Fishing Reports

Water is perfect on the Smith right now.  The floating season is at it's end.  However, you can still access the upper river near White Sulpher or the lower river really easily near Eden.  We caught fish all the way down to Eden.  Of course land access in the canyon section is epic right now.  There is a major spruce moth hatch going on from Camp Baker down to Given's where the canyon starts to peter out and fish are gorging on them.  We also saw some random mayflies throughout the float, and a solid caddis hatch in the evening.  We caught lots of fish on attractor dries as well such as Royal Wulff's, Triple Double's, Stimi's, and Golden Stone patterns.  Once we left the canyon the hopper dropper rig seemed to be most effective.  Hoppers weren't flying in the water too intense just yet but it is going to happen soon as there are lots of small ones on the banks. 

 I had the unfortunate opportunity to float the Smith last weekend during the largest storm ever recorded in the month of April.  We put in around 9am on Thursday (04/29/10) with mild snow showers and decent clarity in the water.  We had fish chasing and eating streamers for the first few miles, then the storm hit.  After 4' of snow fell, the 100+ mph gusts of wind passed, and the river became slush free (24hrs later), we launched and had to push to make up for lost time.  The water clarity wasn't bad the day after the storm, but the 2nd day after the storm water levels rose and the river became completely blown out (about an inch of vis.).  The fishing was still somewhat decent given the conditions.  There are TONS of the pteronarcys californica (the salmonfly in its adult stage) active in the river right now, my guess is the hatch is about 2 weeks out.  If you have a trip planned on the Smith, make sure to pack for the worst conditions possible.  Capilene and Gortex is key.  As a result from the gail-force winds, there are a ton of trees down in the river, so be quick to act on the sticks because there are a lot of snags and sweepers that are becoming an issue for floaters.

Hatches: March Browns, BWOs, waning skwalas, caddis, midges

Top producing patterns right now: Pats rubberlegs, red san juan worm, JJ special, black buggers, yellow bunnies, big princes


- Cornfed