Clark Fork River Report: 11.23.15

After hearing scattered reports on whether the browns were running up tributary streams to spawn, Calvin, James, and I road tripped up the Clark Fork river to find out for ourselves. With Calvin's ready jet boat at our disposal we could literally launch and fish any desired stream we wanted. The weather was overcast with a slight occasional breeze gusting up river. The temperature was in the low 30s, just enough to keep wet hands cold. We dropped off James at the top of a run while Calvin and I anchored and fished a beautiful seam 100 yds. below. After a couple minutes of swinging streamers Calvin hooked into what looked like a nice brown. He fought it for a little under 30 seconds before the trout came loose and left him with a slack line as a parting gift.

We continued to swing several crawdad and sculpin patterns until Calvin made the decision that it was time to nymph. On his second cast Calvin hooked up again with another brown. He managed to almost fight this fish to the boat but before he could the hook pulled loose and the trout won another battle. After that I immediately switched over to nymphs thinking it would be the ticket to a successful day of fishing. 15 minutes go by and I hooked up into what seemed like a fun 15 inch brown. Once I got the fish next to the boat there was no mistaking it. I had hooked into a hungry heavy Whitefish. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but I was more than happy to enjoy the battle.

A few missed strikes went by and we decided to beach the boat and cast from shore. The three of us were lined up on a seam, occasionally getting a jump of excitement with the drop of an indicator. After one of my drifts my nymph started to swing and I felt a certain tug on the end of my line. There wasn't anything on my hook, but I knew I didn't bump into any rocks. I made the exact same drift and right when my bead began to swing again I got a grab and a head shake. I was skeptical with my hook set and I thought it would surely pull loose after such a late set. Luck was on my side though and I landed a beautiful 16 inch brown.

Later on the three of us decided to hop back into the boat and dead drift the current. We drifted for a while with only another whitefish to show for it. By this time, it was slowly getting darker and colder, so we decided to call it a day and head in to our warm trucks.

Although we didn't "hammer" the trout that day on the river I still believe the fish were there. Our flies seem right. Drifts looked good. It was simply one of those days where the trout weren't incredibly active. I think if we had gone back to the exact same spot the next day and fished it would have been a different story.

Maybe yours will have a different ending.