The Clark Fork is pretty low, sitting at approximately 1020 CFS down from around 1590 CFS this time last year. Nightly low water temps are getting down to the low forties at night and staying in mid to high forties in the afternoons. Water volume is still pretty low, but recovered well from the wort of this summer with cool fall rain and cold nights. Things are still pretty skinny, though, so we’ve been advising running the river below Missoula for the easy access, though you can still raft the upper river putting in past gold creek. There’s still a lot of wood that could ruin your day immediately below Gold Creek, but above and below that one spot are still doable.

Fishing has been good. With water levels where they are at present, you’re sure to see some rocks that you may not have seen in the past, but a little rock-dodging is no excuse not to get out and go fishing. If you get out to fish the early mornings you can get into some great Mahogany and BWO hatches. The mahoganies are thinning out as the weather gets colder, and the BWOs will become more prevalent before winter hits. Cooling temperatures has the mayfly hatches starting a little later in the morning as the sun rises, and peaks in early afternoon. The dry fly action will slow down about mid-afternoon as the mayflies are done hatching for the day. They’ll still be prevalent and visible in small numbers, but the fish won’t be as fixated on them when they aren’t actively hatching. Late in the afternoon the October caddis will show up, and will become more plentiful as the sun goes down.

Nymph fishing is always good, and a smart move to make in that mid-day lull between hatches. Small “cracked back” patterns like the hot spot PMD, cracked back bullet, or blowtorch hares ear are great options for a tight-line nymph rig or as a dropper. For fishing indicator rigs and sink tip lines through the deeper pools and runs of the lower river larger stonefly patterns like the Pat’s rubber legs, double bead stone, or TJ hooker are great options for sink tip lines or indicator rigs for getting down deep.

The streamer bite has been very good, right now the biggest browns have completed their fall run and are staging up on redds. There are still a lot of juvenile fish moving through the river and actively feeding, but if you see big fish sitting on pale patches of gravel and not moving off the spot, know that those fish are actively spawning and are sitting on their eggs. Do the right thing, don’t try to fish for them and try to get out of the water and walk around them without disturbing the fish on the redd or agitating any sediment that could otherwise kill the eggs. It’s easy to tell when someone is targeting spawning fish, and it’s easy to tell which trophy browns were caught off a redd. Don’t be that guy. Moving to deeper water, or driving down to a lower elevation on the river is a surefire way to get away from the spawn and into actively feeding fish. Lightly weighted articulates like the wedgehead, Galloup’s kill-whitey, or a cone head sparkle yummy are great for covering water in search of active fish or fishing over rocks and timber. Patterns like the classic Galloup’s dungeon or silk kitty are killer patterns for plumbing the depths.