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Spring Floating on the Smith River in central Montana

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A few weeks ago I accompanied some Ski Patrol friends on a week fly fishing float trip down the infamous Smith River in Central Montana and managed to photograph a little bit along the way. The last time I floated it was over ten years ago when I was fresh out of college. Now a little more seasoned, I returned to make images that would speak to the beauty of the place. The river is managed by Montana State Parks by a special permit to float, the resulting experience is profound. We floated through tall limestone walled canyons that yielded incredible wildlife watching, great fishing and an ecosystem chocked full of aquatic insects making for prime trout habitat. Here are a few snapshots from our week exploring the river. What an incredible place right here in our Montana backyard. It’s an asset that is under threat. A proposed large copper mine directly adjacent to and underneath Sheep Creek at the headwaters of the Smith River in central Montana is under debate right now that would drastically impact this river system. This is a resource too precious to destroy. Help to fight for it. Check out more information about the proposed mine on Save Our Smith website. I can’t wait to float it again next year. Thanks for looking. Cheers, -M

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The Weekend Fish Mission on the Madison and Yellowstone River

I’ve been in Montana for a little over a year now after moving here from California. While the normal routine in the past was for me was to always bring a camera out on my fly fishing missions, for 2012, I decided to take a break. I’ve stayed pretty busy at the newspaper throughout the year and my weekends became my place to get out and step away from it all. I wanted to be totally present and just study my new Montana surroundings. Also, I was too busy having fun fishing myself to set my rod down and make images. This past weekend I got after it, fishing two days in a row – one on the Madison River with my buddies Jimmy and Camille and the second floating the Yellowstone River with my buddies Sky and Ryan. The decision was made to bring along my camera. While I primarily fished throughout the weekend, I did manage to snap a couple pictures and even got the big brown trout I caught documented on camera (thanks Ryan for taking the picture). Look for more fly fishing photos throughout the year. The fly fishing photography hiatus is over. I’m ready to start documenting the Montana rivers again. Here we go. -M

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