I have a question for you. Where would you go fly fishing if you had a couple of weeks and a campervan? That’s the question we asked ourselves last week as we prepared to travel east. Our answer was Montana and Idaho. We checked the weather report, packed the van and headed out on Saturday on a fall fly fishing road trip. Honestly, we didn’t have a plan.
Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to travel on many fly fishing road trips. I used a variety of resources to plan our trips for waters that looked intriguing. We had a terrific time exploring different parts of Montana and Idaho. One of my favorite resources I used in the early years was Montana’s Best Fishing Waters. It’s a terrific book and one we still carry in the van.
In fact, we ticked off many of the waters in that book. Some of them were OK to fish once, but we haven’t returned.
Others have resonated with us and we enjoy returning to fish them periodically or in the case of the Madison River, annually.
So when I began to think about this week’s post, I struggled.
You’ll have to check back next week to see where our travels take us.
One caveat…the weather. The extended forecast is for much colder weather. We have a furnace in our van, so I’m not as worried about it, but the bigger question is how will cold weather affect fishing?
So I’ll ask again…where would you fly fish if you had a couple of weeks?
If you need assistance planning your own road trip, be sure to read the Planning for a Fly Fishing Road Trip I wrote back in 2019. The tips listed are still appropriate today.
Enjoy…go fish!
I’d head to the ID panhandle to fish the St. Joe and hit the Lochsa on the way home!
John, head to the Firehole, the only river in the country waiting on cold weather to come into good shape. There now and just turning around. Just a Spring creek but fed from high temperature thermal features as it’s “springs”.
I would head north of Montana and fish the great rivers of Alberta.
John, consider fishing the Yakima and the Method in WA. In the fall, when the water level drops, the Yakima is wadeable between Easton and Rosa dam. My favorite time of year there.