River – Clark Fork

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Another short and sweet report today; there’s fishing to be done but you better be ready for some winter.

In my report on the Bitterroot yesterday I talked about the forecast for the week not looking bad. The Clark Fork is in somewhat similar shape to most of our rivers over here, there’s nymphing to be done in the mornings with the shrinking dry fly window narrowing to the warmest of the afternoon hours. [...]

There’s been some damned nice fishing to be done on the Clark Fork lately; I was lucky enough to do a bit with my daughter this weekend. We floated the upper river (above Missoula) on Sunday and did very well on BWO and mahoganies in the afternoon; the wind was manageable and fish were really [...]

I’m late today – meetings in Missoula and it took me a while to track down my daughter who fished the Clark Fork this weekend. She said the river (they were above Missoula) fished well during the afternoon with Mahoganies, best for them with sparkle duns and cripples.  They found the best window from about [...]

I’ve told you before that my family has been in the area for some time; this is one of the coldest October spells, at least for the first half of October, that I’ve seen in over a decade. I just talked to my daughter in Missoula and it was 9 degrees on the way into [...]

I must say I’m happy we’re not having the weather over on this side of the state that they’re having over in the greater Yellowstone area – we’re not going to have snow down at river levels here, thoughrain showers will likely keep rolling through. The biggest weather issue we’ve been dealing with has been [...]

The Clark Fork is fishing decently these days; to be honest none of my crew was able to get out on the water this weekend (my daughter was in Boise on business with the family), and I was on the Missouri with friends. Sounds like the upper most and lower most sections of the river [...]

According to my daughter and her husband the Clark Fork has been fishing pretty well over the past few days.  During the unsettled weather Saturday and Sunday they even saw some olives out on the upper river – like the golden color spotting the hills seeing olives on the river is one of the surest [...]

Had a great day on the Beaverhead yesterday, I’ll have some pictures sent to Mark to post in a day or two. The Clark Fork is going to come around here before you know it; even though the summer Caddis Fest we’ve been enjoying on the hot days will peter out, the river’s mayflies will [...]

Last night I had the enlightening opportunity  to visit with my good friend, sometimes mentor and sometimes antagonist, Al the Pal from Hamilton. Regular readers of our blog know that Al has spent his life running a family ranch in the Bitterroot Valley and that he’s a diehard fly fisherman with a good sense of [...]

I’ve been enjoying a family reunion of sorts this weekend here in Missoula, and this will be our fifth straight day on the fine waters of southwest Montana.  There’s been more sun and heat than we’d of liked to have, but the fishing has overall been good. Since joining this project back in April, I’ve [...]

The Clark Fork is trying to turn the corner to fish a bit more it does in the fall, though I’m not sure the weather is going to cooperate much this week. Yesterday’s clouds were welcome, and did produce a more robust (nifty word, eh?) mayfly hatch from what I hear along most of the [...]

I know I probably sound like a broken record, but the evening Caddis on the Clark Fork have been killer of late.  From about 7 until 9 in the evening it’s been pretty damned crazy; my daughter, her husband and I made it out three evenings this past week and had some of the best [...]

I guess I’ve shared before that my daughter lives in Missoula; she and her husband have an affinity for the Clark Fork that goes beyond the fact that it basically runs right through town and their backyard.  They’re on the river 2 afternoons and evenings during the summer and fall or more. Last night they [...]