Sitka Gear Turkey Tool Belt

Smith River Draw Odds

Don't know where you recreate, Tom, but even the generally perceived sparsely populated Montana outdoor recreation spots like the Smith River corridor are getting hammered by human intrusion, with camping site quarrels, excessive litter, inappropriate dirty human excrement spots, risky places for campfires, and on and on. Problems such as those resulted in a decision to limit numbers floating the river at any given time. Plus the corridor is monitored by river rangers to keep things reasonable.

Another example of overuse is on the Madison River, where limits are being proposed to hold down the conflicts resulting from overcrowding. It's sad but real. On some great fishing and floating waterways where a few recreationists have always had fun, now with the throngs of people crowding the waters and shores ... nobody is having fun. Plus the same human waste, littering, and disrespect for the resource are escalating problems.
What people think fishing the Madison will be like:
1614193727383.png

Reality
1614193740606.png
 
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I'm just gonna leapfrog on what both @wllm1313 and @Straight Arrow have said. The main thing I spend my vacation time on is river trips in the summer, many permitted rivers.

Many of the rivers, even in wilderness areas have very limited, good places to camp. If they were not permitted it would be a super frustrating camping experience with people and boats stacked on top of each other every night.

While I wish the draw odds were better on many of the river, as more people come to the west to enjoy these resources, just like with hunt tags, the draw odds will only get harder.

I've done the Smith once, would love to do it again. For a first time amateur floater up to experienced white water runners, its an all around beautiful spot and a great trip to get your feet wet (pun intended) on raft camping.

Cheers!
 
Day one was congested. We were constantly leap frogging other groups for the first 15 miles or so. However, by day 2 & 3 we barely saw anyone on the river. We went the last week of June and the fishing was exceptional.

Bummed that we didn’t get it, but we booked an outfitter back in Dec to bring our raft into the Bob Marshall for a 7 day river trip in July. It seems this particular river will be lottery based as well in a few years..
 

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