A fly angler casting in golden light on wild water
TroutSmith
Est. 2026New York

Every river has
a local. Find yours.

A booking home for the people who know the water. Built so the guide keeps every dollar of their rate.

I guide. Put me on the list What this is
Launching autumn 2026
The idea

Guides are the last honest craft in the sport.

A guide reads water the way a smith reads heat. Twenty seasons on one river teaches you where a fish sits at 51 degrees in falling light, and no algorithm has ever learned it.

The most trusted directory in fly fishing endorses roughly two hundred operations. There are more than ten thousand working guides. Almost all of them are found by word of mouth, a phone number on a fading website, or not at all, while the anglers who would happily pay them are three tabs away searching the wrong thing.

TroutSmith puts those two groups in the same room. The traveler pays one small protection fee. The guide's rate is never touched. One percent of every fee goes back to the water.

"The best days of my life have a river in them. The people who make those days possible shouldn't lose a quarter of their pay to a booking site. That's the whole idea."

Ben Samuels, Founder
The deal

Guides keep 100%. Always.

5%

When we bring you a client

A traveler who found you through TroutSmith pays a 5% protection fee at checkout. It covers secured deposits, weather rescheduling, signed waivers and a human on the phone. Your rate arrives whole.

0%

When you bring your own

Your repeat clients, your lodge referrals, your brother in law. Run them through TroutSmith for the deposits and the calendar and pay nothing. Not now, not later.

No commission. No listing fees. No pay to rank, ever. We charge for bringing you new customers, never for processing your own.

How a trip happens

Three steps, in this order.

Step one

An angler picks water, not a package.

They start with a river and a week, then see who actually works it. Real availability, real rates, no phone tag.

Step two

You confirm on your terms.

You set the rate, the hours, the cancellation window and the boat. The deposit is secured before the date is held.

Step three

You get paid the next day.

Payout lands the business day after the trip. The review that fills next season lands the same week.

An angler fly fishing the American River in Sacramento, California
American River, California
An angler casting on the River Nidd at Knaresborough, England
River Nidd, England
An angler casting at dawn on a misty river in Neuquen, Argentina
Neuquén, Argentina
An angler fly fishing the Reisaelva in northern Norway
Reisaelva, Norway
Founding guides

The first fifty guides build this with us.

We are not looking for a waitlist. We are looking for fifty working guides who will tell us what is broken, argue with us about the calendar, and be on the water the day we open.

  • The traveler fee waived on every trip through your entire first season.
  • A professional photography day on your water, on us. The photos are yours to keep and use anywhere.
  • Your own clients book at zero fees, forever. That one is not a launch offer.
  • A direct line to the people building it, and a real say in what gets built first.

One email when we open your region. Nothing else, ever. Read the privacy note.

Not a pitch deck

The product already runs.

Search water, read conditions, message a guide, hold a date. It is loaded with demo guides and clearly labeled as a prototype, but every screen is real and it works on your phone right now.

Open the working prototype