"Billy Baroo" (my fly rod, not the putter) and I have fished together for over forty years. In the early 70’s I bought "Billy", an 8' 6", 5 weight Winston, from my good friend and mentor Emmett Heath. Every penny from a summer of work went into that purchase, and even today the fondness of those anxious months and the years we've since fished ring loud."Billy" is now a "collectors item” along with …

At the end of another increasingly hot Utah summer, crisp cool mornings are a welcome sign of autumn. While it signals the end of another great summer trout fishing season and the prolific hatches that we in the mountain west set our clocks to, fall brings new opportunities. For many of us in the shop we begin to think about the large rivers up north, frosty mornings, and the anadromous fish that …

Fishing local waters doesn't have the glam, solicit the bragging rights, or create the mystic per-say, then... anywhere else.... Yet, they are many of our "true blues". They are the rivers that we grew-up on, the rivers that have given us fish, the rivers that have taken them away, the rivers that have taught us about the hatches, and frustrated us with low lying limbs and fly stealing obstacle …

Fishing the Bitterroot in western Montana was my first time being up in the state. I left the fly shop one evening after work and drove for as long as I could, waking up along a river just outside Salmon, ID — brewing coffee and watching the water pass. Gradually shaking my morning pandiculation, coffee kicking in, I started to come together around Sula just as the East Fork began to take …

In the winter of 2014, two years after I started my fly fishing journey, my uncle brought over a book called “Learning From The Water”, by Rene Harrop. Reading this book was the start of my infatuation with the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, and in particular, Harriman State Park, also known as “The Ranch”. The state park section of the Henry’s Fork was donated to the state of Idaho by Roland an …

Western Rivers sports quite the canine collection on any given day. From the young pup Jax a cattle dog, to handsome Travis, to the focused Wren, the dogs at WR are always available for a ball toss or a pat.  Meet Travis: Hobbies include: official handsome"est", devoted Logan follower, and customer service representative. Meet Jax:  Hobbies include: official greeter, d …