February 18th, 2026
There is a Three Amigos trip coming up later this spring and I have already spent several hours planning for it. So it has occured to me that other guides have gone through a similar process planning their trips and perhaps we could compare notes along the way. Most of my trips to date have involved hosting guests at our cabin in Victor and making out and back trips each day. These trips still involve a lot of planning, often looking at streamflows, hatch charts and fitting several floats into a seven day experience. The Three Amigos trip last fall was a good example of that type of planning and it turned out being an incredibly successful trip.
Planning the spring trip this year requires a whole different level of planning. For one, the nights at the cabin are only four – the nights two nights after my guests arrive, and the two nights before they leave. The rest involves complex road trip on a mission to try out new rivers in Montana, without spending long hours behind the wheel each day.
How we got there
For a few years now, I have been dying to get back to the Missouri River in north central Montana. It is a long drive from the cabin in Victor. The memory I have of 12 years ago, being in guide school and fishing that amazing river still tugs at me to return. It was one of my best experiences ever! And though I did return once with my son in July, it wasn’t the same. Being there in the spring during the Blue WIng Olive hatches was amazing! So now I have the other Amigos convinced that we should go there this spring, I am still faced with all of the complexities of putting a trip together.
It all starts with a list of the days and the locations and also mapping drive times. There might be a day or two where we have to drive 5 hours, but in general, I space out the rivers and destinations such that we are only driving 2-3 hours per day. Then I look at each river, make sure that the streamflows are acceptable. In this case, all were pre-run-off except for one, the Yellowstone, which ramped up flows early last year. SInce the Yellowstone is not a tailwater, it is subject to the whims of warming spring temps. In addition, I spend a lot of time looking at put-ins and take outs. First, making sure the length of the float is reasonable, not too long, not too short. Then I look at how close is the take out to our lodging choices and corresponding restaurant locations. Sometimes, after the float we will be driving to the next destination and the time/distance needs to be reasonable.
This trip, the flow looks like:
SLC. -> Victor, ID ->The Madison (Ennis) -> The Big Hole (Dillon) -> The MIssouri (Craig 2 days) -> The Yellowstone (Livingston) -> Victor -> SLC
Four Gold Medal rivers in Montana! Plus we may fit in a float on the Henry’s Fork and/or the Teton!
Finally, a lot of planning goes into fly choices. SInce we will be fishing in the spring, the caddis will likely be Grannom caddis and we have to plan for adult, emergers, pupa and larva. SImilarly with the Blue WIng Olives – adults, cripples, spinners and emergers. So I research a number of fly fishing videos and get them to my friends a couple of months in advance, so they have time to tie all of the recommended patterns.
Of course I skipped over lodging reservations, food planning, gear planning and a number of other details. It can be a lot of work to set up a trip like this one, but if the fishing is stellar and everyone has a great time, it is well worth it!
