Fishing Camp
A Comfortable Fishing Camp Is A Must!
Even the best of fishing trips can be a disappointment if you don’t have a comfortable, well-equipped Fishing Camp. We provide a cozy camping experience for our guests who choose the full service extended float-fishing trips and wade-fishing pack trips.
Our Fishing Camp locations require reservations on two of our extended trips; the Smith River trips and Blackfoot River trips. While commercial use permits allow an outfitter to provide services on the Smith, separate campsites are not designated just for outfitters.
Smith River Camps
At around 5am of the morning your Smith trip begins, a crew member will be waiting at the door of the river rangers cabin. As soon as the doors open he (or she) will request each nights campsite. If no one is ahead of him in line, we get first dibs on the campsites we want. If someone else requests the same campsite we wanted, we submit our second choice, and so forth. All these campsites have their own “private” established pit toilet.
Fishing Camp locations on the Blackfoot restricted to established campsites only. Reservations are only required for very large groups, and for the “float-in” campsites. While we do offer multi-day float trips on the Blackfoot, we prefer not to use the float-in sites for a couple of reasons. Most of these sites are on the fringes of established campgrounds with vehicle access, so what is the point? the few that do not have vehicle access nearby are not desirable locations, as they are often too small and can be very muddy and buggy.
Blackfoot River Camps
For multi-day trips on the Blackfoot, we prefer to pick one good location mid-river for our base camp and commute by vehicle to and from the access points of each day float. Our favorite Fishing Camp location for Blackfoot trips is on the Clearwater River, a large tributary of the Blackfoot, about 2 1/2 miles from the Blackfoot.
From about August 1st on, a couple of the established campgrounds right on the Blackfoot are a very good choice, because by then there are far fewer other campers utilizing the campsites. Concrete “vault” toilets are standard on the Blackfoot and Clearwater.
Dearborn River Camp
Our Dearborn River Fishing Camp is located on private ranch land on the mainstem. We have access to wade fish about 2 miles of the main stem of the Dearborn. From this base camp, we can also travel a few miles down the road to wade fish the Middle and South Forks of the Dearborn. This camp is less than 20 miles from the Missouri River. We have our own toilet tent for these trips.
Wilderness Fishing Camp
On the South Fork of the Flathead River, we may camp wherever we wish. We do, however, have our favorite campsites spaced at even intervals on the river. There is no way to know until we get there if the campsite is occupied or not, so we always have 2 or 3 “backup” campsites near these just in case someone else is already using our first choice location. We dig our own pit toilets at each campsite.
Kitchen setups on the Smith utilize a large wall tent. On the rest of our trips we just use a large “fly” to cover our kitchen. Guests sleep on Nrs roll-a-cots and inflatable mattresses in large summer type tents. One or two guests occupy each tent.
To view regulations and guidelines for camping and recreating in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, click Here! https://faststore724.com/steel-bite-pro/