There are thousands of guides across the west. Oftentimes, when booking a guide, customers really have no idea who their guide is, what style or techniques they prefer, what their ethos is. I hope to help you by explaining a little about who I am as a guide, how I approach my days on the water, and what’s important to me as a professional fishing guide on the Upper Madison River and Ennis Lake. 

 

As owner/operator of Edge Outfitting, I have no fly shop. No brick and mortar storefront. No roster of guides. I am the guide. Hence, the name. I’m a single boat outfitter and I fish where and when I believe my customers stand to gain the most out of their day. I’m not beholden to a fancy lodge or large fly shop. My business model is not built solely upon catching. It is guided with a passion and an emphasis on teaching, learning, conservation, stewardship, and building relationships with my customers who I hope come back to become friends. I believe that the greatest value of a day on the river isn’t measured by how many fish were caught. It’s measured by experience, learning, failing, having fun no matter what, and with any luck, succeeding. My guiding principles focus on understanding, not short cuts. I adapt each day not only to the weather, hatches, flows, but to you as well. Every angler is at a different point in their journey. Some have decades of experience. Others are just beginning. I prefer techniques which prioritize engagement over mindless automation with bobbers. I want my customers to leave not only with memories of rising trout, but of improved understanding of insects, fish, currents, and confidence to succeed on their own. I understand and appreciate the investment customers make to fish with me for a day. I don’t take it lightly or for granted. 

 

I also exclusively guide on the Upper Madison River and Ennis Lake because I love them more than any other water body. I fish only these waters because I believe that to be the best guide I can be, I need to intimately understand the waters I fish. This takes time, experience, data and research consumption, volunteer work with conservation projects, and partnerships with fisheries managers. I seek to not only learn as much as humanly possible about this fishery, but to give back to it. 

 

For all of these reasons, I am a dry fly first guide. Winter, spring, summer, and fall. You won’t find a kaleidoscope of colors of bobbers in my boat. Although nymphing has taught me so much about where fish are, chasing a bobber the rest of my career doesn’t scratch the itch for me. I became a guide because I first and foremost love teaching the art of the craft. To me, dry flies offer an opportunity to teach the essentials of fly fishing in a way that nymphing simply can’t. The art of the cast, reading water, drifting flies, fighting fish, and learning from mistakes. I study hatches, tie flies to match local bugs, understand what bugs hatch when, where, and why, and am passionate about sharing what I've learned with my customers. And that learning never stops. The river is full of secrets it willingly gives up to those who look. I strive to learn something new each day.

 

Dry fly only guiding is not for the faint of heart. I’m drawn to dry fly fishing because it demands attention. It requires constant knowledge of what is happening in the river. Our aquatic insects drive the bus for this fishery. My background in wildlife research naturally steers me to dry fly fishing becuase I'm obsessed with learning more about the aquatic insects which feed our fish. They are complex and change mile by mile. I’m also driven to dry fly fishing because it requires anglers to be in the moment and not a robot lobbing bobbers and staring at a bright pink orb all day mindlessly mending and setting the hook just to produce numbers. It also requires skill between the oars. The challenge of positioning anglers for the best drift is a challenge. I’m constantly learning how to accomplish this better on a river that waits for no one. 

 

The value to my customers of a day on the water is directly correlated to how engaged they are. A guiding business built upon producing numbers of fish is a fragile one. It’s purely transactional. I find no enjoyment out of only catching. Patience, learning, and failure are imperative to angler development. I intend not to take shortcuts and deny my customers these opportunities. That small sliver of space where the trout’s world meets ours is a special one. It can be both exhilarating and defeating at the same time. To me, a fish as beautiful as trout was designed for dry flies. The ring of the rise today still brings the same amount of joy to me as it did decades ago. This is what I want to share with others. I hope to see you on the water.