Smith River Trip

[Robert Shane]

Spent last weekend on the Smith River between Martinsville and Basset, VA. Got into some good trout, missed a few others, but overall a pretty slow couple of days. Still, a lot of fish still in the river to be caught once the weather warms up. I recommend the trip to anyone who's got the time. Went out with Brian Williams, a guide with Smith River Outfitters http://www.smithriveroutfitter.com/ for a half day, but he let me fish for a solid 8 hours, and showed me some great water. Attached is a nice 15' brown I was able to land on a black/brown streamer pattern. 

Here are the links to a lot of the access points for reference if anyone is interested. The river is very wadable for the most part as long as they're not pumping tons of water out of the dams.

http://www.danriver.org/smith-river

http://www.danriver.org/franklin-county

[Robert Shane]

Here's another photo I meant to attach. This one came out of the area below Eggleston Falls where the Smith meets Marrowbone Creek. 

[TurbineBlade]

That's a beauty Robert!  

Gene

[Joe Mathews]

Nice fish!  Were you floating in a drift boat or a raft?  Were there any real rapids, or was it a pretty calm float?  The Smith in VA is pretty high up on my list of rivers to float.

On Thursday, March 19, 2015 at 1:57:08 PM UTC-4, Robert Shane wrote:

[Robert Shane]

I waded the entire time but the guide told me the stretch they float or kayak only has one class 3 rapid when the water is generating. The rest is very manageable. Though I can only speak through word of mouth.