Clark Fork River 10.7.16

With the seasons and weather changing, I have had the itch BAD to throw streamers with the hopes of hooking something big and brown. Although recent reports haven't been great on the Clark Fork River, I thought I could crack the code. Started on the water at 7:30 a.m. and fished until 6:15 p.m., so if you are looking for an accurate fishing report, here it is.

Curious how the river is doing? Check out the current river flows here

We probably fished 8 of the 10 miles on the Clark Fork, hitting every secret spot imaginable with not a whole lot to show for it. My best fly was a #6 Olive Egg Sucking Leech swinging through gorgeous seams. We brought our fast sinking lines to get down deep in those 20ft+ holes, only to hook a couple healthy Pike Minnows. Mid-day, there was a light hatch of some grey #14/16 mayflies that brought up some sporadic rises, but not enough to put on a dry.

Activity didn't pick up until around 5:30 pm when the flows were down, sun was out and those grey mayflies came back. The hatch was big enough to try some dry flies. We would spot a feeding trout roughly 100 yards downstream, and stealthy float into him. We hooked a couple beautiful cutthroat on a #14  Parachute Callibaetis, a #14 Parachute Adams ,and a #16 Split Wing Adams. At the end of the day, we landed around 15 fish. Averaging just over a fish an hour is not my idea of ideal fishing.

Want to try out some new flies? Check out our fly selection here

If you are a hardcore fisherman and don't mind the rain, hit the river. If you are a fair weather fisherman, wait for the sun to emerge and hit the water during the last couple hours of light.