Montana is where American fly fishing culture was built. The West Yellowstone shops of the 1970s and 80s trained a generation of guides who then spread across the country and around the world. The dry fly technique that today's anglers take for granted was tested and refined on the Henry's Fork and the Madison. The idea of the American guide-outfitter as a genuine craftsperson rather than a hired hand comes largely from this tradition. For the visiting angler, this shows up in specific ways. The guides are unusually experienced — many have twenty or thirty years on the same rivers. The fishing is honest — the hatches are what they are, the fish behave like wild fish behave, and the guide's job is to read conditions rather than to manufacture a result. And the country itself is part of the trip — big valleys, ranches, small towns, and the sense that you're moving through a landscape rather than being staged in one.