Parks' Fly Shop Staff: Meet Our Guides

Richard was born in northern Minnesota, and his first exposure to fly fishing was on the streams that flow into the north shore of Lake Superior. Family vacations to Yellowstone in 1947 and 1950 were followed by the move to Gardiner when his father opened the Parks' Fly Shop in 1953. While his father had built him a fly rod when he was six, it took a few years for Richard to grow into the rod. By age twelve Richard was fishing dry flies as well as tying for the shop and working part-time as a clerk. During his teens this gradually shifted into a full-time summer job. During this time, Richard continued to develop his skills both by himself and with his father.

Richard began guiding in 1961 and continued to guide and work in the shop through his college years. After graduating with a History degree, Richard served a three year hitch in the US Army, including a tour in Vietnam. He was planning on graduate school when his father died in the spring of 1970, at which point he took over active management of the shop with the help of his mother.

Following the lead of his father (who had been a founding member of Trout Unlimited in Montana), Richard expanded his involvement as a conservation activist throughout the 1970s and 80s. During the early 1990s he served as Chairman of the Northern Plains Resource Council, one of Montana's leading conservation organizations, and served twice as Chairman of the Western Organization of Resource Councils. He was also a founding member of the Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana and has served several terms as President of that organization.

In 2003 Richard met Nancy Rourke. In 2004 he bought a house in Gardiner which he and Nancy, soon to be his wife, converted to a bed & breakfast, the Gardiner Guesthouse, which opened in 2005.

E-mail Richard Parks.

Walter Wiese is Head Guide at Parks' Fly Shop. E-mail him with any questions about setting up a trip. Walter grew up fishing spring creeks and tailwaters in the Ozarks, but since moving west has largely moved to the opposite side of the spectrum and now prefers big freestone rivers like the Yellowstone and pocketwater streams like the Gardner and the myriad small streams in the region. These waters give him the solitude and wilderness experiences that were usually lacking on the trout rivers in the Ozarks, and these experiences as much as the fishing have kept him in Montana long after his "college job" morphed into something else.

His primary guiding specialties include floating the Yellowstone and area private lakes, hunting runner browns from September through early November, exploring the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Lamar Drainage, swinging wet flies and matching caddis hatches on the Firehole, and teaching beginners. He is also responsible for much of our custom fly selection and most of the "New Fly R&D" that takes place at PFS, so if you have fly tying questions, he's your best source of information.

Walter works year-round for PFS and is also a freelance writer, web designer, and a contract fly designer for the Montana Fly Company. His writing has appeared in national magazines including Fly Fishing & Tying Journal, Fly Rod and Reel, and American Angler. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University and is working on a degree in Information Science. Walter enjoys snowboarding, attempting to play guitar, and owns far too many good books and good pieces of music to have a good retirement account. Walter built this site and keeps up most of its content, which makes him wonder why he just wrote this profile from the 3rd person point of view.

Click here to view Walter's signature patterns available from wholesaler Montana Fly Company. If you like one, lobby your local shop to carry it.

 

View Walter's Blog.

E-mail Walter Wiese.

Ben Jewell grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of New Hampshire, which introduced him early on to some great brook trout fishing. Newfound River is a fly fishing only stream that provides terrific fishing almost year-round. It flows just four miles from Ben's boyhood home, and it's where he spent many days fishing big Green Drakes in the spring, Sulphurs in the summer, tiny Tricos in the fall, and midges in the winter. He also had many mountain lakes at his disposal, primarily Little Bog Pond, where his family has a cabin.

Ben began working for PFS in 2007. He specializes in taking people into the backcountry, for solitude, gorgeous scenery, and trout fishing bliss. He also loves drifting the Yellowstone. Ben began tying flies for the shop in 2008. If you fish the Lamar drainage, you'll need to pick up some of his Bicolor Ants and Slough Creek Spinners.

Gardiner, MT, the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park, is the greatest location for trout fishing in the Lower 48, and it's where Ben has been fortunate enough to live for five years, having previously spent several years roaming southwest Montana and fishing 150 days a year just to find such a place. Springtime brings good dry fly fishing near the thermal areas on the Firehole and Gibbon rivers, allowing visitors to fly fish amid exotic scenery unique to the area. Another Ben likes in the spring is to hike with clients into either Grebe or Cascade lake to catch a beautiful Artic Grayling. Summertime is dry fly fishing at its best. Fishing big Drakes on Slough Creek and chucking Salmonfly dries up against the banks on the Yellowstone both get Ben's adrenaline going. Fall brings big browns up the Yellowstone, Gardner, and Madison Rivers. This is when it's possible to get a lot of quality fish on streamers and by high stick nymphing.

Ben wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The diverse Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is unique on the planet, and Ben hopes to see you out there experiencing all it has to offer.

E-mail Ben Jewell.

     Wilson Eich was eight years old in 1954 when his cousin put a fly rod in his hand and told him to learn how to use it. This changed his life forever and in a few years he was exploring the myriad trout streams of North Georgia. During his high school and college years he fished dry flies on the big open water of the Chattahoochee River, “the Hooche.”  It was here he honed the skills that would be necessary for success on the Western streams of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.

Dreams of fishing the Northern Rockies and piloting a bush plane in Alaska were delayed by education, marriage and career, but Wilson finally made a trip to the Yellowstone area, where he fell in love with the wide open spaces, rivers, and streams. Wilson fishes 150 days a year, most on the waters of Yellowstone National Park. Until 2008 Wilson based out of West Yellowstone, so he has exceptional knowledge of the Gallatin and Madison Rivers, but since changing his base to Gardiner he's developed a fondness for the canyons of the Yellowstone and the Gardner, especially during the June-July Salmonfly hatch and “hopper time” in August. He likes to say “Yellowstone is my backyard, and it’s sure a nice one.

Wilson works for Parks Fly Shop from early May through late October and spends winters on his farm in Georgia, fishing area lakes and streams and making an occasional trip to the Florida Keys. Wilson exclusively guides Walk & Wade trips, mostly in the Park, and especially likes to introduce youngsters to the joys of fly fishing. Wilson has a BA in Political Science from Georgia State University, where he also did graduate work in International Relations. Wilson’s interests other than fly fishing and fly tying are serious road cycling, flying airplanes, hiking, and spending time with his wife Betty and Australian Shepherd Daisy. 

E-mail Wilson Eich.

Mike grew up in North Idaho, where he honed his love for fly-fishing on some lesser-known rivers and streams. After graduating from the University of Montana in 2005, Mike and his wife moved to Gardiner.  He worked for seven years as a ranger-naturalist and bear education ranger in Yellowstone Park as well as a fishing guide, before leaving the Park Service in 2007 to found the grassroots nonprofit organization Yellowstone Country Guardians, which works on the ground to inspire communities across the region to nurture the wild spirit of Yellowstone Country through programs such as the River Guardian Fly Fishing School, in which youth are taught to fly fish in a setting strongly oriented to conservation.

Like many Montanans, Mike wears a lot of hats.  In addition to guiding and working with his nonprofit, Mike has been the Gardiner High Boys' Basketball Coach since 2007, travels the region as a public speaker (sermonizing on behalf of Yellowstone Country), and writes natural history pieces, fly fishing articles, and essays for regional publications about the wild country he calls home.

As an educator, Mike has a great deal of patience and really enjoys working with anglers of all experience levels. His primary rivers in the Yellowstone region are the Yellowstone and the Madison, along with the countless and enigmatic waters of Yellowstone National Park.  When he's not guiding for Parks' Fly Shop, Mike spends much of his time in Western Montana, guiding on the Bitterroot River.

Mike is also a licensed minister and would be happy to officiate at your wedding for a reasonable fee. Be prepared for river/Yellowstone/wilderness metaphors in the sermon. This part actually isn't a joke: Mike does several weddings each summer.

E-mail Michael Leach.

Pat Straub grew up fishing the waters in and around Yellowstone Park. Upon graduation from high school in Bozeman, Pat headed to the Midwest to play soccer and study writing at Beloit College. Armed with a B.A. and not much else, Pat first guided for PFS in 1997 and hasn't stopped since. Going into his fourteenth year guiding fly fishers, Pat has guided anglers of all abilities throughout Montana and in the far-off locales off Florida , Chile , and southern Africa . Despite his many travels his favorite waters in the entire world are the trout-filled rivers and creeks within an hour of Gardiner -nowhere on earth exists the diversity and accessibility of water that occurs near Gardiner. Pat enjoys guiding anglers of all abilities, but particularly enjoys working with beginners. Every experience is new and an enjoyable challenge.

For PFS, Pat primarily guides Yellowstone River float trips and guides or outfits our Madison and many of our Missouri River floats. His personal outfitting operations range from the Bighorn in eastern Montana to the Bitterroot in the West, so if you'd like to fish outside the PFS area of operations, we'd love to act as a booking agent for Pat.

Pat is the author of five books: The Orvis Pocket Guide to Streamer Fishing, It Happened in South Dakota, Montana On The Fly: An Angler's Guide, Montana: An Explorer's Guide, and The Frugal Fly Fisher: Bending the Rod Without Breaking the Bank (to be released in May 2011). When not guiding he can be found hiking with his dogs and his wife or trying a new line of fresh powder at Bridger Bowl Ski Area.

E-mail Pat Straub.

Visit Pat's website.

Matt has been fly fishing since his boyhood in Pennsylvania in the early 1940s, but didn't begin tying until the late 1960s, when he lived in Ten Sleep, Wyoming. He has the notable distinction of having caught a fish on his first cast with a fly he tied. Perhaps unsurprising given this immediate success, he started tying commercially in 1970.

Matt primarily fishes nymphs, and prefers highly impressionistic flies that can suggest multiple food items at once. His nymphs are strongly influenced by the flies common around his former winter home on New Zealand's South Island, and all rank among Parks' Fly Shop's most effective and best-selling flies. Many of Matt's nymphs have been featured in publications including Fly Fishing & Tying Journal and Flyfisher, and the book Trout Country Flies: From Greater Yellowstone Masters.

Matt doesn't fish as much as he used to, but if you see a battered red-orange Subaru coupe from the 1980s somewhere on the Gardner or Yellowstone, you want to go elsewhere. Matt is a fish vacuum and it is highly unlikely you will catch anything fishing water he has already gone through.

 

The great outdoors and fishing have always been driving forces in Doug's life.  As a child he went panfishing and bullhead fishing at night with his dad and grandfather.  In later years he spent all spring, summer, and fall on Lake Ontario, trolling for trout and salmon, and then ice fished all winter.  One day he stumbled into fly fishing by going to a fly tying demonstration and being totally captivated by it.  He became a fly tier that day and it wasn’t long before he was casting and presenting his own flies to the local brown trout. 

Today Doug enjoys fly fishing the inland trout streams and tributaries in his home state of New York and in Yellowstone country. Doug worked full time for Parks' Fly Shop in 2008 and 2009, then filled in a bit during July 2010. Since then he has graduated to just tying flies for the shop, which gives him more fishing time.  Doug ties and designs flies year round, but in the summer you will find him field testing these flies all over Yellowstone Country.  Doug strives to design flies that catch fish and are easy to tie as-well-as being beautifully effective, “guide flies” really.  Doug is inspired by the great fly tiers of the Catskills and the Rocky Mountains, both past and present.  He enjoys both the artistic skills of fly tying and the technical challenges in bringing the fish to hand.

Walter's note: if Doug sounds like somebody you'd like to fish with, e-mail him to demand he return to work full-time for PFS. There's hope for 2013...

Doug is a featured tier for Jvice, a South African fly tying vise manufacturer whose products Walter also uses.

View Doug's Jvice profile.

View Doug's Blog.

E-mail Doug Korn.