‘Incredibly overdue’: Bud Lilly, ‘Godfather of Montana fly-fishing,’ posthumously lands his biggest catch

THREE FORKS, Mont. – Asked if his father Bud’s impending induction into the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame was beyond overdue, Chris Lilly initially nodded in vigorous assent.

“Incredibly overdue,” he said.

A wry smile then creased his face. Lilly flashed on another inductee who would be joining Bud Lilly in the hallowed hall in upstate New York come October: one Sir Izaak Walton, author of a fishing work of some renown called “The Compleat Angler.”

Chris Lilly announced his father’s honor publicly Aug. 13, during a “Trout on Tap” event at Sawdust and Steel Brewing in Three Forks on what would’ve been Bud’s 100th birthday. Walton’s timeless work was published nearly four centuries ago on a Gutenberg press.

“That gives some context about how overdue he is,” Lilly said with a chuckle, before circling back to his dad with a sentiment shared by some 40 tanned anglers sipping micro brews: “He was the godfather of Montana fly -fishing.”

Anyone who’s tossed a caddis or Royal Wulff to a native cutthroat trout in Montana trout waters would also affirm Walen Francis “Bud” Lilly Jr.’s place in the angling world, 81/2 years after his death at age 91 in Bozeman.

Maybe even genuflect.

“Bud was always a hero of mine,” said Rick Ruoff, a legendary Florida Keys fishing guide in his own right who summers in Willow Creek. “Bud was kind of the face of trout fishing out here. I mean, he and Bob Jacklin … they were what I aspired to be when I came out west and started fly -fishing.”

Bud Lilly was such a transcendent fishing personality, in fact, that his legacy lives on – with his latest Hall of Fame induction and, perhaps even more significant, the ongoing Bud Lilly Trout and Salmonid Initiative at the Montana State University Library.

Chris Lilly, 41, has returned home – after stints in New York City, South Korea and Phoenix – to “keep the torch lit” for his father, as president of the Friends of the MSU Library board of directors and also caretaker for the family’s Angler’s Retreat in Three Forks.

With 10,000-plus volumes, MSU touts the Lilly Initiative as the world’s largest and most comprehensive trout and salmonid collection. Rare books, artwork, scientific research, archives and nearly 400 oral histories from more than 70 nations are featured.

“It’s really an incredible resource that we’ve built,” Jim Thull, trout and salmonid librarian at MSU, said at the Three Forks event, which doubled as a fundraiser. “I really think it’s about the future. It’s about making sure these things exist for our children and our grandchildren and even beyond that. That is what we’ve collected at MSU, and that is Bud’s legacy.”

Agreed Doralyn Rossmann, dean of the MSU Library: “I feel right now is a really optimal time to honor Bud and his legacy. Some people say, ‘Why trout and salmon at the MSU Library?’ but it’s not just about the fish, it’s about the fly fishing, it’s the ecosystems, it’s the public access, it’s water rights, and so we realize all these things are so about Montana. The fish represent just one part of that.”

Chris was born late in his father’s life, thus missing the heady days when Bud opened a thank-you note from President Jimmy Carter for hand-tied flies and guided Tom Brokaw, Charles Kuralt, Bobby Knight and other luminaries on southwest Montana streams from his revered Bud Lilly Trout Shop in West Yellowstone. He has reconfigured his relationship with his dad through the Hall of Fame push, MSU initiative and restoring the Angler’s Retreat cottage.

“When you lose both your parents before 40 you look to grab on to things and so, in a way, it’s cathartic and healing,” Chris said. “This has given me a lot of purpose when it’s couched with, you know, metaphorically and physically keeping their dream alive and making it my own space.”

That space is near the junction of three great trout rivers, just a few miles from Manhattan, where Bud was born on a kitchen table and raised in the back of a barber shop during the Great Depression.

After a World War II Navy stint in the South Pacific, he graduated from Montana State, earned a master’s degree from the University of Montana, and taught high school math in Bozeman, Deer Lodge and Roundup.

While earning extra cash washing cars in West Yellowstone in 1952 he purchased a small business for $4,500. Bud Lilly’s Trout Shop soon became a magnet for fly anglers the world over, a place, Chris said, “where anglers felt welcome and inspired.”

Even so, if it weren’t for the war, Bud Lilly might have been remembered most as a star baseball player.

While playing for a Gallatin Valley team as a 15-year-old Manhattan High athlete, he cracked a base hit against another future Hall of Famer, Satchel Paige, who was pitching for a Negro League barnstorming team. In 1942, Lilly was offered a contract with the Cincinnati Reds but turned it down to fight for his country.

Baseball’s loss was a win for trout. From a young age, Lilly developed a passion for the cool, clear waters and landscapes that nourish them.

He was Trout Unlimited’s first president and founded Montana’s TU chapter. He was either a director or board member for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Whirling Disease Foundation, American Wildlands, Montana Land Reliance and National Federation of Fly Fishers. His Navy stint never forgotten, he eventually founded the Warriors and Quiet Waters Foundation, using fly -fishing to help vets with PTSD find balance.

Lilly also was an early advocate for catch-and-release fishing, thought to be sacrilege in the 1960s and now routine for fly anglers in pursuit of native trout.

Another fly-fishing icon, Esquire Magazine founder Arnold Gingrich, once said of Lilly: “He’s a trout’s best friend” – the name, fittingly, of his 1988 autobiography written with Paul Schullery.

Said Chris: “He gave me a lot of perspective on why it’s important to cherish these wild places.”

Bud Lilly’s legacy?

“That sometimes the trout aren’t biting, but that’s not the point,” his son said. “You still had a day out on the water, listening to the birds, watching the cranes, the wind rustling through the leaves, the sound of the riffle and your thoughts at peace. Mix that in with the fact that a lot of it wouldn’t be possible without his efforts to popularize that you should limit your kill – not kill your limit.

“I just feel that’s why he’s on the Mount Rushmore of Montana conservation.”

And now he’ll soon be in the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame as well, thanks to endorsement assists from Schullery, author Tom McGuane and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, among others. Between the overdue Hall induction and the MSU Library initiative, Chris Lilly said his mission is to ensure his father’s name is forever etched in fly -fishing lore.

“As time goes on you forget a little bit about those guys,” he said. “But hopefully this induction and what we’re doing with the library and a special collection with the initiative cements it so you don’t go into Simms and say the name ‘Bud Lilly’ to the guy working at the counter and he doesn’t know who he is.”