How early should you book a guided trip?

If you request a specific guide who is popular with our customers, you should book very early to avoid disappointment. The same holds true if you wish to fish a specific watershed or stretch of water on a specific insect hatch or date during the busy part of the guiding season it is very important you book early. It only makes sense the best fishing periods that provide the best opportunities for dry fly fishing to favorite hatches and big fish will be booked up first. Booking your trip about six to eight months in advance would be our suggestion; this will provide our company the required lead-time to assure we can accommodate any special request/requests.

What if it rains or snows on the day of your scheduled trip?

We have no control over weather patterns or stream flow rates so unless things look extremely unpleasant we will have to carry on with your trip rain or shine. Even if the weather is less than optimal, we will make the best of the situation and do the best we can to make your trip comfortable and enjoyable. In spite of these less than comfortable conditions keep in mind some of the best insect hatches occur during cloudy, damp, overcast days. It’s been our experience that big brown trout are more active on blustery damp days than on bright calm days anyway. Thus, if you are looking for a big brown you may prefer a cooler cloudy day in mid to late summer anyway. This being said we would never force you to fish in water conditions or weather that could be dangerous or very cold. We must all keep an open mind, if all the other guides are heading out with their clients we will have to work creatively together to make a fair decision. If the guides don’t work, they won’t be paid so we want to be fair to everyone involved.

Will we have the opportunity to choose a specific guide?

Unless you make a special request at the time of an early booking there will not be any specific guide assigned to any one client until three or four days before your trip. We will try to pair you up with a guide that most suits the specific style of fishing, experience you are seeking. However, on the rare occasion a guide may not make a booking due to unforeseen circumstances so the particular pairing you are seeking may not be possible.

If you are coming for more than one day and you wish the same guide every day throughout your trip let us know at the time of your booking. This should allow us to organize the bookings to accommodate your request. Most customers who want a certain time slot with a particular guide during the high traffic season make a booking for the next year at the end of their current trip.

Where and when do we meet?

Your guide will pick you up at your place of accommodation between 7:00 and 8:00 A.M. unless otherwise specified. You will then have to stop at a fly shop to pick up your fishing license and any flies you will require for your trip. Unless you the client have time, the night of arrival to drop down to a shop to pick up your license and flies the night before your trip. This would allow you to head directly out to the access point from your accommodations and allow you more time on the water. You can expect to be off the water and back to your place of accommodation by 10:00 –11:00 P.M. unless you request to stay out later to catch some late evening dry fly-fishing.

How many clients per guide are acceptable?

Our boats are designed to safely hold the guide and two clients this becomes very evident once all the extra gear has been packed away in the boat for any float trip. Our company limits the client/guide interaction to one guide for every two anglers per trip. Any more than two clients per guide and we feel customer satisfaction and safety is compromised. In areas where wading conditions are slippery or current speed is deceptively fast the guides unfocused attention span when dealing with more than two clients can also put customers at risk for injury. Generally, these types of scenarios won’t allow us the concentration required to provide the level of customer service we demand for our customers. Therefore, please don’t expect us to put a guide in the uncomfortable position of more than two clients on any trip.

What you should do to prepare for your trip?

Try to do a little exercise in preparation for your trip to help you prepare for days that can last from ten-thirteen hours, a float trip also entails a fair amount of casting and wading. This little bit of exercise will prepare your cardiovascular system and muscles to develop the extra volume and flexibility to cope with our elevation in this region. It will also help when dealing with the daily midsummer atmospheric conditions and the physical exertion required during these floats without getting too tired. These daily weather trends start in early morning usually being cooler and then U.V. rays and temperature slowly climb upward until by midday. The unrelenting sun dehydrates you draining much needed energy; by late evening, the sun retires and the heat fades quickly leaving an angler a little chilled.

The real hi-point of the entire trip will take place in the low light of late evening as the last rays of daylight fade at the end of your trip. This is when the big fish slide into shore to begin wallowing and sipping emerging, egg laying and/or spent insects on the surface in shallow water. The anglers that are in good shape seem to have the extra energy at the end of the day that this low light, dry fly, high adrenalin rush type fishing requires particularly after a super long day on the river.

The most important pro-active action you can take to properly prepare for your trip if you have never fished before would be to take a fly-fishing course. Your entire trip is going to cost a fair amount of money so advance preparation will most definitely improve the chances of your trip being both enjoyable and successful. Of particular importance is first-rate casting lessons, which will help you develop the ability to refine rod tip travel and loop control. These casting programs will also help you to improve hand eye co-ordination, accuracy, and gentle presentation as well as line control. The ability to become an accomplished Caster is the single most important thing you can do to ensure success on any fishing trip.

If you have fly-fishing experience please practice your casting so you can comfortably cast twenty-thirty feet of fly line accurately and smoothly. By this, we mean you should be able to cast in a one-foot square area consistently at a distance of twenty-thirty feet. It would be best if you could find the time to fit in twenty-thirty hours of casting practice just prior to your trip. Believe us this extra effort will pay big dividends towards reducing frustration and increase your level of success on any guided trip.

Videos and CD’S are another excellent source for training aides in the learning process they can be rented or purchased at any good fly shop. Doug Swisher has an excellent series of six videos that will take you from entry level to mastery level in all the important aspects of fly-fishing. Doug Swisher started the video instructional format in this sport and to this day in our opinion; his series of six tapes is still the series everyone strives to imitate. He is an unbelievable fly-fisherman and a superb instructor not to mention a brilliant caster with the Midas touch when it comes to line control. His series of tapes have much to offer even the most accomplished fly fisherman. Timely preparation, observation and common sense will always serve you well in the world of fly-fishing.

What flies do we need and in what quantities?

Three factors will control the amount of success an angler has on any given fishing trip casting ability, line control, and possessing the right fly for current conditions. The next logical step in the overall process would be to place the fly in front of the fish in a gentle, delicate, and natural manner so the fish will eat the fly. The first two abilities casting ability and line control only come from association through learning and practice they cannot be effectively passed on the day of your trip. However, the guide will provide the basics on the first two when required and help the angler with pattern choice. Coaching the angler on the third factor, the correlation between how and where to place the fly pattern so the fish will see the fly and eat it, is a big part of the guides daily work. Your guide will help you in selecting the right fly patterns for your trip so your hard earned money is well spent. Most good guides would expect a client to use some where in the neighborhood of 10 to 16 flies per day. The flies you will require will range in price from $2.10 - $2.35 for most match the hatch type dry flies, soft hackles or nymphs. If you require streamers and adult hopper patterns, dry fly attractors or big drakes these patterns will run between $2.50 - $3.75. We hope this section and our web site in general will allow you to accurately forecast what any float trip will cost so there is no upsetting budget over runs for our clients.