What are the Best Flies for Montana’s Smith River? 

You just drew some solid dates to one of the most epic floats in Montana, the Smith River canyon from Camp Baker to Eden Bridge, and now you need to make sure you have the right flies for a remote, three to five-day float with no fly shop options for the entire trip. If you don’t have it when you launch, you won’t have it on the float!  

Fortunately, we have you covered. Some of us at House of Fly have been down this section of river dozens of times, and because we are tight friends with the crew at the Heaven on Earth Ranch, which is in the dead center of this float, we are very fortunate to get to wade-fish the canyon section of the Smith River all summer long.   

In this article we will cover the months of April-July and provide a few tips on fly selection for some of the other months you may wander into the canyon.  

Remember: Your Smith River permit applications are due on or before February 15 each year. To apply, visit Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' dedicated Smith River page.  

There are two main hatches to be ready for in April; blue-winged olives (aka, Baetis, aka olives, aka BWO’s) and skwala stoneflies. Weather and water conditions vary a lot in April, ranging from snowstorms to early runoffs, to crystal clear low water.  So, it’s very important to have a variety of nymphs, dries, emergers, and streamers with you, and adapt to those conditions. I know people say, “Keep it simple,” but you may not want to keep it too simple; there are sections of flat water where fish do get picky on the Smith, so it’s important to have at least a few realistic patterns to match the blue-wing olive hatch.   

April Dry Fly Recommendations

Visible and High-Floating Skwalas and other Stoneflies 

-Patrick Kilby’s Emma Stone Skwala, size 10 - https://houseoffly.com/patrick-kilbys-emmas-stone 

-Bullet Head Skwala - https://houseoffly.com/bullet-head-skwala-fly 

-Chris Conaty’s Chubby Cherynobyl, Olive in size 10-12 - https://houseoffly.com/rios-chubby-chernobyl 

-Hi Viz BWO Spinner - https://houseoffly.com/hi-viz-bwo-spinner-fly 

-Andy Carlson’s Purple Haze, size 16-18 - https://houseoffly.com/carlson-s-purple-haze-12-pack 

-Kris Keller’s Rocky Mountain Mint Olive, size 18 - https://houseoffly.com/keller-s-rocky-mountain-mint-12-pack 

April Nymph Recommendations

Have a variety of stonefly and BWO nymphs (and some worms) 

-Doug Prince’s Prince Nymph, size 12 - https://houseoffly.com/beadhead-prince-nymph-fly

-Pat Bennet’s Pat’s Rubber Legs, size 10-12 in olive/brown - https://houseoffly.com/pat-s-rubber-legs-fly

-Sam Wike’s Crust Nymph in BWO, size 18 - https://houseoffly.com/crust-nymph-fly 

-Squirmy Wormy - https://houseoffly.com/umpqua-squirmy-wormie 

April Streamer Recommendations

Yellow is the color on the Smith 

-Kris Keller’s Montana Humdinger, sizes 6 or 10 - https://houseoffly.com/kris-kellers-montana-humdinger 

-Fred Telleen’s Flash and Grab in the Gold/Copper/Yellow - https://houseoffly.com/fly-project-flash-n-grab 

-J.J. Special - https://houseoffly.com/jj-special

The skwala hatch is over, and now we are moving on to caddis hatches, yellow sallies, and the early stages of the larger stonefly hatches. The river can rise quickly this time of year, due to runoff, and it can be an awesome time for streamer fishing. The most elusive, and amazing thing that can happen on the Smith in May is to encount the salmonfly hatch. The Smith River is known for having an earlier than normal salmonfly hatch that usually occurs between mid-May and early June. At this time, you’ll want to have larger streamers, droppers to fish the grassy edges if the water is off-color, and patterns to match all stages of the caddis hatch.   

Rollin’ Stone - https://houseoffly.com/yellow-sally-rollin-stone-fly 

Caddis Nymphs

The Mother’s Day Caddis hatch on the Smith River occurs in May. Every type of nymph can be found on the bottom rocks this time of year, so generally we fish a caddis nymph as the top fly on a two-fly nymph rig. 

Mike Lawson’s Electric Caddis - https://houseoffly.com/mike-lawsons-electric-caddis-tungsten 

Hogan Brown’s Yuba Pupa - https://houseoffly.com/hogan-browns-yuba-pupa-olive-16 

Kelly Galloup’s UV Caddis Pupa - https://houseoffly.com/kelly-galloups-bh-uv-caddis-pupa 

Caddis dry flies can include: 

Sam Wike’s Hi Viz Spent Caddis - https://houseoffly.com/hi-viz-spent-caddis-sz-16 

Craig Mathew’s X Caddis - https://houseoffly.com/mathews-x-caddis-fly 

Gary LaFontaine’s Airhead (Wike’s caddis variation) - https://houseoffly.com/fly-project-gary-lafontaines-airhead-caddis-16

Salmonfly patterns for May on Montana’s Smith River 

Ken Morrish’s Fluttering Stone - https://houseoffly.com/ken-morrishs-fluttering-stone 

Mike Lawson’s Henry’s Fork Foam Stone - https://houseoffly.com/mike-lawsons-henrys-fork-foam-stone 

Chris Conaty/Norm Wood Chubby Norm - https://houseoffly.com/rios-chubby-norm 

Other Stuff for May on the Smith River 

Fish Fred’s JZ as your top nymph fly in dirty water with a San Juan or Wire Worm behind it.  Keep your flies tight to the banks where pockets of clear water form.   

Fred Telleen’s JZ (Jig Zirdle) - https://houseoffly.com/fred-telleens-jz 

Kris Keller’s Humdinger - https://houseoffly.com/kris-kellers-montana-humdinger 

Note: Get the large browns up in dirty water with some larger streamers (yellow is a good color on the Smith). 

If you catch a day on the Smith in June when the water is on the drop after spring runoff, you are going to have a euphoric time on the water. June is full-blast with hatches including caddis, golden stones, and, sometimes, lingering salmonflies. You may also see brown drake hatches in the evenings, along with spruce moths, pale morning duns, and a few other bug species on any given day.  

With a plethora of insect hatches it is a good idea to have flies that take care of a number of hatches. Here’s a list of flies I would make sure to have in June on the Smith River: 

The Crazy Goof 

I wrote a whole story about this fly - The Best Fly For the Smith River: The Crazy Goof - but long story short is this fly has a history on the Smith River. Maybe the fish eat it as a golden stone or maybe a hopper or maybe even a drake, but for whatever reason they like it.  https://houseoffly.com/fly-project-sam-wikes-improved-crazy-goof 

Other generic patterns for the Smith River in June 

Sam Wike’s The Cuzz Ball – part terrestrial, caddis, or PMD? I’m not really sure but it’s a spinoff of Gary LaFontaine’s Buzzball and it is great on the Smith River. - https://houseoffly.com/fly-project-sam-wikes-cuzzball-16

Andy Carlson’s Purple Haze – Whichever variant of this fly is fine, but this pattern has to be mentioned. If you are a traditionalist, stick with the Parachute Adams. Either can work as a PMD or drake imitation this time of year on the Smith.  https://houseoffly.com/carlson-s-purple-haze-12-pack 

Tom Baltz’s Paranymph – This is a great all-around pattern to represent a lot of insects. The profile is perfect and the body sits in the water.   

Doug Prince’s Beadhead Prince Nymph – It’s a classic and this river has all kinds of stoneflies.  https://houseoffly.com/gold-bead-prince-nymph-fly 

Pat Bennet’s Pat’s Rubberlegs – Another simple pattern, but absolutely one you’ll want to tie on as your top fly and drop a PMD or caddis below it.  https://houseoffly.com/pat-s-rubber-legs-fly 

For June, the caddis patterns mentioned above all still apply:

Caddis nymphs can include 

Mike Lawson’s Electric Caddis - https://houseoffly.com/mike-lawsons-electric-caddis-tungsten 

Hogan Brown’s Yuba Pupa - https://houseoffly.com/hogan-browns-yuba-pupa-olive-16 

Kelly Galloup’s UV Caddis Pupa - https://houseoffly.com/kelly-galloups-bh-uv-caddis-pupa

Caddis dry flies can include 

Sam Wike’s Hi Viz Spent Caddis - https://houseoffly.com/hi-viz-spent-caddis-sz-16 

Craig Mathew’s X Caddis - https://houseoffly.com/mathews-x-caddis-fly 

Gary LaFontaine’s Airhead (Wike’s caddis variation) - https://houseoffly.com/fly-project-gary-lafontaines-airhead-caddis-16 

Note: Make sure to bring a solid selection of golden stoneflies as they seem to be the longest stonefly hatch and the fish are keyed in on them when those bugs are present.  

Here’s some golden stonefly patterns for the Smith River in June 

Ken Morrish’s Fluttering Stone - https://houseoffly.com/umpqua-ken-morrishs-fluttering-stone-golden-8 

Patrick Kilby’s Emma Stone - https://houseoffly.com/patrick-kilbys-emmas-stone 

Chris Conaty X Norm Wood: Norm Woods Special Chubby- https://houseoffly.com/rios-chubby-norm 

Don’t sleep on the brown drake 

Brown drakes are often the last hatch of the day and they come off right before dark. In fact, if you don’t stay out until almost dark you may never notice this hatch. But the fish get very activate on the brown drakes and it’s very much worth your while to fish until dark. Sometimes that last magic hour makes the entire day. .   

Brown Drake patterns for the Smith River in June 

Kelly Galloup’s Brown Drake - https://houseoffly.com/kelly-galloups-drake

Mike Lawson's Brown Drake - https://houseoffly.com/mike-lawsons-brown-drake-brown-10

Enrico Puglisi's Brown Drake - https://houseoffly.com/ep-trade-brown-drake-split-wing

July can be the best month to float the Smith River, “IF”, and it is “iffy”, there is enough water to float. General rule of thumb is that a big raft will require at least 250 cfs of water below it. However, we have floated the Smith in stand-up kayaks down to about 100 cfs.  Much of what we already talked about above still applies for hatches and generic patterns in July. 

You still want to have the caddis, pmd, golden stone, and attractor dries and nymphs mentioned above.  Especially for the evenings and early mornings.   

The big kicker in July is that it is full-on hopper season. Bang the banks and slide those terrestrials along the limestone walls and you’ll get some entertaining eats. 

Three awesome hoppers for the Smith River in July are . . .  

Kris Keller’s Henneberry Hopper – Right now this is the one hopper to rule them all in my opinion. https://houseoffly.com/kk-s-henneberry-hopper-fly

Patrick Kilby’s Juicy Hopper - https://houseoffly.com/patrick-kilbys-juicy-hopper

Ken Morrish’s Morrish Hopper - https://houseoffly.com/morrish-hopper

I think if you have these three hopper patterns in a few sizes in colors, and specifically in yellows and tans, you will be all set for July on the Smith River.

Alright, I hope this article was helpful, and I will try to keep this list updated as new flies are added to the mix, or if I have productive evenings on the Smith and just have to tell someone about it. The lower Smith is only about 15 minutes from my house, and I test new flies on that section all the time. Those aforementioned flies should lead you to some great days on the water, whether you are floating the entire length, or just slipping away for a few hours to wade the banks. Take some of these suggested flies and have a blast. Montana’s Smith River is a treasure and taking the right flies for the Smith only makes your time on the water even more rewarding.  

This is the most special river to all of us here in central Montana, so please take care of it when you are out there.  If you see opportunities to support the river through conservation efforts, please do so. It is a special place.