Bhutan: The Adventure

Jim Dickens October 2025

Bhutan: The Adventure

Our tour leader, Jim, said, “Get ready this will be big boy fishing.”  I think he was saying it to me because it soon became clear all the others were experienced big boy fisherman and could handle it easily.  We were the first group going to the first fishing lodge in Bhutan.  It was a great privilege to be the guinea pigs.

Besides my buddy Pete and me, there were four others.  Jim, the CEO of the largest fly fishing travel company, who has fished all over the world; Flint a skier, blue water fisherman, and golfer who has been from the Seychelles to Cuba with Jim on other big boy fishing trips;  Chris who once took a semester off of college to drive through Mexico with sea kayaks to Belize to spear his fish dinner everyday or starve;  and Scott, a gear geek, an accomplished snowboarder, mountain biker and e foil rider.  All are expert fly fishermen.

In 2007 our host, Bryant was working for the World Wildlife Fund when the Bhutan government asked him to do a feasibility study on fly fishing tourism in Bhutan.  He explored and fished around the country for over a decade and then got permission to found Himalayan Fly Fishing, an outfitter that does river raft fishing week long  camping trips.  Subsequently, Bryant and a couple of Bhutanese guide partners built a fishing lodge.  Bryant and Jim agreed Jim would bring a group to be the first lodge guests.

So we adventured in magical Bhutan.  We kept deciding not to fish because we saw something else.  We were supposed to fish for trout in the alpine Haa Valley but we came across a carnival with exotic things like sword fighting demonstrations.  So we cut our fishing time down to about 90 minutes and spent time at the carnival.   We were supposed to fish for 6 days in the jungle but only fished for five.  Instead we went to a ranger station in the national park where we saw an elephant off in the distance, some wild water buffalo, langur monkeys, barking deer and a 7 foot cobra.  We stopped to see the King and Queen depart on a plane in Gelephu.

We did fish hard, rafting down rivers with rapids, and clambering down jungle river banks following our guides who kept the paths open with their patangs.  We traversed suspension bridges and climbed over boulders. We caught the revered chocolate masheer and the sacred golden masheer.  Amazing fish that fight above their weight class but are also pretty big to start with. Luckily we had drivers and guides that helped us at every turn and kept us safe.  It is an amazing but wild country. 

We ate the delicious national dish, ema datshi, that is so spicy you have to stop even though you want to eat more.  We went to the tourist favorite Tiger’s Nest and the largest buddha statue in the world.   The group took a helicopter to get from the lodge back to the airport and saw the Himalayas, our river lodge and the largest buddha statue from the air.

Everywhere we went we were helped with grace, patience and energy.  Our guides, lodging staff, and even people we met walking around helped us.  The culture here is distinctly different in positive ways from anywhere else I’ve been.  It’s on the do again list with my wife, Lori.  I hope Bhutan only changes for the better and remains wonderfully exotic.

It felt like “big boy fly fishing”.  Being the first tourists floating the river, crossing the bridge, climbing the hillside or flying that helicopter route made you wonder how it would turn out.  It felt wilder and less predictable. Learning to navigate the terrain and fish the rushing river required lots of energy and experience.  Don’t come here until you are ready but definitely come here.