River of Return: Montana's Most Coveted Fly-Fishing Float

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The ponderosa pines that lined the riverbanks and climbed along the hillsides released their pollen in a yellow haze as the sun began descending behind the ridgeline at our first campsite. Streaks of sunlight illuminated the flickering caddis and Pale Morning Duns like swirling balls of light. A handful of PMDs rode the currents, drying their wings in the waning light, oblivious to their inevitable demise in the jaws of the Smith’s wild trout.

At least that’s what I envisioned in my mind, and true to form while fly fishing somewhere new, the river chose to surprise and intrigue me. The duns remained untouched through prime feeding lanes, a tease for this mayfly-obsessed angler. Our guide slowly backrowed and slid the raft ashore onto a pebble beach. Three young gear boaters scurried around the cook tent in a unified hover like worker bees tending to their hive. The guides secured the rafts after a long first day, then joined the gear boaters in preparing a dinner worthy of the day spent shaking the rust off of our fly rods and expelling fishing trip jitters.

“I’m here, what a place this is . . . ” I whispered with such self-confirmation that my mind finally relaxed and accepted my reality from an emerging travel fog. I peered across the river to the far bank to observe the wild landscape. A bubble line from a boulder garden exposed a small seam that swirled slowly into a little back eddy. A trout rose slowly, preying on God knows what insect. “Go figure . . . ” I laughed to myself as I walked to my tent to freshen up for a dinner with some of the finest strangers I’ve met in my travels.

I retired to my tent afterward, zipped up my sleeping bag, and settled onto my cot. Undeterred by my presence, a mule deer doe quietly munched on grass behind my tent. I hadn’t experienced the quiet of the wilderness in a long time. I heard nothing but the rhythmic breathing and chewing of the doe. The “nothing” is what I found to be one of the most beautiful aspects of this trip. No expectations, no electronic noise, no interrupted conversations—the list of modern distractions could go on. Expectations lead to inevitable disappointment. I had no expectations for the Smith, just to live and fish for five days in the wild nothing.

Historic Smith River

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled the Smith during their famous expedition up the Missouri River. Upon encountering the river at its confluence with the Missouri—near the modern town of Great Falls—they named it Smith’s River in honor of Robert Smith, the second U.S. Secretary of the Navy (from 1801 to 1809), the sixth U.S. Secretary of State (1809 to 1811), and a Revolutionary War veteran. Lewis and Clark named other rivers after prominent officials, such as U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (1801 to 1809), Secretary of State James Madison (1801 to 1809), and Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin (1801 to 1814), among others. Their influence on Montana is vast and detailed in their journals.

Native tribes, including the Salish, Kootenai, Blackfeet, Crow, Shoshone, and more have utilized the Smith River corridor for thousands of years. A hypothesized birthing cave adorned with pictographs (day four of our float) towers above the river. You can climb to this cave and view it for yourself if you’re willing to put in the effort. A local told me an unconfirmed tale that the Smith was called the “River of Return” by the Blackfeet, as they used it to navigate to their ancestral prairie buffalo hunting grounds. I was told the name also means that the river and canyons aid in returning to one’s inner self or finding one’s true nature through solitude.

More than 60 native pictograph sites are located throughout Smith River State Park. Downstream from Tenderfoot Creek near the Sheep Wagon campsite, you’ll see a set of handprint pictographs on a canyon wall that descends directly into the river. As we floated near them, the fishing stopped. A reverent sense of humanity hits you with the realization that these people lived starkly different lives in an unforgiving landscape.

Permits on the Smith

The Smith River State Park corridor stretches for 59 miles through stunning canyons and incredible rock formations. Starting near the town of White Sulphur Springs at the Camp Baker put-in, the Smith River is fed by tributaries throughout its course. The river meanders northwest, eventually emptying into the Missouri River near Great Falls, Montana. The take-out is at Eden Bridge near Helena.

This is a coveted float due to the state’s annual permitted lottery system. There are nine launches allocated per day, with a maximum group size of 15, during the float season from mid-April through mid-July, with sporadic availability based on river conditions in September and October. From May 15 through July 15, permit holders can stay a maximum of four nights and five days on the Smith.

In a regulation that’s new for 2024, nonresident permittees may not hold more than 10 percent of the permits. A launch date will be assigned to you, or for an additional fee you can enter the Super Permit Lottery. Only a single Super Permit Lottery winner is drawn each year, and the winner can choose their launch date.

Early season on the Smith can be cold, while after mid-July the river may be too low to float. There are 27 boat camps and 52 campsites along the corridor. Only permitted and licensed outfitters may guide on the Smith, with predetermined launch dates. Shuttles are available from Camp Baker to Eden Bridge for a fee. For full details and to apply for a permit, visit the Smith River State Park page on the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks website at fwp.mt.gov.

Healing Waters Lodge

Nestled in the Ruby Valley between the towns of Twin Bridges and Sheridan, Healing Waters Lodge offers fly fishing, well-appointed accommodations, and a fantastic hospitality staff. Guest suites offer plenty of room for larger parties. Guided wade and float trips to the Beaverhead, Madison, Jefferson, and Big Hole rivers, and multiple spring creeks, can be customized for individual guests. After a day of fly fishing you return for cocktails and a five-star dinner in the dining hall. Healing Waters Lodge can offer the Smith float because the lodge has access to 26 outfitter permits.

The lodge’s name stems from the relocation of the original Sheridan Hospital, built in 1891. The former owners moved it in the 1980s, and renamed it Healing Waters Estate. In 1997 it became a fishing lodge and retained the name.

Owner Steve Mackey welcomed me upon my arrival at the lodge, sporting Ironman gym clothing, so I asked if he was a competitor. “I am, and have two competitions coming up. I’m trying to slip in a quick training session before dinner, I hate to miss them!” he joked. Mackey acquired the lodge in November 2023. He’s passionate about the outdoors and considers lodge ownership his second act after a successful career in finance.

Asked about his greatest challenges in operating a lodge, he replied: “Learning the ins and outs of lodge operations takes time. Thankfully, I have an exceptional staff to make our guest experiences one-of-a-kind. I try to focus on working with the guides and guests as thoughtfully as possible.” Mackey also guides if needed, a hands-on approach not only to running a lodge, but understanding the work that goes into guiding.

Mackey plans to strengthen relationships with veteran support groups, including Project Healing Waters. His life partner, Sheila, is a veteran. Helping those suffering with PTSD find peace through fly fishing is important to them both. “I want to make Healing Waters Lodge a platform for giving to veterans while supporting their mental health needs,” says Mackey.

The lodge and the Smith float are Montana fly fishing at its finest. During my trip on the Smith, the staff included guides John Howard, John Boersma (JB), Brad Packer, and Dave Gibson. They have a combined 60-plus years of guiding the Smith. Gear boaters Annika Howell, Bo Cheuvront, and John Rapp worked tirelessly breaking down and setting up camps, cooking, cleaning, and more. Their knowledge of the Smith and fly fishing is impressive.

Black Butte Copper

The proposed Black Butte copper mine (blackbuttecopper.com) owned by Sandfire Resources of America would sit on private land near Sheep Creek. Sheep Creek flows into the Smith at the Camp Baker put-in. Mining would occur below the water table, so keeping the mine dry would require constantly pumping water out. Wastewater would be used for milling and eventually be pumped back into groundwater wells that could potentially leak into Sheep Creek.

Water is a scarce commodity in the West. Former Healing Waters Lodge owner and outfitter Mike Geary states: “The Smith’s biggest problem has always been water. Most of the irrigated water usage from the Smith is taken from above Sheep Creek for agriculture. That’s the problem with this mine—the water volume of the Smith wouldn’t be able to dilute acid mine runoff.”

Sheep Creek feeds the Smith, constituting roughly half its water volume through the park during low-water periods. Sheep Creek is a thermal refuge area and prime spawning ground for many of the Smith’s trout, including native westslope cutthroats.

Sandfire Resources is an Australia-based, copper-focused mining company that partnered with Canadian-based Tintina Resources to operate the mine. In February 2024, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of their permit with the state government. There is no court of higher appeal for this issue since the mine is on private land.

Montana Trout Unlimited, under the leadership of Executive Director David Brooks, has continually contested the proposed water rights and usage permit.

Sandfire’s water permit accounted for less than half the water the company predicted they will need, based on their proposed water model. Montana TU has litigated on this permit, claiming the company needs a permit stating the full volume of water required. Montana TU is currently awaiting a ruling from the Montana Supreme Court.

“This permitting should be more challenging to overcome than the mine permit. If they must go back to the drawing board and get a permit for the entire quantity of water that we claim they’re going to be using, it’ll be harder to justify this mine. They will also have to get water rights to mitigate for additional water for when it isn’t available in the river systems. There just isn’t that much water to be had for water rights in that area,” said Brooks. In their litigation, Montana TU states that more than 800 acre-feet of water per year would be required to operate the mine. The company’s current model proposes less than 400 acre-feet per year.

“Water is an increasingly valuable resource in Montana, not just for fish. There’s plenty of other downstream uses that would be affected by needing this much water. Those include agricultural, municipal, the river itself, the fish and wildlife that depend on it, and the recreation that depends on them. There’s a lot of users out there who, quite frankly, ought to be very concerned about the fact that they don’t have a permit for the full amount of water and hence don’t have mitigation water rights for its use,” said Brooks.

When asked about the severity of potential acid mine drainage, Brooks added: “Though technology has improved in mining, the physics of water and the geochemistry of what happens with water and air when mixed with sulfide ore bodies has not changed. There’s no technological fix for these reactions. This deposit is a high-sulfide ore body with great potential for creating sulfuric acid and leaching toxic minerals out of rock. Once you start generating acid mine drainage, you must treat water virtually forever on the human time scale.”

To learn more about the mine, to sign a public petition, and make a donation to continue support, visit montanatu.org and saveoursmith.com.

The Smith has many friends. Josh Seckinger, a Smith river guide for ten years and a Montana State Legislature candidate (seckingerformontana.com), advocates for the river’s protection. I asked: “What can the public do to support the conservation of the Smith?”

Josh replied, “Vote. I’m in a unique position. Politicians in the past have stated ‘A vote for me is a vote for the Smith,’ but this couldn’t be truer for my candidacy. To me, the Smith is like church. I’ll be a voice of opposition against the mine, and the 700 other mining claims Sandfire has gotten from the Forest Service. The Smith is too special to ruin.”

Seckinger’s deep love for the Smith isn’t his alone. “To have this river not remain as is would be one of the greatest shames in American history,” said guide John Howard during our float.

“I couldn’t agree more, John,” I said simply as we slipped slowly and quietly beneath the Smith’s towering canyon walls.

Throughout the float I had the opportunity to fish and spend time with the other guests, all of whom shared their sentiments on the special qualities of the Smith. Rick Shrewsbury, Phil Ortiz, Jeff Drees, James Foltz, and John Diaz had previously floated the Smith, returning to its waters to spend another five days together. Father and son Rob and Phillip Rollins were first-timers like myself. On the last night of the trip, while sitting around a campfire, we all spoke of doing the float again in two years.

Great fish were caught by all, but that seemed to rank least in importance about why we wanted to return. Maybe the lore of the “River of Return” is a made-up campfire story, but to me those three words ring true in wanting to revisit and once again find myself absorbed in the grand nothing of the Smith’s canyon walls.

Gearing Up for Your Float

The Montana FWP permit system opens in early January for applicants, with drawings in late February. My float began on June 22, 2024. We had full sun with heat indexes in the low 90s on most days. Your trip may vary, so be sure to check the weather forecast.

Healing Waters Lodge supplies a 110L dry bag. I brought a 90L duffel bag. The duffel bag slid easily into the dry bag. You’ll want a synthetic-fill sleeping bag that compresses tightly and is rated for the forecasted temperatures. The weather in Montana is a fickle beast. Plan a multi-day layering system that spans a 40-degree temperature range. A base layer paired with quality fleece and PrimaLoft garments is hard to beat for cooler temps. A sturdy rain jacket is necessary for inclement weather. Waders like the Orvis PRO LT are a good option for durability without sacrificing bag space. Opt for quick-drying garments with UV protection. The Skwala Sol Tropic Hoody shielded me against intense UV rays, had full face and neck coverage, and kept me cool. I wore Simms Driftless Wade Pants on most days. They dried almost instantly in the hot, dry climate and weigh next to nothing.

Lightweight wading boots like Simms Flyweight Access Boot can be paired with a wet-wading sock, worn in an out of a boat, and can be used to hike to pictographs and ridgelines. Chaco sandals are popular among the guides in hot weather.

A small waterproof boat bag keeps all of your essentials organized. Don’t forget sunscreen, lens cleaners, an extra pair of polarized sunglasses, and a spare hat. Costa Gold Mirror lenses worked well in high sun and amplified colors so I could see pockets and depressions that held fish. The rosy-bronze tint is perfect for trout fishing.

Fly rods, reels, terminal tackle, and flies are provided for the outfitted trip, but most people bring their own rods and reels. I fished a 9-foot 5-weight Orvis Helios and Scott Centric paired with Scientific Anglers Amplitude Textured Infinity fly lines. The weight-forward and half-size-heavy line turned over big dry flies such as Golden Stones and Salmonflies easily and accurately. A 6-weight rod is a good choice if you’re floating in higher water and throwing streamers, but a fast-action 5-weight can get the job done.

A power bank with 20,000+ mAh capacity will charge your smartphone four to six times. A satellite communication device like the Garmin inReach Mini 2 is a good option if you need to stay in touch. In June 2024, Apple announced their upcoming iOS 18 update will offer satellite messaging for iPhones 14 and newer. Keep your eyes out for that emerging technology.

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Dennis Pastucha is the art director for Fly Fisherman. An avid fly fisher and fly tier, he resides in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania with his wife and son.

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