Clark Fork River Fishing Report 7.7.17

After my last outing on the 4th, I knew it wouldn't be hard for me to push off some household chores, and get back on the Clark Fork River. However, this time I wanted to concentrate more on the stretch downriver from the Clark Fork Bridge. Temperatures were in the 80s, there wasn't a breath of wind in the air, water clarity was excellent, and flows were around 26,000 cfs. Another typical day on the Clark Fork.

Curious what the river is doing? Check out flows here.

We fished from 6-dark and caught most of our fish in the last 45 minutes of light. Honestly, the trout didn't start consistently rising until 9 pm. There were hordes of caddis fluttering inches from the surface, and thankfully not in our faces. Oddly enough, we caught our trout on everything BUT caddis. #8 Purple Chubby Chernobyls, # 10 Black Moodah Poodah, #12 Purple Rocky Mountain Mint, and #14 Rusty Spinner were the flies of choice for the sippers. For the swingers, I swung a #6 Olive Woolly Bugger and a #6 Olive Predacious Fox. I am confident that these trout will also eat a #12 Royal Wulff, #12 H&L Variant, #10 Purple or Black Hippie Stomper, #16 Parachute Adams, or a #12 March Brown. As for swinging, a #6 Olive Balanced Leech or a #4 Bald Eagle would have also worked.

Looking for caddis patterns? You can get them from us here.

The browns seemed to like the section down river from the bridge, more than the section above. When I fished above the bridge, all I found were Cutthroat and Rainbows.