The Guides

At Fins & Feathers, we recognize the fact that at the end of the trip, the most important factor in our guests' enjoyment is the quality of our guides. Our guides are all patient professionals that will work tirelessly from start to finish to ensure that your trip is a terrific experience. Our professionalism and expertise has resulted in our endorsement by Orvis again for 2008. We are the only guide service in Bozeman to have this endorsement and take great pride in living up to all that it implies.

Below is a brief autobiography of our guides for the 2008 season. Please feel free to send us an e-mail if you have any questions or want to request a specific guide. Typically, we try to match the guides with the clients based on a variety of information we collect while booking the trip.

Toby Swank - Toby is the owner/outfitter (Lic #9603) of Fins & Feathers and has been fishing the waters of southwest Montana for over 17 years. He attended college in Bozeman at MSU, graduating in 1995 with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology. Fishing has always been an obsession for Toby and there's nothing that he enjoys more than fly-fishing for trout just about anywhere in the world. Toby's family includes his wife Christine, sons Alex & Matthew, a golden retriever named Tye and a slightly neurotic English Setter named Tao. Read Toby's Blog

Rick Weisend - Rick has been managing the store since it opened in 2000. During the summers he is a full time primary guide. He moved to Bozeman in 1998 with a degree in Fisheries Biology from Humboldt State University. He is an avid fly angler and fly tyer. His original fly patterns can be found in the shop and in the Orvis catalog. In recent years he has become an avid hunter of upland game birds. Rick's household includes his lovely wife Carla, cat Zoe, and English Setter Cotton.

Paul Neuman - Paul is a Bozeman native and has been fishing the rivers of Southwest Montana since he was old enough to walk. Paul has been in Germany for the last year working as a ski instructor and cycling tour-guide for military personnel on leave. We're excited to have him back as one of core guides in 2008.

Ben Jantzen - Ben moved to the Gallatin Valley over ten years ago from Connecticut and has been fishing the surrounding waters avidly ever since. Ben works in the shop year round and is one of our core guides during the summer months. Ben has two passions; fly fishing and bow hunting. Ben fishes year round with the exception of the fall months when he spends his time bow hunting for elk and upland game bird hunting with his chocolate lab, Chester . Once hunting season closes Ben often commences fishing season with a trip down south to fly fish in warmer climates.

Josh Stanish - Josh moved to Bozeman 16 years ago to attend Montana State University where he worked very diligently for four years to try and persuade the university to give him a degree for studying the rivers and fish of Southwestern Montana with a fly rod. Unfortunately they were unwilling to turn his tiresome study into a degree and Josh set out on his own to make it a professional career. Josh has been an outfitter and previously owned his own fly shop which he sold so that he could spend more quality time with clients out on the water. He lives in Bozeman with his wife Moira, their rambunctious four year old son Reece and their Springer Spaniel Trico.

Louis Bishop has been guiding and rafting the rivers of southwest Montana for over 10 year now. He's a great guy to spend a day on the water and really likes trying to get a big fish or two to eat a streamer. As the former owner of one of the areas largest white water operations, Louis really knows the area's rivers and where to find the fish that live in them.