Montana’s Smith River is an undammed “freestone” stream and gets many of the hatches trout rivers are famous for, including many species of caddisflies, stoneflies and mayflies. Fishing on the Smith, for the most part, starts in spring and usually ends in October. So we’ll cover the flies you’ll need on the Smith during spring, summer and fall. It’s important to note that the beauty of fly-fishing is finding your own way, so these are just suggestions based on our experiences fishing the Smith. Feel free to tie your own flies and fish whatever you like—sometimes you just get a feeling and choose a fly by with a sixth sense and it pans out. I’ve been surprised in that way many times on the Smith. That said, if you are doing some research for your next trip to Montana and, hopefully, the Smith River, this will get you start...

Tied in a steelhead intruder style, this fly is a relatively new favorite trout spey fly of mine. Originally designed as a low water fly to swing for fall browns, the Angel hunts hardy trout in all rivers with water in them. This fly has made a big splash with our Fly Tying 101 class participants in Ponderay, Idaho. Although the Angel was tied for fall browns, it will catch everything. The Craft Fur gives this swinger great realistic movement through current, and is complimented with predator wrap for a “dirty” rainbow trout finish. The wrapped pearl red Krystal Flash imitates a juvenile rainbow’s horizontal red slash, which is a color that predators key on. The Kootenai River,which runs through Montana and Idaho, is a perfect river to fish the Angel. With aggressive rainbows and bull trout lurking behind large boulders and in deep...

New for 2018 from Copper John is the Perfex Thumb and Perfex Longneck Resistance archery releases. These come with a three-finger attachment and four barrel lengths, with a large thumb barrel included, saving you money. So, my name's Dylan Richards. I work here at Stanislowsky and Copper John. We're here at the 2018 ATA Trade Show. So, our newest products for this year are the PerfeX Thumb and the PerfeX Long Neck Resistance. From previous years, we went from the Long Neck to the Short Neck. The reason we did that is from the haft being so close to the handles and everything like that. The cool thing about these PerfeXs is that they actually come with a three-finger attachment and they come with four different barrel lengths and a large thumb barrel, all included in the packaging. Also, new for this year, for the Long Neck series, we h...

This knife has Havalon’s new quick release button, which allows for a safer removal and connection of multiple blades, ranging anywhere in size from the 3.5-inch gut hook combo blade, to a 7-inch filet blade. Wrap your blades in the roll-up kit and you have a compact and light knife set (all in one place) ready for the field. $89.99 I'm Ryan Call for Havalon Knives here at the 2018 ATA show to show you our newest product, the Havalon Talon. It's the first one of our handles ever to feature a button on off system. Button blade on, button blade off. It can accommodate any style of blade. Down to a three and a half gut hook combo blade all the way up to a seven inch filet blade all on the same handle, and they all interchange as simple as that. The other cool thing about the product is that we know that you're going to be using this t...

We ran an in depth user review last year on the Buckskin Mary wading boots Korkers put out, and, believe us, those boots passed the test of women anglers across Montana. Imagine what a pair of Darkhorse wading boots are going to look like. Check out the video below to get an idea! As some of you may know, in 2017, Korkers introduced its first women's specific wading boot, which was called the Buckskin Mary. It's still in our line, it was really successful. That boot was a traditional lace up model. After we released that boot this spring, we started getting a lot of inquiries on, "Hey, when are you guys going to do a BOA technology boot for the ladies?" We've answered the call for 2018. Introducing the new Darkhorse Women's from Korkers. Just like the men's Darkhorse, it's going to utilize the BOA lacing system, easy one handed operation...

The new Tacticam 5.0 series is actually two 4k HD cameras in one. One has a regular lens with an upgraded 8X zoom, the other is built with a wide-angle lens for field of view up to 120 degrees. These cameras are equipped with all sorts of features, like WiFi compatibility for live feeds, remote control, auto adjustability in low-light conditions, and a battery life of 2.5 hours. Best, this camera is small, easily mounts to your bow, and captures a real hunting perspective. After a shot you can review in slow motion, via WiFi to your phone, to determine placement.   This year the exciting news is at the ATA show is we've announced we're coming out with the 5.0 series of cameras. I said series because we have two models this year. Same camera, two different lenses. I'll go over the first one, the 5.0 regular, all the same features yo...

Coeur d'Alene River Man what a change in the weather. From temps just above 50 degrees, now down in the single digits and below zero at night. Welcome to north Idaho. This is not optimal conditions, to say the least. Can you say frozen guides in seconds, or slush ice flowing down the river? I'd be filling up my fly boxes this week or thinking about a trip to Christmas Island, which, oh by the way, we can take you on. Call for details. St. Joe River Not really a great choice now. But March is just around the corner. Stay tuned Clark Fork River (MT) Same story here. Major slush ice and chunks of ice flowing downriver. Come sign up for a tying class and get going on your skwalas and blue-wings. You’ll need them in March. We are running two classes now, Saturdays and Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.. Please call ahead as space is limited to six pe...

Clearwater River The mainstem is high and unfishable. The middle fork has been dropping for some time so you could possibly move a fish up there. Fishing methods range all across the board. Low and slow, would more than likely be the ticket. Grande Ronde River (WA) I fished the Ronde on 2/20 when the gauge at Troy was around 2,800 cubic feet per second. The river was pulling just a bit too quick. There wasn't any ice coming down the river. Same tactics as the Clearwater. Snake River (WA) Not a single soul was on the Snake. The river level is fluctuating day to day but hanging near 30,000 cfs. Fish hold in a lot of places on this river. Catching has been very slow around the area. Heading over to the coast might be your best move. Read past reports from the Lewiston region here, or click here to view all northwest regional reports.

Old man winter has been fickle this year. Two weeks ago, we enjoyed 57-degree days only to see temperatures dip below 0 degrees this week. So, it goes without saying, fishing has been put on hold in our area. Not only is the temperature down, but there are days when the wind picks up and makes going outside a slightly unbearable experience, if not downright dangerous. If you tie your own flies, now would be a good time to start loading your boxes for the upcoming spring thaw. The only ray of hope I can give right now is this: The 10-day forecast shows a warm up into the high 30's and low 40's. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. Click here to see past reports from this region, or click here to view all northwest regional reports.