Bozeman Fly Fishing Guide Brendan Cook

After five years of calling Bozeman home and graduating in May 2025, Brendan has built his guiding experience, spending three seasons at the Old Baldy Club guiding on the freestone section of Wyoming’s North Platte & Encampment rivers. Whether you're new to the sport or a seasoned angler, his goal is always the same: to offer a fun, professional experience and share the stunning beauty and world-class fishing that Bozeman, Montana has to offer.

FAQs of our Bozeman Fly Fishing Guides

What’s your favorite summertime hatch to fish on the rivers around Bozeman?

My favorite summertime hatch around Bozeman is the salmonfly hatch. This hatch is revered because of the large size of these insects and the excellent fishing that comes with this hatch. This is when we get excited fishing big Salmonfly dry flies with the hope that a big trout will explode on the surface, engulfing the fly.

What’s one tip that you find yourself offering guests to help improve their casting during the day?

When helping clients improve their casting, I like to find ways to relate casting technique to other practical skills that most people can transfer to casting a fly line. One of the most important skills when learning to cast is waiting for the fly line to come to a complete stop in both the back cast and the forward cast. I relate it to, “Splattering paint with a paint brush on the wall behind you and in front of you” or “flicking a towel”. The point being that a complete stop of the rod is needed to efficiently load it with the fly line.

If you could only fish with one fly rod on the rivers around Bozeman, which length and line weight would you pick?

This is a tough question because it changes depending on the type of fishing that is being done, but the most versatile rod to use on the rivers around Bozeman would have to be a 9 foot 6-weight rod with flex in gthe mid-section and a stiffer butt section. This allows for most nymphing and streamer techniques to be accomplished. It also lets the angler find a bit more forgiveness when fighting fish. This length and weight combo can be used effectively both wading and floating on a boat. While a 6-weight rod may not be the perfect tool for the job when casting small technical dry flies, it can still get it done.

Nymphing, streamer fly fishing, dries, dry/dropper...what's your favorite?

If I had to choose my favorite methods of fly fishing to employ on a guide trip, it would be streamer fly fishing. This is my personal favorite way to fly fish because it is so reaction-based and can often be an excellent method for targeting large fish. While not as common a method to use on my guided trips it is always fun when I'm able to teach clients about streamer fishing. Most of the time, I am either nymphing under an indicator or using a dry dropper rig on guided trips because this can give the client a better chance at catching more fish, whereas streamer fishing sometimes is not as practical for numbers but more effective for sizeable fish.

What are your 3 favorite Bozeman fly fishing river sections to guide on during the season?

My favorite sections of river in the Bozeman area have to be Lyons Bridge to Ruby on the upper Madison because of the fast pocket water, long runs and buckets that hold big fish. This section is one of the most beautiful sections in the area because of the spectacular view of the Madison Range throughout the whole float. My next favorite section is Warm Springs to Black’s Ford on the Lower Madison. This section offers a unique diversity of water with short buckets and shelves that hold good-sized fish. This section can be excellent in the early season if you are looking for a great float that is close to Bozeman. My third favorite section of river to guide would be Varney Bridge to Town on the Upper Madison. This section of water provides a lot of options for float and wade fishing, as there are many places to get out of the boat and wade while drifting.

Bozeman Fly Fishing Guide Trip Resources

From the Montana Fly Fishing Blog