yep. One of my permits was for the first few days of October. that would have been a great time to go I think. I think the river was at about 70 cfs the year I had the permit though.
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Wish I could join you fellas!
What a trip! What a magical place on earth! We lucked out with flows, mostly good weather (one 12 hour downpour the first night) and incredible fishing. We had several days of 100 fish days per boat. They ate streamers, they ate hoppers, they didn't eat anything that was actually hatching.
Fall was an incredible time to be there. We saw a total of 3 other humans in 5 days on the water. The campgrounds were empty, we had our pick of places to stay.
Row Jimmy's advice was perfect, his campsites were the best, we got water where he said , the only disappointment was the ranch was closed for the season, no ice cream sandwiches.
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Since this is a fishing forum, a few more
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We hiked to the caves, the view was incredible
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awesome. Glad that worked out. Would love to do it that time of year one year.
When do you see post irrigation flows? Deep enough for a drifter?
Teleee, nice! Glad you guys had a great trip. You hit the window just right. How did you like the view from the latrine at Rock Creek camp? I have always though a coffee table book on the latrines of the Smith would be killer!
New yabyum, 350 cfs is kinda minimum flow for a hard boat on the Smith.
We definitely nailed the timing it couldn’t have been better. Any earlier and we would have had rain and low flows. Any later and we would have had woken up to feets of snow. I would buy that book for sure!
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Fkna lee that sounded like an awesome trip!
^amen. Adding it to my list.
Drew a 4/29 launch last year, deferred to this year due to covid. No camping at Camp Baker will make logistics a bit more challenging coming in from SLC, but excited to get back on the river.
Yeehaw! Buddy just called and said he snagged a cancellation for 2moro and as long as I could get my shit together and be at his place tonight I've got a spot. And he just brought his raft back from Utah and would rather take the drifter so I dont even have to bother with either of my boats. Only downside is I'll be solo in my boat so not as much fishing but who cares. And forecast is beautiful. Pysched!
Oh and my inlaws are visiting starting 2moro! Wife said go.
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it's getting a touch low for drifters, just be cautious. 288 at the put in right now, that first day you'll want to be on your toes between the put in and tenderfoot creek at mile 18. After that, flows look good. We put in at 175(4/29) with rafts and were out of the boat dragging ~15 times the first 18 miles. Skwallas, worms, and stone nymphs were the magic combo. Underoos has some vids on his youtubz of his crew in low, low water with a drifter. Its doable but some of the OG smith guys I talked to up there said that anything sub 300 is real skinny for the hard boats.
Enjoy, we had a fantastic float, minus bullets wizzing overhead from the ranch (target shooters on a bluff) and the 20 mile snowy float out on 5/2.
Enjoy ! Done the Smith multiple times and always had a blast.
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Finished watching Underoos trip and although I’ll probably never get to do that trip, I’m real interested in the packing/logistics for a week long float. Mostly the packing.
I searched YouTube but couldn’t find anything.
There's a good book about that, which I happened to edit a few years ago. Molly Absolon is da bomb!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/149303233X...D70Z082GV65GTG
It's my 2nd trip, both cancellations. Last time was 3 day blizzard. This weekend looks a bit nicer. Benefit of being self employed and living in MT to jump on a trip with sub 24hr notice.
My packing list:
-whiskey
-whiskey
-weed
-tent/sleeping bag
-boat
-firewood
-more weed
Everything else is gravy.
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Bro tip
rig to flip
Edibles are still good wet
And while brownwatermatters
Never underestimate the powers of a well timed and prepared bloody mary
Flipping on the Smith would be impressive but I did manage to eat enough gummies to get distracted enough to run into a cliff wall I was staring at as I was passing another group. I hope they laughed as hard about it as I did. Fishing slowed down after day 1 but tons of bugs and still managed some up top action in addition to the dirty bobber drifting. I didnt take a single pic but my buddies gf sent me a few. Clacka def bounced some rocks but nothing too bad and buddies old hyside has a pretty well thought out frame layout. As usual some people are absolutely clueless about river etiquette but was nice to float the Smith again in nice weather and not a 3 day blizzard.Attachment 374908Attachment 374909Attachment 374910Attachment 374911Attachment 374912Attachment 374913Attachment 374914Attachment 374915Attachment 374916Attachment 374917Attachment 374918Attachment 374919Attachment 374920Attachment 374921
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I know bear fences are mandatory on the Smith, so I'll drop this here even though I'm not doing the Smith. I am going to be in bear country on an August float though, so planning to buy a fence. Any tips or recommendations?
Where ya floating? We only brought a(rented) bear fence in case ranger actually gave a shit. Also if all your coolers are bearproof they dont care about a fence or at least didnt with us. First time we've ever had one in MT. We only set it up for shits and giggles and the one we had was kinda chincy. It was one of the major bear spray companies but cant remember which.
I can see the need in Ak but there's very few places in MT I'd use one.
In other words that was a long way to say I dont really have any advice....
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s. fork flathead is my destination. You think the chincy one was UDAP? That's what I got to on my first googleization. Maybe I should just get a bearproof cooler, but a $250 fence is a lot cheaper than a 65 quart yeti and will protect whatever isn't in the yeti too.
Nice. Yeah it was a UDAP. It could've just been finicky being a rental or user error. I almost said the Bob might be an exception.
You hiring an outfitter for pack in? Have friends who have done S fork floats but havent done it personally(yet hopefully). Good luck and have a blast!
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