Carp fly fishing trips, multiday fly fishing trips, distant water trips.

Our carp trips take place exclusively on the Missouri River between Toston Dam and Canyon Ferry Lake near Townshend, and are run by Head Guide Walter Wiese. Much of the time, we use the boat as transportation only, getting out to fish good banks on foot, since it's much easier to stalk a ten pound carp in a foot of water without spooking it from the shore rather than a noisy boat. 90% or more of the fishing will be sight fishing, usually with medium-sized nymphs and streamers, but occasionally with dry flies including hoppers, midges, and even cottonwood seed imitations. The average carp present range from four to ten pounds. This last sentence should really be in bold and have several exclamation points behind it. Carp trips make an excellent component of a multi-day booking, or a change of pace for anglers otherwise familiar with what the area has to offer. Please note that carp make extremely difficult quarry. Thus our carp floats are only suitable for advanced intermediate and expert anglers.

Targeting carp on the fly requires some special considerations as far as tackle, clothing, and expectations go. Our carp trips also run quite long, since the upper Missouri River is roughly 2.5 hours from Gardiner. We will leave early and get back late. Because of the distance involved, all carp trips will be billed at two-person rates of $440.

For more information on carp trips, including tackle requirements, flies, and so on, please contact Walter Wiese. Please note that carp trips do have some fairly specialized gear requirements (namely, powerful).

Multiday Trips

Parks' Fly Shop does not run generally run overnight trips in the backcountry or down the river, as our outfitting licenses do not permit us to do so. Some possibilities do exist for overnight trips (such as horseback trips up Slough Creek) where outfitters specializing in such trips run the camp, while we focus on fishing. This arrangement can work well, since horse outfitters often focus only on transportation and leave the fishing to their clients. We may also be able to put together trips where we camp together, but PFS does not handle the camp, so we're not outfitting the camping portion of the trip. Another possibility would be hiring PFS for multiple days to work out of private lodges such as Silvertip Ranch, at the headwaters of Slough Creek. We have run trips for parties staying at Silvertip in the past, and in all honesty would love to get up there again. If you are interested in putting together a trip of the sort above, please contact us no later than April 1 in the trip year, as these trips will obviously require a lot of work to put together.

Much more common are multiday trips where we string together standard day trips. Four or more consecutive bookings will reduce rates for all trips by 10%. Otherwise, such trips run just like normal guide trips. If you would like to start putting together a multiday itinerary, contact us to discuss the types of trips are possible when you're planning to come. Probably 20-25% of our business in most years is comprised of clients who book for 2-10 days.

Large Parties and Hosted Trips

We love to work with large groups. Some of our regular clients are groups brought out by fly shops on the coasts, for example. With large groups, especially large multi-day groups, we typically add extra services such as seminars, slideshows, fly tying demonstrations, and the like to the standard guide trips. For trips requiring four guides, we apply a 10% discount. For groups requiring more than four guides, for standing reservations, and for trips requiring four guides for more than four days, additional group discounts may be available. For more information, please contact us. The larger the group, the more advance notice we require. It is unlikely we would be able to accomodate any four-guide group for more than one day at a time with less than three months notice, and quite possible we won't be able to accomodate such a group at all with less than a month's notice.

Bighorn River, Boulder River, Stillwater River, and Missouri River below Holter Trips

Parks' Fly Shop does not run trips on the rivers mentioned above. Some of our contract outfitters do run these areas, however, often as important parts of their business. If you are looking to combine trips in the Yellowstone region and on one of these other rivers, we would be glad to work with these outfitters to put together a trip for you.