Ryan Johnston: Building Cast Hope Through the Sport of Fly Fishing

Ryan Johnston has spent 24 years as a fly fishing guide, working rivers in California and Idaho and now Montana's Flathead Valley. In this episode, he shares stories from his three books, including the now-legendary "Monster Brown Trout" tale from his first book, A Reel Job, and reflects on what two decades in a drift boat has taught him about people, patience, and the intimacy of sharing a day on the water with a stranger. Johnston also traces the origin of Cast Hope, the youth mentorship nonprofit he founded in 2009 after a church sermon on giving back to his community, which now takes roughly 1,200 kids fly fishing for free every year across five Western regions. The conversation turns to the outfitter permit systems that govern access to rivers like the South Fork of the Snake, the tension between protecting a fishery and guides making a living, and why moving fish between waters remains one of the biggest threats to Western fisheries today. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.