People of Fly Fishing: 10 Questions with Joe Moore, West Yellowstone (Part One)

by Mark on November 30, 2011

in People of Fly Fishing

It’s our pleasure to present another installment in our People of Fly Fishing Series; today’s interview is with West Yellowstone guide Joe Moore of Big Sky Anglers.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Joe recently about goings on in Yellowstone and winter photography trips in the neighborhood and asked him if he’d be willing to share a bit of his hard-earned knowledge about the area.

We asked Joe to share a bit about himself – here’s what he fired back…

My father taught me to tie flies and fly fish at 7 years old, fishing bass ponds and small streams throughout the Midwest. When I was 16, we traveled to Montana and for three weeks we camped in a pop-up trailer, fishing the entire time. We took a guide trip on the Missouri and I thought that the guide was the luckiest SOB ever. In 1996 I moved to Wolf Creek on the Missouri River, then on to West Yellowstone a few seasons later. For the past 16 years I have called Montana home and choose to guide the Madison, Missouri, Hebgen Lake, Henry’s Fork and all waters of Yellowstone National Park. Diversity helps to keep me interested and on my toes. If I had to fish/guide just one piece of water all season long this job would get old.

You live in what we think is one of the niftiest fishing towns on the planet – West Yellowstone. How’s the ‘between season’ treating you this fall?

I absolutely love this time of the year. I wake up, work on the computer, drink some coffee, hang with my better half, watch too much English Premier League and take my gun for long walks afield……sometimes with the bird dogs and sometimes without. Guiding year around really tires one out and the down time in between seasons does the body good.

How did you end up settling in West Yellowstone and what do you like most and least about it?

My first experience in West Yellowstone was in 1982. I was 6 and wade fished the Madison while sitting atop of father’s shoulders at Reynold’s Pass. 6 is pretty young, but that trip made a huge impression on me. Our family has always come to West for vacations, so in 1999, after 3 seasons on the Missouri River, I made the move. Truth be told…I was conceived at Madison Junction, in the campground, during the fall of 1975. There was this natural urge to run further upstream, thus landing in the headwaters of the Missouri, some 2500 miles from Quincy, IL which is on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Least – too many rivers to fish in a lifetime
Most – too many rivers to fish in a lifetime

You’ve been guiding in Greater Yellowstone Country for a while now; tell us a bit about Big Sky Anglers.

BSA is something that I created with a lot of help. My parents really believed that guiding was/is a real job and never pressured me to get on with my life and find a real job. Guiding is as real as it gets. I never thought I would be a fishing guide, it just happened. After working for a couple fly shops in Montana for 9 years, it occurred to me that I should maybe make more money for doing the same job. In the fall of 2004, BSA began. I was so nervous, but that first year was successful and things have snowballed from there. If it weren’t for great clients who followed me, the best web guy on the planet and the support of my family, BSA would have never made it. People like Kielly Yates, Greg Falls, Mike Kuhnert, Jonathon Heames and Earl James have all helped make BSA what it is today.

There’s more water within a two-hour drive of your front door that you could really learn well in a lifetime of fly fishing. What water(s) do you really consider your home waters – the one(s) you just couldn’t live without?

Hmmmmm…well, the Madison of course. I have fished the Henry’s Fork for years, but last season I started guiding it. The Fork is crazy good. Then I would have to list all the waters in the NE Corner of YNP. I spend a ton of time on the Missouri River throughout the year, so the Mo’ for sure. Hebgen Lake. The Yellowstone, but I didn’t fish it outside of YNP this season.

If you can tell us without breaking a sacred promise or revealing too many secrets, where do you head to fish on a day off?

March – Varney to 8 Mile, the waters around Cody
April – Gallatin or Missouri, depends if there are rising trout on the Missouri and I have three days off
May – Missouri, Madison around Ennis (which is no secret anymore)
Late June/early July – the Henry’s Fork
First three weeks of July – the Madison
August – somewhere in YNP….maybe a day on Hebgen for gulpers
September – Madison wade stretch or a quick float from Lyons to Palisades, Henry’s Lake
October – YNP, the Missouri, the Big Hole…streamers….
November – I don’t fish in November….well, sometimes I do around Cody, WY.
December/January – brrrrr. I hate fishing with gloves. And I really hate how snow sticks to felt…..rubber soles are not the answer.
February – maybe the Gallatin, possibly the upper Madison if the weather is above 35 degrees

That list alone is worth the price of admission right there. Part Two of Joe’s interview will follow shortly.
Images: Kielly Yates / Joe Moore

via chiwulff.com

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