Our Guides
Our guides have fished exclusively with us for years - in most cases, decades!
Wayne Clayton
Wayne has been guiding here since 1983. We are lucky to have someone with his experience on this crew. He has fished the rivers of Montana for trout and the rivers of British Columbia for giant steelhead for a very long time. Some of our guests have fished with Wayne year after year, for more than 2 decades. He is “steady as she goes” and never gets riled up. Wayne is a superb casting instructor and highly skilled angler in his own right. As our resident fly tier in the off-season, he is always honing his angler skills. “Wayno,” as he is known, is an avid reader and brings a special knowledge on board with his anglers.
Max Lewis
Max is a Butte native making him a veteran of the Big Hole long before he was a guide. One may find him on the Oregon shoreline waiting for the perfect wave, the beaches of Sri Lanka where he has set up shop to help natives learn to speak English, armpit deep in New Zealand’s finest brown trout waters, ten miles back in the mountains packing elk meat with his pals. Honestly, Max has too many attributes to be mentioning here, you need to fish with this cat!
Jeremy Gneiting
Jeremy was born on the banks of the Big Hole and has fished it since he was just a little boy. Jeremy has been with us since 1992. A true mountain man, Jeremy knows every rock and cranny on this river along with about twenty others. He is at home in the outdoors and never stops working to find and fool trout for his anglers or teach them new skills. When he is not guiding or fishing for himself he is stalking the high mountain forests looking for Elk and Deer with his long bow. Having Jeremy as a guide is like a day with Jeremiah Johnson.
Kelly Kimzey
Kelly moved to SouthWestern Montana in the mid-eighties as a teenager with his family and he immediately fell in love with the wild rivers and mountains that this area boasts. Kelly has been an angling guide with us for many years and is at home slipping the net under these fish for his anglers. As well, he is a terrific and patient fly-fishing teacher and very knowledgeable on critters and local history.
Kelly, when not guiding anglers, is in the mountains guiding hunters or hunting for himself. He is also a died-in-the-wool, traditional bow hunter.
Sharing time on the water with Kelly is a remarkable experience that will give you some very fine memories. We are honored to have him on this team.
Craig DeMark
Craig spent most summers every year of his life trout fishing in Montana. He is now a full time resident and fly fishing guide in SW Montana. As high school basketball coach his coaching skills were easily translated to coaching fly anglers on the water. He feels lucky to be able to spend the entire season on the water guiding. His favorite river is the Big Hole and he loves to be able to guide here.
Craig is a very stealthy guide and a fantastic teacher and enjoys teaching beginners to challenging seasoned veterans with new situations. On his few days off Craig enjoys family outings on the Big Hole and Beaverhead rivers, or hiking the high country exploring the countless mountain lakes the region offers.
Cooper Ketchum
Cooper Ketchum is a fifth generation Montana outdoorsman. Although he has worked as a guide for other outfitters in the valley and on the Big Hole, this will be Cooper's first season on our team. He has a lifetime of experience on Montana rivers and streams. Cooper comes from a fine bloodline of fly fishing guides with his father being Rudy Ketchum, long time Complete Fly Fisher guide.
Cooper is a very fine fly tier and design consultant for Montana Rodsmith's. We are so excited to have him on the roster and look forward to his boundless enthusiasm on the water with our guests.
A single guide focused on you…
There are beautiful fish in these rivers!
Our guides know these waters and love to fish! Each and every week, the conditions change just a little. The hatches come and go. The fish aren’t exactly predictable but we have a pretty good grasp on how to make sure they rise to your fly. And when the result is as picture perfect as this big rainbow… we can’t imagine being anywhere else.
An epic week on the water
Our guides and our guests form a bond for the week they are together. With so many beats of several rivers to cover, each day can be so different. And the day can go at your pace. From Monday through Friday, our guides will handle the float, ensure the right flies, find the right water and make sure that your trip is one of a kind.