Ryan Johnston

I owe this crazy fish passion of mine to my father. From an early age my dad had me on the water learning how to catch whatever creatures were swimming in the water. We always had rods in the car ready to go rigged with red and white bobbers, rainbow power bait, or black panther martins. See growing up in San Diego as a young kid there weren't a lot of local fly fishing options. So my dad taught me how to catch fresh and saltwater fish using conventional casting rods. When I was twelve my dad said that we should try to be like “Brad Pitt” and check out some fly fishing. I was hooked from the very first moment of casting a hopper onto the riverbank and watching a cutthroat slowly rise from the depths to slurp in my fly. From that moment on I became a fly fisherman and I stored my red and white bobber in the back of some old Plano tackle box to start collecting years of dust. UC Davis brought me to Northern California in 2001. I thought I had made a responsible decision, giving up the prestigious fly fishing of the Universities of Montana and Colorado for a serious college education at UCD. Ha! Little did I know that the location of UC Davis in Northern California is near some of the best wild trout and steelhead fishing in the state. During my “B.S.” years, it seemed I spent just as much time studying trout and steelhead behavior on the rivers as I did in the classroom. And despite the unrelenting call of the fish, I managed to earn a degree in Business & Management and land a beautiful, passionate, fly-fishing wife. Then, in 2006, in pursuit of more fish and an ever-higher education, my wife and I moved to Chico, California. I worked part-time to earn an MBA while continuing to guide. We could not help falling in love with Chico, so in 2009, we made it our home. Soon after moving to Chico, our family began to grow. I now have two beautiful, sweet, funny, and full of wonder daughters. After living in California for my whole life, and guiding for 20 years in NorCal, we decided to make a big change and move to Northwest Montana in 2022. Montana has been so good for all of us. We truly feel blessed to live in the mountains, be surrounded by God's natural beauty, and have incredible outdoor activities nearby. So many fly fishing options!! Guiding isn’t just a job for me. When you love fishing as much as I do, it’s an art and a passion and a life all wrapped up. There’s nothing better than seeing a client’s face light up as his or her line tightens. Guiding has been good to me. So good that I wanted to find a way to share this gift with others by giving it away. So in 2009, my wife and I started Cast Hope, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which aims to use fly fishing to introduce outdoor activities to the at-risk kids of California, Nevada, and North Carolina. Through fly fishing we are able to introduce kids to camping, hiking, conservation, and outdoor education. Our goal is to love and encourage these kids by sharing the outdoors and getting them out of their normal hard life situations. Through Cast Hope we are positively impacting kids one life at time. Check out the website and videos online and let us know how you would like to get involved. Over the years my clients and I have caught lots of great fish, but even better than that, we’ve made some great memories. I want to thank you all for making my guiding career so enjoyable and filling my storybook with countless fish tales. I look forward to sharing those tales with you in my books, A Reel Job and Reelly. Cheers.