Smith River May 11th thru May15th

The Smith River is one of Montana's little jewels I would classify it as one of my eight wonders of the world. It is a place where you can escape the outer world for a week and forget whats going on out there and focus on fishing, camping, good friends, family and the most beautiful scenery in Montana. The sixty mile float can be heaven or hell depending on what mother nature throws at you. We hit the water levels dead on this year with good visibility(one to two feet) and float levels (300 cfs). The fishing was good but not on fire due to the low water temps(40-50'), fishing in the AM was slow picking up during the day as the temperatures rose above 45. The fish mostly browns were in good shape in the 12"to 16" class, with a few larger but all under 18". We had our best luck on copper zonkers,san jaun worms red and brown, black rubber legs and a variety of bead heads with the pheasant tail being the best due to the great March Brown hatches in the riff areas. Caught our most fish on the day we relaxed and walk waded and worked the water around cow coulee.

Monday was the toughest day with wet snow all day but Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the weather warmed each day and we had a blast. Thanks to the Montana FWP for doing such a great job protecting such a wonderful asset for the public.