Parks' Fly Shop:

Rates, Policies, and What's Included

On this page we discuss rates, deposit and cancellation policies, and other common "pre-booking" concerns.

Guiding Season

We run guided trips year-round, though the availability of each trip type varies by season and by both year-to-year and day-to-day water conditions. Here's an approximate rundown:

• Public Water Walk & Wade: Available year-round except in late April and most of May. Almost all trips from Memorial Day Weekend through October take place in Yellowstone Park. November through late April, they take place in Montana. Full-day and half-day trips are available in the core summer-fall season. Most trips between October 15 and the end of May running as half-day or "winter special" trips.
• Public Water Float: Available mid-March through mid-November. Full-day and half-day options are available throughout this period, though the spring runoff in May-June limits the rivers available at this time. "Double half-day" floats are available from late June or early July until early August, water levels permitting.
• Private Water Walk & Wade Available year-round. Best in March-April and late June and July. Note that availability in summer is VERY limited.
• Private Water (Lake) Float: Available from ice-out in April through October except during the late July to early September summer doldrums.

Rates

The following rates are for one or two anglers. Three-person trips are available on walk-wade trips only, for an additional $100 on half-day trips and $150 on full-day trips. More than three anglers on any guided trip or more than two anglers on any boat trip require additional guides at standard rates.

While we are eager to book clients for multi-day packages, the rates below do not include multi-day packages. We want to plan out packages with each group of clients on an individual basis, after talking things through. Generally speaking, our packages are based on the standard rates below, with additional discounts kicking in for packages of 5+ consecutive days.

While most of the waters we guide are available for single-day bookings, some destinations require multi-day bookings due to their distance from Gardiner, MT. These bookings may be for either full-day or half-day trips. These fisheries are noted when appropriate on the other guided trip pages in the website.

Not all fisheries and not all trip types are available all year, with weather and water conditions and regulations the key factors involved in determining the trip types that are available. Please ask us for details, or read through the relevant other pages in the guided trips section of the site, which go into a lot of detail about where we fish when.

Except where specifically noted, rates are identical for walk-wade and float trips.

The following rates are effective for trips booked on or after November 22, 2022. Trips booked before this date will be charged at the rate quoted upon booking.

What's Included in the Rates Above?

Reservations, Deposits, and Final Payments

Reservations

Reservations are required. For trips from mid-October through mid-May, we can often be booked a day or two in advance, though not always. During the June-September absolute peak season, all our in-house guides as well as the experienced independent contractor guides we use are often fully booked months in advance, so we suggest calling or e-mailing to book as soon as you can. The tighter your available dates, the more important it is to give as much notice as possible.

To begin booking a trip, fill out our trip booking and information form, call, use our online booking system, or send an e-mail. We finalize all bookings over the phone, so your booking is not confirmed until you hear it from us verbally and later in writing.

Deposits and Cancellations

The full price of your booking will be charged when you book.

If you book a private water trip and we are reserving the water with the landowner on your behalf, we will add the required access fees when you book.

All merchandise and guide service conducted between June 1 and September 30 is subject to Gardiner, MT local option tax. These taxes do not apply to license fees or private water access fees.

Since our business is highly seasonal and late cancellations are difficult to rebook, we have adopted the following cancellation policies. They are comparable to those of our competitors.

• Cancellations received in writing prior to one month before the trip date (or first date of a multi-day trip) will be refunded in full.
• From one month to five days prior to a trip, cancellations will forfeit 50% of the trip fees.
• Trips canceled within 5 days of a trip require full payment. No refunds will be issued.
• Fees to reserve private waters on your behalf may or may not be refundable. This depends on the specific policies of each landowner.
• Changing the scheduled trip date or dates within 30 days of a trip may be treated as a cancellation and rebooking or allowed without penalty, at our discretion.
• You may request a specific guide. We will do our best to assign this guide, but we do not guarantee specific guide availability.
• We do not cancel trips due to weather or water conditions unless conditions are dangerous or unfishable. We fish rain, shine, snow, or wind. Any rescheduling is at the sole discretion of the guide. At the guide's discretion we may offer to cut a full-day trip to a shorter-duration trip without penalty, if conditions warrant.
• While we take client preferences into consideration regarding the body of water we fish and the techniques we use, we do not guarantee that we will fish any specific body of water or use any specific fly fishing techniques. If there is a body of water suitable for the type of trip you have booked (e.g. river float vs walk-wade), the trip will proceed.
• We will not accept cancellations if your preferred body of water becomes unfishable, your preferred techniques are unlikely to produce, or the weather is unpleasant but safe.
• We reserve the right to cancel or reduce the duration of any trip due to dangerous or unfishable weather or water conditions, guide illness or emergency, or equipment breakdown. If we have to cancel a trip, we will attempt to reschedule the trip or will offer a full refund. If trips are cut short, we may refund a portion of the trip fee depending on how much time is lost, solely at our discretion.
• If you are concerned about your ability to take a trip based on the above conditions, we suggest purchasing a travel insurance policy. Travel Guard is a good choice.

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General Guided Trips Policies

Policies and common questions are discussed in much greater detail on our Guided Trips FAQ. This is just a quick rundown.

• Trips are catch and release only except where must-kill regulations are in place.
• All fishing is barbless and artificials-only. No natural or synthetic bait. Spin fishing is permitted on river float trips only. Spin-fishing clients must remove one hook point from any treble hooks.
• We do not intentionally target or disturb actively-spawning wild trout. Trips fishing for "fall-run brown trout" target only pre-spawn trout in deeper water, not spawners on their shallow redds, for example.
• All plastic and aluminum containers used on our trips will be recycled.
• We follow "leave no trace" guidelines on all trips.
• We follow Yellowstone Park guidelines on animal interactions on all trips, inside the park or not. Animals get the right of way...
• We attempt to follow "visual rule of crowding" guidelines on all walk trips, when it is at all feasible. Basically this means fishing out of sight of other anglers whenever we can.
• We accept clients aged 8 and up, or 12 and up for trips from October 15 through April 15 (the latter is due to cold temps and dangerous water conditions for younger children).
• No more than five guests may join us on any trip unless additional guides are booked. This includes non-angling observers who are not being charged, even on lessons. Yellowstone Park regulations do not permit us to supervise more than five guests at a time, and anyone with us on a trip is a guest whether we are charging them or not.
• All guests must sign acknowledgement of risk and acceptance of responsibility forms at the beginning of the trip, including notes on any physical or mental considerations the guides must know about (eg non-obvious injuries, fear of animals or heights, inability to swim, etc.). Refusal to do so will constitute a late cancellation and require full payment.
• Clients must wear eye protection at all times (with polarized sunglasses strongly encouraged).
• Wading gear worn in boats must not include any metal studs, cleats, or bars. Wading gear worn in Yellowstone Park must not include felt soles. Wading gear will be cleaned before moving between water bodies in different river drainages.
• We ask that our clients leave their firearms at home, even when they possess valid concealed-carry permits. To be frank, we don't know how clients will react to bears and virtually all concealed-carry weapons lack the muzzle energy to do more than make bears angry anyway. Our guides carry bear spray on all walk trips and we have additional canisters available for client use, on request. Bear spray has been proven to be far more effective at deterring bear attacks than firearms. For what it's worth, most of our staff own firearms of one type or another and some are concealed-carry permit holders, so this isn't a political statement of any kind.
• No illegal drugs on trips, please. This includes marijuana in client possession while traveling in our vehicles in Yellowstone Park. Since this is a federal park, state legalization laws do not apply (including Montana medical and recreational marijuana laws) and our guides may be considered responsible if we get checked by a ranger or cop and clients are in possession. Clients will be sued in civil court for any violations of this policy that impact Parks' Fly Shop, its operations, its property, or its guides in any way.
• No smoking or other open flames in rubber rafts (for obvious reasons) or during periods of High or Extreme fire danger as declared by Yellowstone Park, the Custer-Gallatin National Forest, and/or the state of Montana. All tobacco ash/waste must be handled in a way that prevents litter and the potential for fire. Some guides may have respiratory issues and ask you to refrain from smoking or vaping in their presence, but subject to fire restrictions in late summer we can always stop for a smoke break.
• No glass containers in boats, though wine bottles stowed in gear bags or the cooler except at lunch are fine. No open alcohol containers in our motor vehicles except obvious refuse stowed in the cooler.

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Other Expenses & Gratuities

Other Expenses

Other possible expenses may include the following, with the precise additional expenses depending on where and when we fish:

• Montana or Yellowstone National Park fishing licenses
• Yellowstone Park entrance fees, if we're fishing inside the park
• Private water access fees
• All clients must have or be ready to purchase eye protection, preferably polarized sunglasses! No exceptions! Clip-on or gas station grade polarized shades are acceptable, but a lack of any polarized glasses is the single biggest reason clients fail to recognize when fish strike, and lacking something to shield your eyes invites losing them to an errant hook. This is the sort of nightmare scenario that makes guides wake up sweating. Yes, we did mention this requirement in bold three times on this page. It is that important.

Gratuities

Whether you choose to fish with us or another outfitter, average gratuities for Montana fly fishing guides average $80 to $100 for half-day trips and $100 to $200 for full-day trips. Gratuities can be handled ahead of time via your preferred payment method if there's no other option, but cash at the end of each day of fishing for the guide you have that day is most certainly king. Note that gratuities average about the same amount whether you are fishing with the business owner (in this case Richard Parks) or a guide working on behalf of the business.