CFSQ&A: What I Wish I'd Known Before My First Guided Float in Montana
Impressions, insights, and lessons-learned when an Intro to Fly Fishing alum takes her first guided float trip in Montana
Celeste took the summer Intro to Fly Fishing class in part to help prepare for her upcoming family vacation to Montana. After the trip was over, I wanted to check in and see how it went, and how prepared she felt.
For a lot of folks, their first guide trip can be a pretty intimidating thing. It's hard to know what to expect. But guess what? Celeste had a blast.
Read on to find out how it went, what she learned, and her biggest tips for someone who's new to fly fishing but is considering going out with a guide for a day or two.
Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
CFS: Tell us about the trip!
Celeste: We were in Troy, Montana—there are maybe 900 people in the town. Libby is the next closest town. We stayed at the Kootenai River Outfitters, which did our guiding. There were eight of us in this big cabin. And the plan was each day two of us would go out with a guide over the five days, rotating who went out each day.
CFS: How many times did you get to fish?
Celeste: I did two days. My first day I definitely had this magical beginner's luck. It was great. I had some skills I'd picked up along the way, and the guide was impressed with what I brought to the boat, even though I'd never been out in a boat before.
But by the second time I went out, my wrist was tired because you're out there casting constantly. The guide was like, "You didn't pay 500 bucks a day to sit here and look at the scenery, so get out there and fish." I found myself wanting to look up and enjoy the scenery, but also wanting to fish. By the second day I had developed some bad casting habits. I was doing something weird with my wrist, turning it. I think it was just fatigue. I wanted almost a third day really. To take what I learned the first day, what I could feel myself needing to correct on the second day, and then put my skills to work.
A view full of opportunity: Getting ready to launch the drift boat | 📹 via Celeste
CFS: What was the guide like?
Celeste: I got a conservation mindset from the guide. He kept saying his goal, and many fly fishermen's goal, is not to love a river to death. I thought that was a really cool way to put it.
He was very gentle but stern. He was an educator. He recently retired from a job as a guidance counselor at middle and high school levels in rural Montana for 28 years. He was a master of patience, which he said is definitely the key. He said the guide who trained him is a great guide, wonderful boatman, but not as patient with novice fly fishermen.
CFS: What was it like to be guided?
Celeste: He helped me with mantras. I was in the front seat for the first day, which I highly recommend for new people. The front is definitely easier. Being in the front was great because he could watch me the whole time. It was great to have literally constant feedback: "You're turning your wrist," "Watch your backcast," "Come back, stop it a little sooner, get a little more speed."
What surprised me was that I was able, as a total novice, to follow his guidance and actually cast exactly where he told me to. He'd say, "I want you to cast it right here where the edge of the water changes color, where that green changes into blue," and I could do it. Whether that was my skill or his teaching or the perfect combination of both, it was very rewarding.
I was surprised to learn the diversity of the skills that you use in each specific moment within fly fishing. You can't really see that until you're in it because it's actually really overwhelming. He would change flies based on the water we were in and the fish we saw rising. We did targeted dry fly casting, which was hard, but cool and felt really different than other dry fly casting. We did dry fly with a nymph, wet fly casting, and using a leech pattern. He really used the river as an opportunity to teach us when we might use one technique in a certain moment.
I was amazed by the targeted dry fly casting. We went to this spot called (Redacted. Sorry y'all!). Two days in a row we caught the biggest rainbows of the trip there using targeted dry flies. The way they took the fly, because we matched the hatch and everything was perfect, was amazing. These were the tiniest flies, but we were catching the biggest fish.
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CFS: Did you work on any specific skills?
Celeste: I went in excited to catch some fish because of what I'd learned in your class. I'd gone out a little bit on my own but hadn't caught anything. So I wanted that endorphin rush you need when you're early in a craft. My very first fish was a tagged fish that had traveled 25 miles up the river from Idaho. The guide checked where that fish came from, that was pretty cool.
My biggest struggle, which I've always had, and kind of got in my head about, is my confidence in setting the hook. That was where I failed. The first day he was watching and would tell me every time. The second day he was making me do it and figure it out on my own. I missed quite a few. I either wasn't confident that was a fish, or I was coming too late. He's like, "If you're not confident, set it. You're not going to hurt anything."
That was tricky for me and got frustrating. I was having a hard time. More on the nymph than the dry fly because I could see the dry fly better. Sometimes the glare was so bad I couldn't see my fly at all. I felt pressure to perform for the guide, and the second day I could tell he was getting a little frustrated with me. He kept saying, "Celeste, that wrist is making me a little nervous." But he never lost patience.
Setting the hook was definitely my biggest challenge. But the trip was the perfect opportunity to work on it because I had so much exposure. Hit after hit that I could just keep practicing.
CFS: What were his mantras?
