The Beartooth Family

Dan Delekta

Dan started fishing when he was two years old, encouraged by his Dad, who owned sporting goods stores in upstate New York, and Dan grew up fishing in the Adirondack Mountains.  His passion for trout and steelhead fly fishing eventually led him far from New York, to Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.  He moved to West Yellowstone at age 22.

Dan began tying flies in 1967, when he was ten years old. He has designed over 200 patterns of flies that are the trademark Delektable collection.  His passion for fly tying is as strong now as it has ever been.  He is constantly thinking about, designing, tying, and field testing his new designs in the great Madison River just outside his door.  Dan loves to make stuff and started building rods in 1975, when he was 18 years old.  He now constructs custom graphite, fiberglass, and bamboo rods at the shop.  He started Beartooth Flyfishing in 1982, constructing Made in Montana braided leaders, hand-tied leaders, and fly rods. 

Dan has guided on Montana’s trophy rivers for over 25 years.  He built the Beartooth Flyfishing lodge in 1989, with the help of friends.   He greatly values the friendships he has built over the years.    His love of the mountains, the solitude, and the peace is exceeded by his appreciation of all the people who have treated him like family.  Dan loves fly fishing and all the challenges and rewards it brings.  He looks forward to continuing to innovate, to being in touch with nature, and to continue bringing the joys of fly fishing and deeper knowledge of fly fishing to even more people.

Nancy Delekta

Nancy started fishing as a child--with worms--on the Brandywine river in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Nancy began her love of fly fishing in the late 70s,  while living in Framingham, Massachusetts, taking fly fishing trips to Vermont.  She eventually joined a group that got together weekly for fly tying sessions and took fly fishing trips.   Nancy was the only woman in the group.  It was on trips with this group, during the 80s, that Nancy grew to know and love the fly fishing in Montana.  After her divorce from her first husband and changes in the technology company where she worked in Boston, she began to look for job opportunities in Montana, where she could pursue her love of fly fishing and skiing.  In 1999 she landed a job with H.S. Trask, a shoe company based in Bozeman.  She rapidly became involved with fly fishing in the area and soon became the president of the local chapter of Trout Unlimited.

During her time in Bozeman, she met Dan and they began to fish together.  They became fishing partners and this blossomed into love.  They quickly recognized that they approached fly fishing the same way and always “fished hard”.  They wed in a very special ceremony on the Madison River and their vows were carried out on the banks of Beartooth property at what we now call “Wedding Rock.” 

Nancy’s business acumen and long business experience has been an enormous benefit for Beartooth Flyfishing.  Nancy loves retail.  She grew up in retail.  Her father owned retail stores in Pennsylvania and she began working in them when she was 12.  Nancy loves the interaction with the people who come to the Beartooth Fly Shop, because they are very happy, on vacation and pursuing a sport that they love.  She is working hard on expanding the retail activities of Beartooth Flyfishing, by setting up an online store, and also is trying to find more time to get out on the water and fish.

John "Grandpa" Delekta

Dan's father, John “Grandpa” Delekta, began fishing when he was around six years old.  His interest in the outdoors led him to spend almost forty years of his life in the sporting goods business in upstate New York.  During his early adulthood he was a spin fisherman, but then he got into fly fishing.  Grandpa retired in 1990, the same year that Dan opened the Beartooth Flyfishing Lodge.  Since 1990 Grandpa has spent every summer at the Lodge.  He has done most of the packaging for Beartooth Products.  At 85 years of age, Grandpa stills works almost every day.  

Grandpa really loves the times that he gets to go fishing with his son and Nancy.  He has been with Dan and Nancy to the Rogue for steelhead fishing and to Andros Island in the Bahamas for great salt water fishing.  It's remarkable to consider that Grandpa and his son have been fishing together for almost fifty years.  There aren't many fathers and sons who are able to do that.

Marty Authement--Captain Marty "The Montajun"

                                                                                    Louisiana Redfish

Capt. Marty was born and raised in southeast Louisiana and proudly lives the Cajun lifestyle. His earliest memories of childhood are of being in a boat.  He fished and hunted from an early age.  Marty earned a mass communications degree from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He then worked for 10 years at his hometown newspaper, where he started as a reporter and left as editor of the Lifestyles Department.

Shortly after graduating from college, through a mutual friend, Marty was introduced to Ken Deats of Bozeman, Montana, who introduced him to fly fishing. Ken and Marty became good friends.  It was in the early 80s, during his trips to Montana to fish with Ken that he fell in love with its great fly fishing.. Marty carried these newly learned skills to south Louisiana, where he now guides and practices saltwater fly fishing.  Salt water fly fishing remains a rare method of catching fish in the bayous.  

The captain’s guiding career began about six years into his newspaper career, when he started his guiding business--Marsh Madness--as a weekend venture. When the time came to leave the newspaper business and become a full-time guide, Marty decided to split his time between his two favorite places--Louisiana and Montana.   Marty comes to Montana around the middle of April and returns to Louisiana around the middle of October.

Marty began guiding on the Madison River in 2004, with the late, great Pat McFall as the first Outfitter he worked for.  It was Pat who introduced Marty to Dan.  Dan's, friendship and support have been vital to the Captain's success.  Dan has taught Marty an enormous amount about guiding and all aspects of fly fishing.  The knowledge that Dan has imparted has helped Marty become one of the busiest guides on the Madison River. 

Marty feels he is living a dream.  He would not be living his dream if it were not for the love and support of his wife, Jennifer. She shares his love of Big Sky Country, where the couple eloped and married on Squaw Creek Bridge, overlooking the Gallatin River.

In addition to contacting Marty at Beartooth, you can contact him at: (985) 688-4495   captmarty@internet8.net

Marsh Madness    

Jennifer Durham

Jennifer Durham grew up in the Madison Valley.  Jennifer started working for Beartooth in 2004.  She helps with the business of  Beartooth Flyfishing year round and helps with the management of the lodge when guests are present.  Jennifer has been an avid hunter for years and enjoys hunting for deer, elk, and  antelope.  She has been interested in taxidermy since she was a child.  Jennifer is learning to fly fish and looks forward to doing more fly fishing.     

Gregg Machel

Gregg is Beartooth Flyfishing's Web Designer.  He has had extensive experience in web design and has joined that to his love of fly fishing to design a number of fly fishing websites, among them www.kienes.com in Sacramento, where Gregg lives.  When he isn't building websites, you can find Gregg out on the American, Yuba, and the Delta with his son Jonathan. When given a chance, you will also find him fishing the waters in Montana.  Gregg is a certified IT Engineer and is presently the Web Specialist for Sutter Health in Sacramento.

Gregg can be contacted at:  (916) 722-7912,   gregg@machelcreative.com

Bradley Harlan, M.D.

Brad began fishing when he was about ten years old, on his Grandfather’s ranch in northwestern Montana.  Although Brad used a fly rod and reel, it was all bait fishing—with worms he would dig up in the yard, or grasshoppers he would catch in the hayfields.  After going to UC Berkeley and UCSF Medical School and training in heart surgery with the world famous heart surgeon Denton A. Cooley, M.D., Brad spent decades doing heart surgery until he retired in 2001. 

His interest in fly fishing was kindled by his close friend, Jim Pletcher:

Jim had been a long-time fly fisherman, but became even more interested in fly fishing around the same time that Brad retired.  Jim built a wooden drift boat and Brad helped.  The two of them began fly fishing in Montana and on their first visit to the Madison River, a person at their motel in Ennis recommended they visit Beartooth—“ a lodge about 20 miles upstream that sits out in the middle of nowhere.”  Early the next morning Jim and Brad stopped at Beartooth and had one of those “Awestruck on the First Visit to the Beartooth Fly Shop ” experiences that so many people have had over the years.  Dan spent 20-30 minutes with them—it was very early and no one else came into the shop—and selected a large assortment of flies for them, many of which were Dan’s designs.  And he told them where to fish them and how to fish them.  Jim and Brad went out and had a great day on the Madison, catching a lot of fish on a lot of different flies.

Since that visit in 2002, Brad has made annual visits to Beartooth, often several times a year, often with some of his family. Brad has grown to understand and admire the motivations, skills, and work ethic of Dan and Nancy.  He has enjoyed learning from them and fishing with them.  Brad was lucky enough to “guide” Dan on Dan's Fiftieth Birthday Float last year and saw an incredible demonstration of fly fishing skill.

Brad guides as an amateur--for guides, family, and friends.  And he's a true amateur--he's free.  Brad feels Professional Guiding--especially on the Madison River--is too demanding physically and psychologically for someone to take up in their sixties.

Brad works part-time at Beartooth, working in the shop and helping to manage the website.  He feels fortunate to have such a rich experience in fly fishing and is enormously grateful to his wife, Sharon, for letting him pursue this passion.  Brad also feels very fortunate to be learning so much about fly fishing, fly tying, and the fly fishing business from Dan and Nancy.