Park County, Montana and Yellowstone National Park
Key people
Walter Wiese, Head Guide; Matt Minch, Fly Designer
Products
Custom Flies
Services
Guided Float and Wade Trips
Owner
Richard Parks
Parks' Fly Shop is a fly shop and licensed fly fishing outfitter in Gardiner, Montana.[1] In business since 1953, the shop located at 202 2nd Street between Main and Stone is the oldest business in Gardiner under continuous family ownership.[2]
In the late 1940s, Merton J. Parks (1916-1970) was an executive in the paper industry in Cloquet, Minnesota. Merton's avocations however were fly fishing and fly tying. He was an accomplished trout fisherman in the trout streams along the north shore of Lake Superior. His fly tying skills were such that many of his friends encouraged him to tie flies for them. Therefore, Merton started a small, part-time mailorder fly tying operation.
In the summer of 1947, Merton took his family, including his four-year-old son, Richard, on a trip to Montana and Yellowstone National Park. It was on this trip that Merton met Dan Bailey of Livingston, Montana. By early 1952, Merton had decided to quit the paper industry and move his family and fly-tying business to Montana. With the help of Dan Bailey, Merton established Parks' Fly Shop in the back of a small store on W. Park Street, Gardiner, Montana in the summer of 1953.
In 1952, I was looking for retail shop accounts to get our wholesale tackle business off the ground, and Richard's late father, Merton Parks, was looking for a place to open a quality fly shop. Together, we found Gardiner to be a suitable location. Merton was an outstanding sportsman, a fine fisherman, and an excellent fly tier who quickly became a good friend as well. Dan Bailey, 1978[3]
The small fly shop remained at the W. Park Street location for less than a year. In early 1954, Merton moved the business to a small store on S. 2nd Street that had been relocated from the abandoned town of Cinnabar, Montana a few miles north of Gardiner. By the early 1960s, Merton moved the business into a more permanent structure, its present location at 202 S. 2nd Street, next to the old store, sharing the building with the U.S. Forest Service offices in Gardiner.
Parks' Fly ShopRichard Parks, Typical work day, Yellowstone River, 1980
The fly shop was one of the first in the region to offer guided float fishing on the Yellowstone River. In 1955, Merton guided his first float clients in a war surplus rubber raft, but quickly transitioned to wooden rowboats and eventually aluminum jon boats. In 1978, Richard began using fiberglass drift boats or dories with his float clients. Although the fly shop has continued its mail order fly business to the present day, especially for locally produced custom flies, its mainstay was always and continues to be servicing local and visiting anglers on the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone National Park waters. Since its opening, flies and fly fishing tackle have changed significantly and Parks' Fly Shop helped its clients transition from bamboo fly rods, to fiberglass, to today's graphite rods. When the shop was opened, fly lines were made of silk and leaders of silkworm gut. Flies were tied with fur, feathers, yarn and floss. Today's flies are innovative combinations of fur, feathers and a myriad of synthetic materials.
Merton's son, Richard, grew up in Gardiner and became an accomplished professional fly tyer and fly fishing guide while working for his father in the business. In 1966, Richard graduated from Montana State University with a B.A. in History. After college, Richard spent three years in the U.S. Army as a Landing Craft Coxswain serving in Virginia and South Vietnam. After his military service, Richard pursued a graduate degree, but economics kept him from completing it while he ran the fly shop in Gardiner. After Merton died in 1970, the fly shop remained with Merton's wife until 1985, when Richard assumed ownership of the business. He still operates it today.
Contributions to Montana and Yellowstone angling
Parks Salmon FlyCustom Flies
One of the most enduring contributions of Parks' Fly Shop is the Parks' Salmon Fly, an improved version of the old Sofa Pillow used to imitate the giant stoneflies or Salmon Flies on the Yellowstone River and its tributaries. In 1954, Merton Parks found the older imitations of the giant stonefly unsuitable and created the Parks Salmon Fly. The fly remains popular and in use still today.[4] Charles Brooks, a master Yellowstone fly fisherman, called the Parks' Salmon Fly one of his top three stonefly imitations.[5] Today, Parks' Fly Shop is known locally for many innovative custom fly designs by tiers Walter Wiese and Matt Minch.,[6][7]
Proximity to Yellowstone National Park provided Merton and Richard an enormous opportunity to become experts on Yellowstone waters. In 1998, Richard compiled this expertise into his second book--Fishing Yellowstone National Park—which is still in print and in its 3rd edition.[8]
In 1980, Richard Parks help found the Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana to help service the collective needs of fly fishing outfitters throughout the state and help protect Montana's fish and habitats through its conservation fund.
Richard Parks has been a long-standing member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, an organization dedicated to the protection of Montana's water quality, family farms and ranches, and it quality of life. He served as the council's Chairman from 1991–93,.[9][10] In 1983, Parks Fly Shop and Richard Parks became charter members of the Bear Creek Council, an affiliate of the Northern Plains Resource Council in an effort to generate grass-roots support for reform of the General Mining Act of 1872.[11] In May 1990, Richard received the Conservation Activist Award from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition for his work on the New World Gold Mine issue.
Further reading
Leighton, Kim; Bryan, Denver (1998). Seasons of the Yellowstone-An Angler's Year. Minocqua, WI: Willow Creek Press. ISBN978-1-57223-133-7.
The Madison River is a headwater tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 183 miles (295 km) long, in Wyoming and Montana. Its confluence with the Jefferson and Gallatin rivers near Three Forks, Montana forms the Missouri River.
The cutthroat trout(Oncorhynchus clarkii) is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus Oncorhynchus, it is one of the Pacific trout, a group that includes the widely distributed rainbow trout. Cutthroat trout are popular gamefish, especially among anglers who enjoy fly fishing. The common name "cutthroat" refers to the distinctive red coloration on the underside of the lower jaw. The specific name clarkii was given to honor explorer William Clark, coleader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Firehole River is located in northwestern Wyoming, and is one of the two major tributaries of the Madison River. It flows north approximately 21 miles (34 km) from its source in Madison Lake on the Continental Divide to join the Gibbon River at Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park. It is part of the Missouri River system.
The Muddler Minnow is a popular and versatile artificial fly of the streamer type used in fly fishing and fly tying.
George F. Grant was an American angler, author and conservationist from Butte, Montana. He was active for many years on the Big Hole River.
An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of fishing lure, usually used in the sport of fly fishing. In general, artificial flies are an imitation of aquatic insects that are natural food of the target fish species the fly fishers try to catch. Artificial flies are constructed by fly tying, in which furs, feathers, thread or any of very many other materials are tied onto a fish hook.
The Woolly Worm is an artificial fly commonly categorized as a wet fly or nymph and is fished under the water surface. It is a popular pattern for freshwater game fish and was a very popular fly in the 1950s–1970s in the west. Charles Brooks in Nymph Fishing for Larger Trout recommends the Woolly Worm as a general purpose nymph pattern in most western trout waters in any fly box. Woolly Worms are typically fished in streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes for trout, bass, and panfish. Today, Woolly Worms are tied in a variety of styles and colors to imitate a large aquatic nymphs such as stoneflies, dragonflies, damselflies or hellgrammites.
Angling in Yellowstone National Park is a major reason many visitors come to the park each year and since it was created in 1872, the park has drawn anglers from around the world to fish its waters. In 2006, over 50,000 park fishing permits were issued to visitors. The park contains hundreds of miles of accessible, high-quality trout rivers containing wild trout populations—over 200 creeks, streams and rivers are fishable. There are 45 fishable lakes and several large lakes are easily accessible to visitors. Additionally, the park's remote sections provide anglers ample opportunity to visit rivers, streams, creeks and lakes that receive little angling pressure. With the exception of one specially designated drainage, all the park's waters are restricted to artificial lures and fly fishing. The Madison, Firehole and a section of the Gibbon rivers are restricted to fly fishing only.
Dan Bailey was a fly-shop owner, innovative fly developer and staunch Western conservationist. Born on a farm near Russellville, Kentucky, Bailey is best known for the fly shop he established in Livingston, Montana in 1938. Dan Bailey's Fly Shop is still in business.
This annotated bibliography is intended to list both notable and not so notable works of English language, non-fiction and fiction related to the sport of fly fishing listed by year published. Although 100% of any book listed is not necessarily devoted to fly fishing, all these titles have significant fly fishing content. Included in this bibliography is a list of fly tying, fly tackle, regional guides, memoirs, stories and fly fishing fiction related literature.
Lee Wulff, born Henry Leon Wulff, was an artist, pilot, fly fisherman, author, filmmaker, outfitter and conservationist who made significant contributions to recreational fishing, especially fly fishing and the conservation of Atlantic Salmon.
Al Troth is an American fisherman, considered a pioneer in the sport of fly fishing. He is known for his variations of popular trout fishing flies as well as the inventor of the Elk Hair Caddis fly.
Bunyan Bugs are a series of synthetic objects used as fly rod bait in fly-fishing, designed to look like a wide variety of insects, including grasshoppers, stoneflies, Mayflies, horse flies, bumble bees, ants and caddisflies.
Parks' Salmonfly is a traditional dry fly imitating adults of the family of giant stoneflies or salmonflies (Pteronarcyidae). The most commonly imitated species is Pteronarcys californica or salmonfly common throughout Western North America from British Columbia to California.
The Stimulator is a dry fly popularized by angler, fly tyer and author Randall Kaufmann to imitate large adult stoneflies.
Bud Lilly (1925-2017) was the owner of the "Trout Shop" in Montana as well as an accomplished baseball player and fly fishing guide.
The Wulff series of dry flies evolved from a dry fly style conceived by angler Lee Wulff in the 1930s.
Salmon fly patterns are an important collection of artificial flies used by fly anglers to imitate nymphal and adult forms of Pteronarcys californica a giant stonefly or salmon fly. Salmon flies are common in high gradient, freestone rivers and streams from Western Canada throughout the Western U.S. to Mexico in the Rocky Mountains and coastal mountain ranges. Nymphs live for three to five years before adult emergence which typically occurs in late Spring or early summer. The long lifespan of the nymphal form provides year-round angling opportunities for fly anglers.
Terrestrial flies are a broad group of artificial flies used by fly anglers to imitate terrestrial insects that fall prey to fish in rivers, streams and lakes. Most typical are patterns imitating grasshoppers, crickets, ants, beetles, leaf hoppers, cicadas and moths.
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