Tim Linehan considers himself fortunate, even lucky, to have built an outfitting business in the Libby and Troy area that has presented him with unexpected opportunities and enjoyment.

And the fortune keeps coming, with Linehan recently being named the Orvis Endorsed Guide of the Year, an award that put him at the top of hundreds of guides across the country.

“I’m thrilled,” Linehan said in a recent interview. “It’s pretty substantial and it’s fun and it’s satisfying. Indeed, it’s going to look good on my website.”

But the 50-year-old adds a dose of modesty.

“There are a lot of guides around the country that are better than I’ll be on my best day,” he said, noting that many of them are not affiliated with Orvis, a Vermont-based company that specializes in fly-fishing gear.

“With a combination of humor, passion, skill and patience, the working guide creates a successful day, even if there is no tangible fishing success, for long after the memory of the fishing fades, the memory of the day is indelible,” Orvis says of Linehan in a press release. “That memory is the result of a great professional guide. Tim Linehan embodies these qualities and has received the highest honor Orvis can bestow.”

Linehan and his wife, Joanne, started the Linehan Outfitting Company in 1993, just a few years after he migrated to Montana from New Hampshire, where he grew up hunting and fishing. The idea was to get a job in the Twin Bridges area and do some outfitting on the side, but Linehan ended up visiting the Yaak, and he didn’t turn back.

He initially worked under the wing of former hunting outfitter Bill McAfee, who wanted to get into the fly-fishing guiding business. 

“We bought a drift boat and started kicking off trips on the Kootenai River,” Linehan recalled.

Linehan’s business has evolved considerably since he set out on his own. McAfee pursued other interests, and his son, Sean McAfee, is now Linehan’s “right hand man” in a staff of eight to 10 guides. The Linehans now have three cabins for clients in the Yaak, and Joanne is primarily in charge of a guest lodge on the Kootenai River just a few miles north of Libby.

Unlike many other outfitters who specialize in fishing or hunting, Linehan does both, extending his working season to the benefit of the business.

“By default, people recognize us in the fly-fishing world because that’s the longest season,” he said. “But we are from the old mold, doing it all.”

Even after 20 years in the business, Linehan said his passion for the field has not diminished.

“I still love every minute of it,” he said. “My enthusiasm still burns probably more than it did back in the ’90s. I get way more excited than my guests sometimes.”

Along the way, Linehan has been fortunate. Most notably, he was hired as the host of Trout Unlimited Television in 1999. The show focused on fishing, like other fishing shows, but it also emphasized conservation projects and issues. Linehan traveled to different waters around the country for about 13 episodes a year until the show ended in 2004.

“That’s what was really fun about it,” he said, referring to the traveling and the people he met. “And it was very good for business. Over the years I’ve been really lucky. I’ve had opportunities presented to me that have helped market my company in pretty substantial ways, for an outfitter-guide in the Yaak. I feel pretty lucky and fortunate.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.