Smith River Montana
For those who don’t know the Smith, it is central Montana river that has restricted (permit by drawing) floating access. It’s a great stream to fish because of its scenic canyon nature and its good populations of browns, rainbows, and whitefish. They all seem eager to take a dry fly.
Recently, our friends Gary and Rita Wolfe had a chance to float it. They are long term friends from our fly fishing school days at the Vermejo Ranch in New Mexico. Gary was chief wildlife biologist at the ranch for many years. He left to become CEO of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and from there moved over to operate as CEO of Vital Ground–a grizzly bear foundation that works to establish habitat for the bears. By protecting the bears, the protect the entire ecosystem that supports the bears.
Anyway, they had a great float on the Smith. and caught many good fish. This is a nice brown that Rita took on the trip.
Big browns in the middle the day on dries. Certainly a trip worth the effort.