Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Getting into guiding cheaply means buying the cheapest workable gear and spending the savings on skills. An entry-level rod and reel combo around 150 dollars is enough, over-lined by one weight so the rod loads visibly. On the water side, learn to row a used raft rather than buying a drift boat you cannot handle.
Michael Mathews is a Missoula, Montana fly fishing guide and a former linebacker for the Montana Grizzlies who guided full-time through his college football career.
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How do you fit guiding around a Division I football schedule?
The summer lifting group started at 5:45 in the morning and ran until 7:45. Michael Mathews hooked the boat to his truck the night before, left the house around five, lifted, showered, and drove straight from the athletic facility to pick up clients, telling them in advance that a five-minute delay meant a workout ran long. Evening practices several days a week meant dropping clients at the takeout and going straight back to campus for cleats.
How do you break into guiding with no connections?
The route in was ranch work, not guiding. He called the manager of a ranch on the Clark Fork, offered to do whatever was needed, and was told to call back the following spring. He did, got hired that day as a ranch hand, and started running shuttles for the guides. Guiding followed naturally within a season, and by the end of college he was guiding full-time in the summers and hiring younger teammates to cover the ranch work.
What rod should a beginner actually buy for fly fishing?
Michael Mathews guides with Orvis Encounter combos that retail around 150 dollars for rod, reel and line together, and those are his personal rods too. His reasoning is that he cannot cast well enough to extract the value of a thousand-dollar rod, and neither can a first-time client. Spend the savings on good fly line instead, and buy used rods on Craigslist to get started.
Why should you over-line a fly rod?
He runs six-weight line on all his five-weight rods. The heavier line lets a caster feel the rod load, which matters most at the 30-foot distances typical of boat fishing and shortens the learning curve for beginners. Over-lining also turns an indicator rig over more easily, so one rod handles dry flies, nymphs and streamers instead of requiring three purpose-built rods.
Do you need waders to start fly fishing?
Waders are only necessary for cold-weather fishing, and most beginners are learning in summer. Wet wade in shorts and flip-flops, or fish the bank and ankle-deep water in muck boots when it turns cold. Removing waders and boots from the startup list makes the barrier to entry far lower than most new anglers assume.
Should a new boat owner buy a raft or a drift boat?
Michael Mathews has guided for years without owning a drift boat, working out of a raft the entire time. Used rafts turn up constantly on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace in fly fishing towns, and frame systems can be added to and subtracted from over time as needs become clear. A raft is also hard to sink and forgiving of mistakes, where a bad line in a drift boat gets expensive fast.
Why learn to row on a cheap boat first?
Rowing people into fish is a skill that only comes from repetition, and an expensive boat does not teach it. Learning on the cheapest raft that holds air means mistakes cost nothing, and moving up later to a better raft or a drift boat feels effortless by comparison. Trailers follow the same logic: converted ATV trailers, old pickup beds on an axle, or strapping the boat to the truck all work until a purpose-built trailer is affordable.
Key takeaways
- An entry-level rod, reel and line combo around 150 dollars is enough gear to guide with, let alone learn on.
- Over-line rods by one weight so the rod loads visibly at short range and turns indicator rigs over more easily.
- Skip waders to start: wet wade in summer, or use muck boots and fish the bank in cold weather.
- Buy a used raft off Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace instead of a drift boat, and add to the frame over time.
- Learn to row on the cheapest boat that holds air, because rowing people into fish only comes from repetition.
- Break into guiding through the unglamorous jobs first, running shuttles and ranch work, and keep calling back.
