Hopper Palooza
Hosted Montana & Wyoming Driftboat Fishing
Who doesn’t love hopper fishing to jumbo sized Rainbows and Browns?!
Since my early years as a fishing guide, I loved the big bug splat near the banks of a grassy, winding, willow infested stream. Western dry fly fishing is not just about the catch. It is picking the target, making the shot, fishing it well, and cherishing the rewards when they come. I’ve come up with a good plan to get us in front of great hopper or hopper/dropper fly fishing, covering a little bit of Montana and a little bit of Wyoming best waters.
Montana & Wyoming Hopper Fishing Photos
Trip Overview
- Trip Dates: July
- Trip Length: Varies Depending on Venues Chosen
- Target Species: Trophy Brown Trout, Rainbows, Cutties
- Techniques: Pounding the Banks With Hoppers & Terrestrials
- Headquarters: Twin Bridges, MT & Thermopolos, WY
- Trip Cost: Varies Depending on Trip Length and Venues Chosen
Trip Highlights
Montana
This is my vacation trip with my friends, clients and of course family. The exact location and itinerary will be evolving every year. some seasons we will stop in Missoula on the way there or on the way back. On low water years we will focus on the Beaverhead and Wind rivers. Often we are at the very beginning of hopper / terrestrial season. I found its better to start the new game than follow the new game. Always between 7 and 10 days and we can pic up travelers in Bozeman or Cody along the way for fly ins. I dont set a price for this but usually around 650 a day per person on lodging and guided days. We like to have a driving day or two between the locations to explore new walk and wade locations and do the tourist thing in Yellowstone Park, mostly watch goofball humans interact with very board wildlife.
Out of Missoula, I love the Clark Fork and Blackfoot. Both have great water and completely different approach and scenery. The Missoula area is a dry fly mecca with available hatches and sipping rainbows, browns and cutties. We can fish with familiar faces that have guided with my outfit, Andy Simon, Chris Mahre and Caleb Garret, who guide out of Missoula in the summer. This Leg of the Journey can be fully hosted or dirtbagging it depending on the crowd involved.
Then it is off to Twin Bridges. After working the Big Hole, Beaverhead and Jefferson for 8 seasons, I can’t possibly drive by and NOT see Seth and Chris of Four Rivers Fishing Co. Seth and I guided for Rooster (the boldest personality in the area) in his early years of lodge ownership. This makes for more friendly faces here for sure and, most of all, my all-time favorite hopper stretch in Montana. This float is almost exclusively big Browns requiring downstream shots into flowing seams of grass or tap into the ever present inside the inside pocket trying to move a giant from a cut bank. Seth and Chris run a great program and offer lodging in the old fly shop. I lived upstairs of the shop for a couple seasons, there’s a nice BBQ area behind with private backyard for that after fishing social time.
Wyoming
We usually need a day + travel in between Twin Bridges or Missoula, MT and Thermopolis, WY. Usually, this gives us a relax day or partial DIY Day in the park or canyon maybe a creek on the reservation.
Once we arrive, our headquarters are a big fancy ranch house with a pond and huge Wyoming countryside views. Jami Laya, whom you may know from cooking and running the house for us at the Wild Duc Lodge in Forks, WA. She lives just an hour away from here and will be cooking and hanging out, even fishing a day if we convince her, should be easy. The house sleeps 10 or more and is a 30 minute drive to meet guides but well worth it.
This is the main course of our journey, for three to five days we float a different section of the Wind/ Big Horn River. This river is special, and the river is not easy, but produces huge rainbows and heavy Browns I’ve caught three species of cutthroat as well. We commonly use a big ass hopper and a piece of meat as a dropper. SO, the tricky part is the drifting grass, you get it often but it shakes off well with a streamer snap. This grass flow is also your opportunity to fish on these monsters with heavy tippet. A mere two weeks earlier no grass, no hoppers and every fish runs away on 5X. When we are there, light tippets are gone and you can actually land the monsters, plus you get great slow motion dry fly eats and easily predictable drop off bites on the dropper.
Added soon will be the opportunity to fish a private spring creek 1.5 hrs. north of Thermopolis. There are two sections of walk wade both having huge browns commonly over 20 inches.
This is a cherry pic of what I love best , this trip will make my summer off the grindstone of guiding. Join me!
Trip Itinerary & Details
This trip has various options for interested anglers. Join us for the entire adventure, or just show up where you want in. I’m scheduling a yearly 7 to 10 day event starting in late July and finishing early August.
Two or three days in Montana on the way through going over and 3 to 5 days in Wyoming with the bonus option of another two day shot back in Montana on the way through to Washington.
The way I nail down a timeline is see the snow pack volume in February, adjust for 15 days and then go earlier or later by a week or so from that prediction.
Some suggested itinerary options: Whole deal dates are departing Ellensburg a Wed and returning Saturday the following week.
- The whole deal: meet up in Twin or Missoula ona Wed night fish 2-3 days take a day or two see Yellowstone DIY day and meet up in Thermopolis on Sunday, fish and stay 5-days 6 nights and head for home.
- Meet us in Thermopolis: on Sunday and fish all five days six nights there.
- Start in Montana at Twin on a Sunday: fish two days, do the hard core 6 hr drive after fishing and meet us in Thermopolis on Tuesday night. Fish the rest of the week and depart for home Saturday.
- Last option meet us on Tuesday: night in Thermopolis fish 4 day 4 nights and depart Saturday morning.
Costs roughly $650 per person per day for the fishing/ lodging package not including your travel expenses and any in between DIY stuff. Includes fully hosted with lodging in Thermopolis. Standard VRBO DIY lodging in Twin bridges, we had a great BBQ this season and will the next, made for an awesome after fishing social time.
One final option would be to fly to either Bozeman or Cody and get picked up traveling the second leg through Saturday and get dropped back off and fly home.
**Pricing does not include travel, licensing or gratuities**
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