Montana Troutfitters University

What we've found over the 40 plus years of being in the fly fishing and outfitting business is that many people want to learn to fly fish but are intimidated by the concept and steep learning curve that presents itself to a beginning fisherman. To that end we came up with a way to introduce future anglers to the sport in a no pressure atmosphere where you don't feel like you have to get your money's worth on the river catching fish. These are more of an introduction to flyfishing for those seeking some ability to go and fish on their own after completing the class. We offer our Troutfitters University year round, and our experienced guide staff will prepare you to enjoy fishing on your own.

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You show up at our store and we make sure you have a fishing license, then you will depart for our classroom upstairs in the store where we will go over some of the basics of gear selection - such as rods and reels, boots and waders, leaders and tippet etc. We will discuss the specifics of what lines and line weight rods are good for beginning anglers and what to avoid when starting out.

Next we will demonstrate and practice different fishing knots and how and when to use these knots when setting up your fly rod and tying on flies. We will discuss with you the different techniques of fishing such as nymphing versus dry fly fishing versus streamer fishing and the basics of reading where fish hold.

We follow this up with bug identification in the classroom with Jim Schollmeyer's Western Hatch Guide to accompany our collection of insects that we've amassed over the years (You'll repeat this process again on the river with real live ones!). We then will give you a short synopsis of fly selection (really we could teach a whole class on this if we wanted to).

After absorbing all of this, we'll take you outside to do a little casting alongside the shop. After you've reached a sufficient level of casting prowess, we will treat you to a nice catered lunch before embarking on the fishing portion of the trip.

The "Outdoor" portion of the class is split between kicking over a few rocks and examining the aquatic life, learning to read water where fish hold, practicing your casting and...FISHING! One of the best parts of the trip is that you have the full undivided attention of your guide to aid you in your casting, water reading, knot tying, bug identifying and general fishing growth.

This trip is not really geared towards catching fish the day of the trip. It is really geared towards you learning the skills necessary to find angling success in your future.