Why? Because we have the two top fly fishing rivers in the world. We have the top guides who are the most successful fly fishing guides in the west. We have the most experience. Our guides have guided more people to land more fish than any guides in the world. If you think fly fishing is difficult to learn, you are very wrong. Teton Valley Lodge has been teaching fly fishing for 90 years. We worked with the Orvis Company and Vern Bressler in the 60’s to set up their Western Fishing and Preferred Guides Program which started in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley.

However, our method of teaching goes back way before that. Our method takes only a few minutes and teaches the correct casting principles not found in other programs. We do our teaching on the river, as you catch fish. No need to go to a boring pond and cast for hours when you could be catching wild fish on a wild river while you learn. Here’s how it works for someone who has never cast a fly rod:

  1. After breakfast or upon morning arrival at the lodge, your guide sets up a rod and casts with you on the lawn for about 5 minutes which is all it takes to get the proper technique down. Casting is really very simple.
  2. You go to the river with your guide and he will explain how you set up and begin fishing. Your experienced and very patient guide will instruct you throughout the day on casting, fly placement and hooking technique. The whats and whys of fly fishing.
  3. Within 5 to 30 minutes after getting into the boat you will have your first fish and from then on it is catching fish and learning all day long.
  4. The next day we skip the lawn lesson as you won’t need this ever again. You go to the river, a different stretch or different river, and do it all over again. You are now getting a good feel for casting and hooking fish since you caught a lot of fish the day before.
  5. As each day goes on, you can ask questions about technique, fly patterns, rods, reels, leaders, patterns, entomology etc. Your guide will be happy to answer any question no matter how naive you may think it may be.
  6. After 3 or 4 days of fishing you will have caught a lot of fish, more than most people catch in a season, and will be acquiring a skill level and confidence that will have you wanting more.
  7. If your fishing partner is experienced don’t worry. Our guides will work with both of you to get each of you into fish. You will be surprised at the end of each day when you tally up the numbers of fish and find that your are close to your experienced friend.
  8. The secret of learning to fly fish is to go with a very good guide and to catch a lot of fish the first day. TVL provides this opportunity by putting you with a great guide on a great river with excellent fishing. We have 24 different floats on 3 different rivers. We always have great fishing. Fly fishing truly is very easy. However, learning correctly does require good equipment. We use ourselves and rent Sage Rods, recognized worldwide as the finest fly rods made. We use the 9 foot- 6 weight Sage TCX model. This is the top selling high end rod model in the world. It retails for $795.00. We rent Sage reels, one of the top manufactures. We only use dry floating fly lines for all of our fishing. The fly patterns are almost exclusively our own patterns developed here at the lodge over the past 87 years. Put this equipment package together with one of our very experienced guides and fly fishing comes easy to almost everyone.
  9. A few years ago we received a letter from a famous outfitter in our area. He complained about this newspaper relating stories of our guests catching large fish and large numbers of fish. He said that his customers would come into his shop with our newspaper in hand and ask, “Why can’t we catch fish like this with your guides?”. The outfitter then asked us “if we would stop putting the numbers of fish we catch and the pictures of so many big fish in our paper to make it easier on his guides.” Well, you can imagine the laugh our guides got over his requests. Another of the outfitters called one day to ask if we would take him down the South Fork and “show him how to have a 200 fish day,” as he knew some of our guides have had.
  10. There is a huge difference between guides. We have taught our guides that you approach every day as if you were going to catch at least 100 fish and that every day there is at least one 5 pound trout waiting out there for you. They have it drilled into them that it isn’t enough to go out and have a “nice” day and catch 20 or 30 fish. To our guides a “nice” day is one in which you try to catch every fish in the river. You work hard all day long for your guests and give them your all, every minute they are in the boat. Our guides compete; among themselves, against the fish and against every other guides on the river. They have fun with it, but they take it more than just serious. Our guides average 50 fish per day per boat.