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Best Fly-Fishing Destinations

This list represents the most popular fly-fishing in North America (learn more about Top Trails). Use this list to plan your next fly-fishing trip. Select a state and/or activity below to find even more top trails.

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#1. Wind River Range Fly-Fishing (Wyoming)


Even though I live a thousand miles away, I consider the Winds my home range. I made my first western backpacking trip to this range, in 1973, and I’ve made far more trips here than in any other area—…
From the guidebook "Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry"
Pinedale, WY - Fly-Fishing Best Trail in WY - Click to view allBestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#2. Jacks River


The Jacks River is a major headwater tributary to the Conasauga River. The two rivers parallel each other through the Cohutta Wilderness Area and offer excellent angling for wild rainbow, brown, and b…
From the guidebook "Fishing Georgia"
Crandall, GA - Fishing Best Trail in GA - Click to view allBestFishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Falcon Publishing

#3. Conasauga River


Considered by some authorities to be one of the top 100 trout streams in the nation, the pristine 15-mile stretch of the Conasauga River is within the Cohutta Wilderness Area. The core of the Conasaug…
From the guidebook "Fishing Georgia"
Crandall, GA - Fishing Best Trail in GA - Click to view allBestFishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Falcon Publishing

#4. Kelly Creek Fly-Fishing (Idaho)


Kelly Creek is in the northern part of Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest. Like the St. Joe River just to the north, Kelly is born high in the Bitterroot Mountains on the Montana-Idaho border. Similar…
From the guidebook "Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry"
Pierce, ID - Fly-Fishing Best Trail in ID - Click to view allBestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#5. Oak Creek


Anyone who has ever visited Arizona has been to or heard of the beautiful red rock country of Sedona. Few of these visitors realize that the small creek running through town is one of the finest trout…
From the guidebook "Fly Fishing Arizona"
Sedona, AZ - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks

#6. Los Angeles: Piru Creek and Deep Creek


When you think of Los Angeles, certain things come to mind: a city on the edge of a desert, film stars, palm trees, highway gridlock, but not wild trout—but . . . yes, wild trout. Los Angeles has one…
From the guidebook "Trout Fishing near American Cities"
Castaic, CA - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#7. Black River (Upper River)


The East and West Forks of the Black River are two of the most popular and productive flywaters in the state. They’re in the alpine zone of the White Mountains in Arizona that are reminiscent of the C…
From the guidebook "Fly Fishing Arizona"
Alpine, AZ - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks

#8. The St. Joe River Fly-Fishing (Idaho)


Wherever excellent river habitat remains intact, catch-and-release regulations can allow trout to quickly rebound in numbers and size, even where populations have been depressed by decades of overharv…
From the guidebook "Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry"
Saint Maries, ID - Fly-Fishing Best Trail in ID - Click to view allBestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#9. Flat Tops Wilderness Fly-Fishing (Colorado)


The Flat Tops Wilderness lies primarily in the White River National Forest in northwestern Colorado. At 235,000 acres and roughly 20 miles in diameter, it’s the third largest wilderness in Colorado an…
From the guidebook "Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry"
Meeker, CO - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#10. Chattooga River


Designated by Congress as a Wild and Scenic River, the Chattooga River is known for its whitewater paddling, trout fishing, and primitive setting. From its headwaters in the North Carolina Appalachian…
From the guidebook "Fishing Georgia"
Clayton, GA - Fishing BestFishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Falcon Publishing

#11. Chevelon Canyon Lake


Many consider Chevelon Canyon Lake to be the best place in the state to fly fish for big browns. Its remote setting, at 6,400' in the Sitgreaves National Forest, combined with the steep hike down to t…
From the guidebook "Fly Fishing Arizona"
Payson, AZ - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks

#12. Lower Salt River


Only 40 minutes from downtown, the Salt River is metro Phoenix’s closest fishery. It’s very popular with fly fishers who don’t have the time to travel to the high-elevation trout waters. It’s hard to…
From the guidebook "Fly Fishing Arizona"
Apache Junction, AZ - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks

#13. Owens River


Two big runs of spawners on the upper mileage and lots of greedy juveniles in the lower gorge make this as fine a piece of trout water as there is in California. Like so many streams, there’s a big di…
From the guidebook "America's 100 Best Trout Streams"
Mammoth Lakes, CA - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Falcon Publishing

#14. Black River (Lower River)


The longest, high-quality fishing river in the state, the Black would take many summers to explore fully. The area is famous for its bad roads, four-wheeling, and true wilderness. If you’re up to the…
From the guidebook "Fly Fishing Arizona"
Fort Apache, AZ - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks

#15. Weminuche Wilderness Fly-Fishing (Colorado)


The Weminuche Wilderness is in the Rio Grande and San Juan National Forests in southwestern Colorado. At 459,000 acres this irregularly shaped wilderness is the largest in the state. Elevations are eq…
From the guidebook "Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry"
Silverton, CO - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#16. Charlotte, NC: Davidson River, North & South Mills Rivers, Jacob Fork


Anglers with business in Charlotte, the Research Triangle, or Winston-Salem can find excellent trout fishing within a few hours’ drive. To the west, between Asheville, the jumping-off point for the wa…
From the guidebook "Trout Fishing near American Cities"
Brevard, NC - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#17. Chattahoochee River


Two sections are worthy of note. The lower river upstream from Atlanta is an outstanding tailwater fishery. Don’t overlook the upper river in the mountains near Helen. You can count on the thumb of yo…
From the guidebook "America's 100 Best Trout Streams"
Helen, GA - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Falcon Publishing

#18. San Francisco: Lower Sacramento River, Putah Creek, & Stanislaus River


Visitors to the Bay Area, whether sightseers jammed onto a San Francisco cable car, high-tech executives scheming in Silicon Valley, or academics making a pilgrimage to Berkeley, inevitably come into…
From the guidebook "Trout Fishing near American Cities"
Redding, CA - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

#19. Carson River, East Fork (CA & NV)


If solitude in mountain splendor is what you like, the East Fork of the Carson is perfect. This stream provides trout anglers with many different experiences (access being one). The narrow, fast-flowi…
From the guidebook "Fly Fishing Nevada"
Markleeville, CA - Fly-Fishing BestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by No Nonsense Fly Fishing Guidebooks

#20. Bob Marshall Wilderness Fly-Fishing (Montana)


The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in northwestern Montana extends into four national forests—the Flathead, Lewis and Clark, Lolo, and Helena. The Bob Marshall Wilderness itself covers over a million…
From the guidebook "Fly-Fishing the Rocky Mountain Backcountry"
Augusta, MT - Fly-Fishing Best Trail in MT - Click to view allBestFly-Fishing Trail - Click to view all (About Top Trails)
Published by Stackpole Books

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