Back in 2009, Monte Burke, with Forbes, released an article referring to America’s top 10 trout fishing towns. In the “Big Sky Spots” section, he referenced that Montana has “earned the reputation as perhaps the best trout fishing spot in North America”. He named Missoula and West Yellowstone as the most prominent trout fishing locations in the state, and he included that anywhere in western Montana could “fit the bill”. Here’s the Montana part of the article:
Big Sky Spots
In the West, Montana has earned the reputation as perhaps the best trout fishing spot in North America. Missoula and West Yellowstone are two of the most prominent, but really any place in the western part of the state could fit the bill.
Missoula is a laid-back college town with a serious trout-fishing addiction. Anglers can fish the bouldery Blackfoot (A River Runs Through It author Norman Maclean’s home river) and the cottonwood-lined Bitteroot, both of which empty into the Clark Fork, named after explorer, William Clark, which has 300 miles of fishable water.
West Yellowstone is in the epicenter of some of the best trout fishing in the world. It’s a quirky place, where the frontier greets thousands of RVs that cruise through Yellowstone National Park.
“It’s a honky-tonk town with everything a fly-fisherman needs,” says Tom Rosenbauer, the marketing director for Orvis Rod & Tackle. “And it’s a gateway to so much great fishing.”
In the park, anglers can hit the famous Firehole and Gibbon Rivers. Also nearby is the Gallatin (where A River Runs Through It was filmed), the trout-rich Madison and Henry’s Fork of the Snake River–one of the most beautiful and challenging trout rivers in the world.
But there is great trout fishing found all over North America, from Michigan to Arkansas to California to Calgary. Time to rig up the rod and get out there.
Do you like Montana’s fishing reputation to be in national/worldwide publications, or would you prefer we put up a wall around the state after extensively interviewing current residents? Obviously, there isn’t much we can do about it, but I know my answer.
