It is our great pleasure to announce that effective today we’re back in the saddle with Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone.  We have some very interesting and exciting new additions and improvements to announce today.   

Back in April when we announced the closure of the site, we were in the midst of a very busy run with a business venture, and were in all honesty probably feeling a bit frustrated with the protracted spring (translate late winter) that transpired here in southwest Montana and the Yellowstone area this year.  Little did we know “spring” would last until mid-June in Bozeman and even later in the Park.

So what changed in the past few months to get us back online with Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone?  The short answer is “several things”. 

In the past few weeks we’ve been approached by another fly fisher in the Bozeman area who has an interest in writing well and helping with the blog, and of course loves southwest Montana and the Park.  This fly fisher happens to be a young woman (Jess) in her 20s, working part time at one of the local outdoor / fly fishing emporiums so as to be up to date on gear issues in particular, who turns a pen well, and has a pretty darn strong photographic eye.  She has a particular interest in highlighting some of the great local women in fly fishing, as well as interacting with women in fly fishing around the country.  Jess has some innovative ideas and will be posting on the blog frequently as we ramp back up this week and over the season.

The rest of us have plowed through the business start up we were working on all spring, and though we’re still working too danged hard every day, we’re feeling like we’re back in control of things a bit. 

We were also astounded and humbled at the response we had when announcing back in April our intent to close the site.  We had folks from every continent (except Antarctica)  email regrets at the site going down and frankly request that we keep it open and running.  We’re still seeing roughly 200 people per day visit the site even without an update since mid-April.  Jess has even had people at her store talking about the site this past week. 

Perhaps the most meaningful topic or theme in the myriad comments we’ve received over the past several months has been the angle that we’re not a site that’s has been run or influenced by local shops or guides – we were a somewhat independent voice on fishing and conditions.  That was – and is – of course one of our goals. 

Don’t take that to mean that we distrust the commentary from local guides and shops as to the state of fishing in the area;  on the contrary, we find the reporting from most of the shops and guides around these parts to be very much right on the mark for the most part.  The ones that aren’t telling the whole truth are typically obvious enough that they’re well known to the locals and obvious to visitors.  Hey, this is fly fishing, and there are always a few snake oil salesmen out there – though we usually shoot ‘em and feed ‘em to the bears here in Montana. 

Another reason we’re back is that this has been an extraordinary spring and early summer in terms of  snow pack and water, and there’s still a lot (and we mean a lot) flowing down and through most of the rivers in the Park and southwest Montana.  The remainder of the summer and fall should be extraordinary, and we’re looking forward to the fall fishing more than ever this year.  Many of our local waters have simply been blown out through the typical spring season, and while summer has finally arrived in Montana – many of the Park waters are still much cooler and fishable as compared to mid-July in recent years past.   We’ll have more on that issue as we update rivers this week. 

Finally, we simply love the Park and the area, and are pleased that we’ve been able to help a few folks enjoy it more themselves.  We’d like to expand our offerings and share a little more along the way. 

Many have asked - we’re not going to open our sister site to this (Best Fly Fishing Montana) back up, we don’t have time to cover the entire state, though we will be updating weekly the waters of southwest Montana as well as the Henry’s Fork – the rivers in “the neighborhood”. 

Welcome back.

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