Frank Smethurst - Brookside Flies

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Fly Designer: Frank Smethurst

Frank Smethurst has been a guide in the Telluride area for years. In October 2004, Frank and partner Gifford Maytham won 1st place in the Outdoor Life Network Fly Fishing Masters tournament. The Fly Fishing Masters is the definitive national championship of fly fishing in this country. Smethurst was also a long time guide for Telluride Angler/Telluride Outside since before the Telluride Angler fly shop existed. In the last few years, Frank has made the transition from guiding to being the full-time Southern Rockies sales representative for the Scott Fly Rod Company and Brookside Flies. Though he rarely guides anymore, he still loves to fish the Telluride area and attributes some of his tournament success to years of practice on local rivers. Frank is still at the center of the Telluride fly fishing community. One of his exciting new ventures is hosting Telluride-based fly fishing trips in Mexico’s Magdalena Bay. The hosted trips and “Frank’s Rasta” are the product of years of “research” on his part (see roosterfish photo). Frank is one of the pioneers of fly fishing on the Baja peninsula, particularly for roosterfish. He has caught some of the largest roosters ever landed on a fly rod and thoroughly scoped out Baja’s coastline from La Paz to Los Cabos to Magdalena Bay.