October.
• Where? We operate on three ranch properties: Burns Lake near Big Timber, the Sitz Ranch Lakes between Harrison and Norris (four lakes), and the Story Ranch Lakes near Emigrant (two lakes).
• Why? Private lakes offer the most consistent fishing for large trout of any fisheries within easy day-trip range of Livingston. All provide some chance of catching trout over 6lbs overall and over 3lbs on dry flies. Brook trout can reach 20 inches in the private lakes and average 14 to 18 inches, which is more than twice the average size brook trout elsewhere in the region. Private lakes are also excellent choices for parties comprised of anglers with wildly different skill levels, since both expert-friendly and beginner-friendly trips are possible. Finally, private lakes are GREAT options in May and June, when many other options near Livingston are slow and/or crowded.
• Why Not? The fishing is slow-paced and most days will not produce large numbers of trout. The fishing can be very difficult when it’s windy.
• Access Fees: $80 to $100 per angler per day depending on the property.

Southwest Montana is ranch country, with many working cattle ranches of several thousand acres in size still operating despite the encroaching condos. Cattle need water, so old-time ranchers made small lakes. This isn’t easy in the arid west, so virtually all of these lakes were built in natural wetlands and marshes where small springs would help the process. By damming these low areas to keep the water from flowing away and then seasonally running in some irrigation water to augment the natural springs, these old-time ranchers made super-fertile, weedy, insect-rich, spring-fed ponds and small lakes that support large, fast-growing trout.

These lakes are the best fisheries in the area during the spring runoff period, and also offer great fishing whenever they’re ice-free provided they’re not too warm. The lakes with less spring water are generally out of play from late June through early September, while those with more spring water are good bets except from late July until about Labor Day.

We primarily guide these lakes from drift boats, but some walk-wade fishing is also possible if the wind is down and the fish are cruising the shorelines. This is most common in the spring and fall, when the sun warms the shallows more than the depths. A variety of subsurface aquatic insect and crustacean imitations interest the fish, as well as leech patterns.

The fish are fat and sassy. Most years, they average 14 to 18 inches and fat regardless of species, with significant numbers of rainbows from 20 to 24 inches in many lakes. Overall fish populations are not high in most lakes, but a few fish in the high teens are enough to make a good day for most anglers.

The private lakes are excellent for anglers who like a slower-paced day that would rather catch fewer but larger fish. Experienced clients can do well with dry flies during midge, damselfly, and Callibaetis mayfly hatches and by sight-fishing with nymphs, but even novices and beginners can do well using subsurface techniques. This makes the lakes a great option for parties with widely-varying skill levels.

They lakes are not good choices for those who like fast-paced action or a lot of thrills on their trips. Except when you’re actually fighting a fish, you should expect a slow-paced and mellow day when fishing the lakes.

Except in early spring or late fall, the lakes generally fish best from sometime in the morning until early afternoon. For this reason, expect to meet between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning for lake trips, regardless of the season, with the precise timing depending on where you’re staying. Getting out early is one way of beating the bane of the private lakes: the wind. Since these lakes are generally in open, exposed country, the winds can be horrific. We have seen three-foot waves on tiny lakes. If the wind is up, the fishing might be pretty grim.

Potential for wind notwithstanding, besides the access fees and the fact that there is less in the way of scenery and animals on the private lakes than on other trips, there are no real downsides to Montana private water fishing trips on area ranch lakes. The fish are big if not particularly numerous, the lakes fish consistently well, including in periods when few other nearby options do, and the overall “experience” of trout fishing in what amount to large farm ponds is new for many clients.

Private Spring Creek Fishing Trips

The three spring creeks in the northern portion of Paradise Valley – Depuy, Armstrong’s, and Nelson’s – rank among the most-fabled private waters in the United States. These creeks are also among the most technical (that is to say ‘hardest’) fisheries in the world. Day-in day-out pressure from skilled fly anglers, glass-clear shallow water, and a food base consisting primarily of vast numbers of only a few types of tiny aquatic insects and crustaceans make for spooky, particular trout. Some anglers love this kind of fishing. Some emphatically do not.

Montana private water fishing trips on the spring creeks are only suited to experienced anglers who would rather go mano a mano with a small number of challenging and solid but seldom huge trout than catch large numbers of fish blind-casting or otherwise covering a lot of water.

• When? The spring creeks are great from early March through April, late June through July (though bookings are hard to get at this time), and from mid-October through November. Fishing can be great in the dead of winter as well, though the weather makes it feel like an ordeal at times. Fishing is available but much less consistent during other periods.
• Where? Armstrong’s, Nelson’s, and Depuy Spring Creeks, all located just south of Livingston (almost on the city’s outskirts in fact).
• Why? The famous Paradise Valley spring creeks offer technical sight-fishing for challenging, spooky, and healthy 12 to 18-inch trout in beautiful and verdant yet easy-access walk-wade settings. Some spectacular dry fly fishing is possible in late spring, early summer, and late fall, while the region’s most consistent fishing overall in winter, early spring, and late fall takes place on the creeks.
• Why Not? These fish are difficult. The slow, gin clear water and tiny insects they usually eat, coupled with consistent angling pressure from experienced anglers both guided and unguided every day temperatures are above freezing mean that these are probably the spookiest and hardest-to-catch fish in our entire operations area. Fish numbers are almost never high, and even two or three fish per day can be good during difficult times of year. That said, the challenge of getting even a few fish to eat in water this difficult is part of the attraction for many anglers. In a sense, Montana private water fishing trips on the Paradise Valley spring creeks is more akin to trophy hunting than it is to fishing. For some that might be a positive. For others, very much a negative.
• Access Fees: $40 to $120 per angler per day depending on the season and the property. Access fees paid to one property do not get you into the others.

Let us get one thing straight right away: the spring creeks are hard. They are not the best Montana private water fishing trips for all or even most people. Our outfitter Walter Wiese has never personally caught more than about twenty fish in a day on one of the spring creeks. The average number of fish our clients have landed per day is around five fish. One day in late May, a tough period, a skilled client caught six fish in about nine hours of fishing (a very long day), and he was the only angler on the creek that day to catch anything at all.

Along with a couple “big fish only” float rivers, this is the only place where we guide where there’s more than a remote chance of catching nothing at all, no matter your skill level. If you are okay with the possibility of a skunking, you might consider a day on the spring creeks. If not, literally any of the other trips we offer would be a better choice.

The best periods on the creeks are from early March through April, late June through late July, and the middle of October through the middle of November.

In the summer, the big draws on the creeks are the dependable and often amazing Pale Morning Dun mayfly hatches, which bring lots of good fish to the surface like clockwork almost every day. Unfortunately, days in this period can be fully booked more than a year in advance, because the quality of this fishing is known worldwide. We are writing this on February 5, 2021. As of today, Depuy spring creek is fully booked (they allow 16 anglers per day) from June 18 through July 13 this year and many days in the same timeframe in 2022! If you’re planning for a couple years in advance, take note and book “PMD season” trips very early.

Sleeper bets in our opinion are the spring and fall fishing. During both periods, midge and Blue-winged Olive hatches can prompt good numbers of rising fish for an hour or two each day, but the main attraction is the runs of spawning trout entering the creeks from the Yellowstone. These spawners themselves are not the targets, at least not while they’re actively spawning. The spawning areas are well-known, and the landowners typically close these areas to angling during spawning periods (and we do not target actively spawning wild trout on our trips, anyway). Instead, the real draw is the fishing for pre-spawn fish as well as resident fish that hang in the deeper pools well downstream of the spawners, eating both eggs the spawners drop and insects they stir up by their spawning activity.

The remainder of the year, fishing involves lots of fly changes with tiny mayfly nymphs and midges, with occasional sporadic hatches of this mayfly or that. Another option that can work is covering lots of water with streamers. While the creeks are less busy during these periods, there’s a good reason for that. The creeks make the jump from hard to really hard outside the peak seasons.

2023 Montana Private Water Fishing Trip Rates

Rates are identical for both private lake trips and spring creek trips. Please note that the following rates do not include access fees of $40 to $125 per day per angler payable to the landowner. In general we charge these fees when you book the trip as part of the deposit and pay the landowner on your behalf, though you may also pre-book with a specific property and cover the access fees yourself. Because landowners do not offer a discounted half-day access fee, all private water trips run as full-day trips.

Private Water Trip Rates: $600 for one angler, $635 for two. $50 discount before May 1 or after October 14.

Fishing licenses are required on the Paradise Valley spring creeks. They are not required on private lakes since the lakes are non-natural waters completely under the management of the relevant landowners. This latter fact does help reduce costs to our guests somewhat.

Private lake availability depends on the lakes being ice-free, which is unlikely before early April or after November 15. Spring creeks are fishable year-round.

Note on Montana Private Water Fishing Trip Deposits

Private water landowners have different and in many cases much less forgiving deposit/cancellation policies than Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing. In general, the spring creeks are in such high demand that landowners require non-refundable full prepayment. You book it, you’re either fishing it or paying for it, no matter the weather or water conditions. We had trouble in one case even getting a landowner to refund deposits made for guided trips that were booked to take place during Montana’s spring 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, when it was illegal for out-of-state residents to even leave their hotels.

The private lakes are somewhat more lenient, though still less lenient than our own policies in most cases.

Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing’s own deposit policy is unchanged for private water bookings, but our guests need to understand that they may be on the hook for private water access fees even if we refund the full cost of the guide service fees.