Spending a Day on the Water With Missoula’s Premier Female Fly Fishing Guide
I am so excited to continue to learn and meet people in the industry. I was fortunate to join one of Missoula's fly fishing guides and in my opinion the best female guide on a day on the water. There is always open water and we found it yesterday.
She's guided for Dierks Bentley and many tourists from around the country, Kelly Harrison truly embodies what it means to love to fish and more importantly love to teach others. Those are the best guides! I always recommend to people, especially women, to pay for a guide and get on the water from a boat and fly fishing that way. It's the best way to get on fish and the best way to really get hooked.
We went up north yesterday searching for open water. We found it and some fish! The great thing about the fly fishing community is they really are into you learning the right way to do things and the right way to handle fish. If you think about how popular fly fishing is becoming there is no doubt that there is some stress on the fish. That's why we learn proper catch and release techniques. We don't horse them in, you always wet your hands before grabbing them and especially in summer it's important to not keep them out of water long as there is less oxygen.
The best thing I learned from Kelly wasn't the awesome holding advice and techniques I received but learning about the oxygen levels differing in the winter opposed to summer so it was a good time of year to learn. I had no idea about that and found it fascinating. It was a great piece of info for me to piece more of the circle of life of the fish together.
If you ever need a guide please contact Kelly Harrison, you can find her on Instagram under @missoulariverflygal or find her on Facebook.