Even when times are tight, we Montanans are wealthy, for we are rich in land and water. And it’s a richness that we can go right up to and touch.
“The beautiful thing about Montana is this access,” says Justin Lawrence, owner of Lakestream Fly Shop in Whitefish. “We are leaps and bounds above other states. Anywhere water touches is public property. In a place where it’s almost impossible to buy a house anymore, and it’s really hard to work hard enough to live and survive here, you can still take a walk on a river and not get questioned about it. And that is a gift.”
Lakestream Fly Shop has been a community pillar in Whitefish since the mid-1980s. Justin began working for the original owner in 2002, and in 2014 he and his wife purchased the business and moved to their current location on Spokane Avenue, right across the road from a bend in the Whitefish River.
In addition to 40-plus years of supplying the community with fishing gear and knowledge, Lakestream Fly Shop is also an expert guide service, getting folks out on the water, from the Missouri River to the Lower Clark Fork, and getting their hands on some trout. They’ve been helping people far and wide encounter Montana’s natural riches.
Justin has been guiding all across the West since the 1990s, and in Western Montana since 1998, and this is really where his heart lies.
“It's being outside. It's making your office out-of-doors, right?” Justin says. “Listening to oar strokes quietly moving through the water, observing everything around you. I mean, of course I love catching trout and steelhead and salmon, but the thing I gain the most is the sense of being outside and in the world.”
“Birds, trees, rivers, all that stuff that’s ever-changing,” he continues. “That is the coolest part of it. You know, your office changes all the time. It's certainly not the same paint color, the same wallpaper, or whatever.”
As much as Justin gets out of guiding personally, there’s also a lot of joy for him in providing a genuine experience for others.
“I'm probably more excited about wanting to put you onto a fish than you are about catching a fish,” Justin says. “Someone who's never been to Montana, to put them on a river in the middle of Montana and teach them how to fly fish for a second and to put them onto a wild native trout in the middle of a very beautiful place is a pretty gratifying thing.”
If Justin doesn’t have a specific story from his many years of guiding that stands out as emblematic of the transformative capacities of his work, that’s because it’s perpetual: every minute out on a river is a chance to expand, to inhabit life more fully. That goes for the client and for Justin himself.
“Every day is somewhat life changing,” he says. “You take a veteran who has got PTSD out on the water, and you watch that human smile and enjoy being outside. That’s good for them, and good for me too. Or maybe a kid who’s not a great student, maybe a kid who’s a bit of an introvert. To watch a kid like that light up is pretty life changing.”
Lakestream Fly Shop has been working in the community to turn kids on to fly fishing for many years now, extending a love for waters and outdoor pursuits to the next generation of Montanans.
When asked what might set Lakestream apart from other, similar shops in the area, Justin points to two things: their year-round operation, whereas some may function only on a seasonal basis; and their educational efforts in local schools, getting kids interested in tying flies.
And Lakestream Fly Shop has been doing this work in the schools for so long that it has really come back around, in the form of their current shop manager, Nick Haas.
“Chris Shriner was a teacher at Elrod Elementary School who worked for Lakestream Fly Shop, and he started a fly-tying program in the elementary school,” Justin says. “From that class, Nick bought his first fly-tying vise from Lakestream when he was thirteen which led him to coming to sports shows, seeing us, learning to cast, begging for a job when he was too young, and finally getting on and growing up with the business. He is a born and raised Kalispell guy, and he is as good as it gets. He’s the reason we’re still going, and he’s going to be the next chapter.”
“I'm 55 and I'll keep going and going and going,” says Justin, “but at some point, I'd like to give the next generation the opportunity so that Lakestream doesn't disappear in the Flathead Valley.”
With a passion that runs this wide and deep, Lakestream Fly Shop is not likely to cease doling out adventure anytime soon. From Justin to Nick and whoever steps in next, the shop’s legacy of outdoor stewardship and investment in the community is built to endure.
"Every day is somewhat life changing. You take a veteran who has got PTSD out on the water, and you watch that human smile and enjoy being outside. That’s good for them, and good for me too."