Brian Smith is a freelance outdoor writer who has been an accomplished fly tier, rod builder and fly-fishing enthusiast for over fifty years. His specialty is fly-fishing for trout in BC’s lakes and streams and the foothills’ rivers of Southern Alberta, and chasing steelhead and salmon in the watercourses of northwest BC. Smith’s work has appeared in Outdoor Edge magazine, Fly Fishing & Tying Journal, the Canadian Fly Fisher magazine and Northwood Magazine. He was featured in Contemporary Fly Patterns of British Columbia, donated fly patterns to A Compendium of Canadian Fly Patterns and was a sponsor and contributor to the publication of a collection of Jack Shaw’s diaries, The Pleasure of His Company. He was recognized as Contributor of the Year in 1997 for his donations of fly-fishing articles to BC Wildlife Federation’s Outdoor Edge magazine, and in 2008 was awarded the Jack Shaw Fly Tying Award by the BC Federation of Fly Fishers. Smith is the current president of Polar Coachman Fly Fishing Club in Prince George and a long-time member of the BC Wildlife Federation, BC Federation of Fly Fishers and Steelhead Society of BC. He has four fly-fishing children and lives with his wife, Lois, in Prince George, BC. He has previously published Fly Fishing BC’s Interior (Caitlin Press, 2009) and Seasons of a Fly Fisher (Caitlin Press, 2013). Essential Fly Patterns for Lakes and Streams is his third book.