Clark Fork Afternoon

Went out and fished the Clark Fork for a few hours this afternoon with Chris. The action was pretty slow. Chris landed a little bow in the 'good pool'. We fished down from the access pretty far but didn't find any amazing looking water. I headed back upstream and actually took a short nap on the river bank. It felt pretty nice.

Nice place for a nap

On the way back up, Chris landed a nice 15 inch bull trout on a big olive streamer. It was good to see another bully being caught in the Clark Fork. The population must be on the rise. When I reached the access site, I decided to take one more shot at a fish. Besides, who likes getting skunked? I fished a deep pool on the far side of the river with a flashy streamer. A nice bow took it on the third cast.

I was happy to get at least 1 fish. It was still a really enjoyable time on the river today with temps in the upper 30's and no clouds in the sky. I'm really starting to love the Montana winter, especially when its sunny and somewhat warm.

A beautiful afternoon on the Clark Fork (2/5)

It was too beautiful of a day to pass up fishing yesterday with temps in the upper 30's and mostly sunny skies. Riley and I headed over to an access that I fish a lot on the Clark Fork. I was expecting the fish to be pretty active and I was hoping I'd get into a decent sized one. And that's exactly what happened.....After fishing a pool near the access site, I headed downstream to my pool that I always fish. It didn't take long before I was hooked up in the same place where I usually hook up with fish. I was nymphing deep and I set the hook perfectly on the fish. The fish was heavy and as I forced it up through the water column, I could see it was a decent one. I played the fish carefully due to the many sticks that were right in front of me. The fish was a pretty strong one and it actually took some effort with the 6wt. Hydros to try and bring the fish to the shallows. I was very happy with how the rod preformed. I finally got the fish in close and I was stunned at how fat the fish was. It was a beautiful, healthy cuttbow with nice pink fins and a big pink stripe. I snapped a few pics and released the fish back the pool.

The san juan worm had produced again. I nymphed the pool all over again and managed one brown of about 12 inches. I hooked the fish nymphing very deep in the pool. After nymphing the second time through, I switched to streamers, hoping I could entice another nice fish. Instead my streamer was hit by a tiny little brown. It was funny to see such a small fish hitting a good sized streamer.

After fishing the rest of the run with no strikes, I headed back up to meet Riley. It was a great few hours on the water. While Riley and I were out, Chris had been fishing the Bitterroot. He managed to land 3 browns, the biggest being about 15 inches, all on streamers. I was glad to hear that he had a successful afternoon. The weather for tomorrow is looking pretty nice so I'll probably be out somewhere. As for this weekend, we might be headed back to the Missouri for a third strait weekend! Are we crazy? Maybe....

A Great Day

The weather report called for sunny skies and  four mph winds. Needless to say, Chris, Cody and I were stoked to get on the water Saturday morning. We woke early in the Helena Days Inn after spending the night there, got a quick free breakfast and hit the road! A half hour later the mighty Missouri came into view. We made a quick stop at Headhunters for some coffee. When we actually passed over the river, the whitecaps on the water told us that the report for four mph winds was bull. It took us a while to pump up our floats but we managed to get on the water by 11am.

I got out of my boat and started fishing a deep slot off the bank. I saw a fish rise so I threw a midge for a little while, then I switched to streamers. A few casts later, I had a huge brown follow my streamer in. The fish was BIG and its shoulders made it look more like a shark. I couldn't entice the fish to eat. I floated on downstream. It was cold, and very windy(easily 20mph gusts). I was starting to lose hope that the winds would die down. Eventually I caught up with Cody and Chris. Cody anchored up in the same spot where he did well last time and I headed down to the bank below him. I began slowly twitching streamers from the deeper water towards the bank. After a few casts I switched things up and began crinkling my line. This method causes the streamer to have an odd twitch. I threw in some pauses between the crinkling and I immediately hooked up with a nice bow. In the next half hour, I had four more fish with all of them being pretty decent.

The winds were still blowing but I really didn't care. I was catching fish and it was starting to warm up. Cody came downstream and fished near me for a little bit. As I was walking down the bank to get back on my pontoon, I spotted a big bow laying right in the shallows. The fish wouldn't touch my streamer so I had Cody come and try and nymph him up. He casted at the fish for a while and kept asking me if it was actually a fish. I slowly walked out to it and as I was standing over it, the fish ate Cody's nymph! I couldn't believe it. Cody set the hook and the fish popped off. However, it was then clear to us that it was indeed a fish. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen happen.

We floated on and the action was consistent with smaller black streamers producing the most strikes.

As the sun got higher in the sky, the winds slowly started to die down and it became warm. It was beautiful out and I couldn't think of one thing I'd rather be doing than fishing.

I caught up with Chris and Cody and we had some PB&J sandwiches at the Wolf Creek launch. Both of them had landed a few fish. We continued on our way to Craig. The action stayed consistent and I landed some nice bows.

Including this one with a deformed head...

Chris landed a nice brown and a Cutthroat, which is not very common in the Missouri.

Photos by Chris

The last fish that I landed on the day was a beautiful rainbow of decent size. I casted off the bank into some pretty deep water. I took a few steps down the bank and then went to re-cast. The fish had eaten the fly while it was on the free fall. I really didn't even do anything. It was a great way to end the day.

I had a total of 11 fish on the day and I believe the majority of them were over 15 inches. It was probably the best day I've had on the Mo (she previously hasn't treated me very well), and I couldn't believe how nice it was after the winds subsided. The fish were active, the sun was out and there was not a cloud to be seen. I can honestly say that it was one of those days that you wish you could have every time you are out on the water.

Preparing the Midge Army

I was highly unprepared for the Missouri last time we were there. I literally watched for 20 minutes as a pod of big rainbows sipped midges just feet in front of me. It was great to see, but man did I wish I had some size 20 or smaller midges. Chris picked up some size 20 dry fly hooks and we got to work, tying in the study lounge. Yes, tying flies so small doesn't take a lot of material, but it does take some patience and steady hands.

The weather is looking perfect for the weekend and I think that Cody, Garret, Chris and I will be heading out of town around 3pm tomorrow. I've got two rods now that are in the process of being replaced. Both are 5wt. rods and sadly, the only two 5wts that I own. Now it seems that my only option is my 6 1/2 foot 4wt creek rod. So my goal for this trip is to land a decent bow (17+ inches) on my creek rod! I should have my hands full. I landed a 16" cutthroat on the upper Salmon River in Idaho two years ago and it almost ripped the rod out of my hands. This should be fun.

FBO!

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