Stacy Jennings – Member of The WOMA

Brad Pitt is her bitch.

Sorry, dear readers, but I couldn’t resist a story lead like that one! Nor can I take credit for it, however. Sitting down to write about Montana fly-fishing guide Stacy Jennings, racking my brain for a slightly edgy hook, I realized that the editor of the Missoula Independent had already written it for me, in giving Stacy the paper’s 2007 award for Best Fishing Guide:

“If you’re an insecure male (who needs a fishing guide) don’t call Stacy Jennings. She’s better than you. She’s better than most people. Jennings is a fly-fishing machine. Brad Pitt is her bitch. Leave your copy of A River Runs Through It at home and maybe she’ll show you how it’s done.”

Pitt portrayed the enthusiastic—and skillful—Montana fly fisherman Paul Maclean in Robert Redford’s iconic 1992 film, a fly-fishing-themed family drama set in western Montana in the early 20th century and based on Norman Maclean’s (Paul’s older brother) acclaimed, semi-autobiographical 1976 novella.

Just to cement her guiding bona fides, the Independent named Stacy the Missoula region’s Best Fishing Guide again in 2008 and 2009—yep, three years in a row. That’s no small feat in western Montana, widely considered to have the best trout fishing in the Lower 48, and a popular international fly-fishing destination, where plenty of guides, nearly all of them men, ply their craft.

Stacy guides fly anglers of all ages and skill levels in her 16-foot ClackaCraft drift boat on some of the most famous trout streams in the world—the Missouri, the Clark Fork, the Blackfoot, the Madison, and the Bitterroot Rivers—for rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. She’s been a professional fly-casting instructor since 1994.

“I’m happy to teach anyone how to cast and rig fly rods, and how to fish,” Stacy says, “but it’s a particular joy to instruct women, children and families.” No surprise there: She holds a master’s degree in psychology and works as a family therapist at the Western Montana Mental Health Center when she’s not exploring the rivers or wildlands of her beloved adopted state.

“Montana is my soul’s home,” she says with a laugh.

Growing up on a ranch in Colorado, the daughter of parents who were enthusiastic shooters and hunters as well as anglers, Stacy developed her love of the outdoors at a tender age, and reckons she’s been fly fishing since she was about four years old. Her first catches were little, bejeweled beaver-pond brook trout that ignited a passion that’s still burning strong.

Stacy also loves to hunt. Her grandfather was a hobbyist gunsmith who, before she was born, modified a military-surplus DCM (Department of Civilian Marksmanship) .30-06 bolt-action Springfield into a hunting rifle and taught Stacy’s mother to shoot it. Stacy inherited this family heirloom, and used it to take her first Montana elk a couple of seasons ago. She has also taken whitetails and mule deer with the same rifle. Stacy enjoys shooting for “competitive fun” with her father, whom she credits for teaching her to shoot and cast.

After a few years as a pro angler, Stacy improved her teaching tactics after an eye-opening 1998 instructor’s course at the Wulff School of Fly Fishing on the storied Beaverkill River (the birthplace of American fly fishing) in New York’s Catskills. There, Stacy learned from Joan Wulff, a pioneering woman angler, casting instructor and competition fly caster, and the widow of Lee Wulff (1905–1991), author, film maker, bush pilot, TV star and 20th-century angling icon. Lee Wulff spearheaded modern American fly-fishing equipment and technique and championed fisheries conservation, decades before catch-and-release became standard practice (and sometimes legal requirement) on many trout and salmon streams worldwide.

“Joan is the best fly caster and one of the finest instructors I’ve ever met,” Stacy says. “The Wulff method she and Lee developed is easily the most effective way to teach beginners how to cast.” Inspired, Stacy adapted her own instructional techniques to incorporate Joan’s methods, and now shares her knowledge and love of fly fishing with anglers and would-be anglers of all ability levels—as well as clients fortunate enough to fish with her in the drift boat.

Here’s more from the Missoula Independent (2008): “In a town where finding someone who claims to know the rivers is easier than forgetting what time of day it is at Charlie’s, Stacy Jennings repeats as the certified best among Missoula’s fishing guides. Attentive to clients and a technical expert, Jennings can help you get the big one in the boat without you ever realizing she deserves most of the credit.”

Those clients have included two Supreme Court justices. Not long ago, Stacy (briefly) taught Chief Justice John Roberts how to cast a fly rod, and guided Justice Antonin Scalia.

“It was great fun to fish with him,” she relates. “What better place to get to know someone than in a drift boat, fishing for trout in the Montana sunshine?”

Stacy feels that her twin skills of family therapy and fly fishing complement each other extremely well, because both are about teaching, inspiring and communicating with people. Anyone who has fished with a quality guide knows that people skills are every bit as important—perhaps more important—to a guide’s success as knowing where to find the trout and how to catch them.

Her favorite attractor dry-fly pattern? The Royal Wulff, invented by Lee Wulff decades ago to ride high and stay buoyant in the often turbulent trout streams of the American West.

Stacy Jennings guides out of Missoula’s well-known Kingfisher Fly Shop (406-721-6141). On behalf of the shop, she teaches two accredited fly-fishing courses to 80 students a year at the University of Montana. Fundamentals of Fly Fishing for Women and a co-ed course are offered each spring and fall. Stacy also offers individual and group instruction in fly casting and trout fishing. Contact her at 406-370-4027 or flyfisher@myarbonne.com.

~Bill Bowers