Clark Fork River Report 6.21.16
With the occasional good report of trout fishing on the Clark Fork River, I thought I would make a quick run up to our local trout stream to see what was going on. As I prepared to launch the boat, a local fisherman with his spinning rod and tackle box asked me, "Going to fish the dead sea?" To which I couldn't help but smile and reply with a simple, "Yep". No doubt this fisherman had a slow day on big river.
As for me, fishing was only average. I probably fished for 3 hours and landed 3 beautiful trout with the occasional grab and lost fish. Right around 7:30, I noticed a distinct solid brown scum line across the river. It didn't take long for me to realize I wasn't looking at a scum line. Thousands of #14 brown caddis were fluttering inches above the swift current. Oddly enough, trout weren't keyed in on these caddis, not yet anyway. The trout seem to start their feeding frenzy within 30 minutes before dark. As most fly fisherman know, when someone says dark, they mean "cannot see your fly" dark.
My fly of choice changed from a #8 olive woolly bugger to a #6 olive woolly bugger. I continue to catch large healthy trout with a simple woolly bugger. Considering that there weren't a lot of rising trout, I decided to take my chance and see if I could hook onto something bigger.