Book: 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.