Book: Flyfisher’s Guide to Southwest Montana’s Mountain Lakes

Montana’s alpine lakes offer some of the most scenic and rewarding fishing available on the planet, but these piscine gems often lie at the end of a day’s hike in wild, unpredictable backcountry. Luckily, Joshua Bergan’s monumental volume, Flyfisher’s Guide to Southwest Montana’s Mountain Lakes (Wilderness Adventures Press, $30), renders a few of those variables a little easier to anticipate. Bergan’s guide tackles nearly 300 mountain lakes, covering every major (and minor) mountain range in a 6.5-million-acre region. With its detailed descriptions of trails and terrain, bugs and imitative patterns, as well as some hard-earned knowledge of trout behavior and fishing tactics, this is an indispensable tome for the backcountry trout-chaser. Much of the information in this guide is impossible to find in print anywhere else, including ice-in and ice-out time tables, range-specific planning considerations, stocking schedules, and advice for landing reticent species like grayling and golden trout.