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Wilson Eich

My cousin Hardy handed me a fly rod when I was eight years old and told me to learn how to use it. It changed my life forever, and by the time I was twelve my arsenal had grown to three fly rod outfits. By that time, I had become fairly accomplished and started to fish some of the north Georgia trout streams. The Chattahoochee River became a frequent haunt after school and during my college years.  It was there, I honed skills that would later pay off on Western streams.

My dreams were of fly fishing the trout streams of the Rockies and one day of becoming a bush pilot guide in Alaska. Those places were a long way off for a kid growing up in Georgia in the 1960s.  The demands of marriage, earning a degree from Georgia State University in Political Science in 1969 and graduate work led to a career that left less time for pursuits such as fly fishing, but neither the passion nor the dreams ever dimmed. 

Finally, I decided it was now or never, and made my first trip to the Yellowstone region. One trip led to another and I fell in love with the wide open spaces and beauty of the Yellowstone, Madison, Lamar and Gallatin drainages, a place where a fisherman can cast a fly upon waters teeming with trout of all species in the presence of bison, grizzly, wolf and elk.

The small streams of the park offer fishing similar to some of my home waters and while not a dry fly purist this is my favorite method of taking trout.  I also like to chunk big streamers for large trout on the Yellowstone and the Madison.

I fish 150 days a year, most in the waters of Yellowstone National Park.

Even though I have fished the Madison and Gallatin for quite a few years, the last few years I have concentrated my attention to northern region of the YNP and the hundreds of miles of water accessible from Gardiner, MT.  Spending my summers here I’ve developed a fondness for the canyon areas of the Yellowstone and especially the pocket water of the Gardner.  I live for the Salmonfly hatches and unbelievable action brought on by the hoppers that are prolific in this area in July and August.  I like to say that YNP has become my backyard --it’s a nice one.

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