The Flies of Paul Smith

In 1970 I started fishing in bass tournaments I used to pour all my own jigs and made spinnerbaits for years, that's where the spinnerbait comes from in my email address. My brother had given me a fly tying kit and I started tying a few bass flies but never got really deep into it. In 1991 I sustained a severe back injury on my job and my whole life changed, no more fishing no more anything. I've had 6 back surgeries and have a morphine pump implanted to help with the pain.

My son who is his father's son and loves fishing as much as I do was working in Alaska as a hunting and fishing guide (12 yrs.) I was back tying flies by this time to keep me from going crazy. Four years ago I was able to do some fishing once again and my son took me on a trip to Alaska on a trip of a lifetime, we made a float trip down Clear Creek and caught King salmon, grayling and rainbows. I had been tying salmon flies for some time and started coming up with some of my own patterns; I had been working on a fly but couldn't get just what I wanted. I have a Koi pond in my back yard and kept making adjustments until I was happy with the motion and action but it was a no name fly until 3 yrs. ago. My son had a son and named him Christopher River, so my fly which was a King salmon fly became the Christopher River King, it comes in 12 color combinations all which have caught fish, it works great on Silvers also. I have several other flies in the River series of flies and I hope many people will get a chance to try and enjoy them.

Thank you

Paul Smith

The Flies

Christopher River King Series