The Clark fork has been fishing great in town. We’ll see some more runoff in town was the high elevation snow continues to melt, but at the moment the water is at a very fishable level. The river is still a bit muddy but more than clear enough to fish effectively. This last memorial day weekend the hot weather had summer crowds out tubing and rafting the rivers and folks who got a chance to fish reported spectacular fishing. If the tubers got on the river before you this year, might be time to come by and get that season fishing license!

The hot weather has the hatches coming off thick! Cold mornings and rainy overcast days can slow the hatches down some, but with how hot this month has been hatches have been very consistent. The salmonflies are here, and will become more abundant in the coming weeks. PMDs, grey and brown drakes, and the mothers day caddis have been coming off as well.

If the rising fish are few, or the weather has the hatches going slow, try running a small nymph as a dropper under a stonefly. It’ll keep the fishing active, as nymphs are always on the menu, and it’ll tell you when the fish start keying in on the dries. When the fishing’s really a grind, running the indicator rig or tightline nymphing is a proven way to put a bend in the rod. Pat’s rubber legs are a bread-and-butter fly around here, though any bead head stone will get it done well.

Spring streamer fishing is always productive, and can make for some of the best trophy trout fishing all year. Overcast days and muddy water gets the big fish up shallow and feeding aggressively. Fish undercut banks, boulder fields, and the shallow heads of pools. Those big fish are hungry, though they’re trying as hard to find food as you are trying to show it to them. Opt for natural but visible colors On overcast days, dark black is preferable, though with some sun, brighter cream and yellow patterns are very visible in the mud. We like Galloup’s Kill Whitey, Lynch’s DnD, and the Dungeon for good shallow-fishing streamer patterns.