Ryan Johnston

I owe this crazy fish passion of mine to my father. From an early age, my dad had me on the water learning how to catch whatever creatures were swimming in the water. We always had rods in the car rigged with red and white bobbers, rainbow power bait, or black panther martins. Growing up in San Diego, there weren’t a lot of local fly-fishing options. So my dad taught me how to catch fresh and saltwater fish using conventional casting rods. When I was twelve my dad said that we should “try to be like Brad Pitt” and check out some fly fishing. I was hooked from the very first moment of casting a hopper onto the riverbank and watching a cutthroat slowly rise from the depths to slurp in my fly. From that moment on, I stored my red and white bobber in the back of some old Plano tackle box to start collecting years of dust.

Despite the unrelenting call of the fish, I managed to earn a degree in business and management from UC Davis and land a beautiful, passionate, fly-fishing wife. After living in California my whole life, and guiding for 20 years in NorCal, we decided to make a big change and move to northwest Montana in 2022. We truly feel blessed to live in the mountains, be surrounded by God’s natural beauty, and have incredible outdoor activities nearby. So many fly fishing options.