Notice to all SMART anglers
30 Years. One Tournament.
The last full weekend of June, since 1997. Sunrise lines, hot coffee, brothers and sons and old friends, and Stoney's Grail waiting at the top of the leaderboard.
The last full weekend of June, since 1997. Sunrise lines, hot coffee, brothers and sons and old friends, and Stoney's Grail waiting at the top of the leaderboard.
* Official start is 5:30 AM. SMART guys can't always keep track of actual time.
SMART stands for Stoneberger Men's Angler Retreat Tournament, which is a very official name for a weekend built on fishing, family, bad jokes, and a tradition that somehow keeps getting stronger.
It began in June of 1997, when Jerry Stoneberger decided to take his dad, Stony, fishing for his birthday. He called his brother Jake, they each brought a son, and five Stoneberger men headed into the Colorado mountains for a weekend at Green Mountain Reservoir.
They thought they were planning a fishing trip. What they actually started was a family tradition.
Since that first weekend, SMART has grown from five men going fishing to bringing together fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews, and the occasional guest lucky enough to be tolerated. It is still held every year on the final weekend of June in honor of Stony's birthday.
Two rules have been there from the beginning: eighteen and up, and no women. Everything else has been debated, revised, misunderstood, argued over, and somehow preserved as tradition.
Read the full history