Clark Fork River Report 3.17.17

While we can’t exactly proclaim that Spring has sprung here in the Upper Pacific Northwest, winters long hold on us seems to be slipping away more and more each day.

Have you seen the new North 40 Fly Shop website? Browse it here.

Even in days where the snow is falling, it's melting away from below faster than it can accumulate. This has been a long hard winter and it has definitely pushed spring run off a few weeks back compared to the previous few years. This certainly hasn't helped to ease this itch that so many of us are developing this time of year. The days are getting longer though and fish are finally starting to get active and actually hunt for food.

I went up on the Clark Fork River in Montana this past weekend in hopes of finding some of these feeding fish. Unfortunately, we were met by howling winds at our first stop so before even gearing up we decided to head further up river and look for some more protected waters. We were able to dip down into a canyon and get out of the wind, just in time for a down pouring of rain to hit us.

Curious how the river is doing? Read up on the Clark Fork here.

We fished through the rain for 4-5 hours straight and managed to bring in a couple of nice fish. I picked up a nice rainbow stripping a white bait fish I had tied up and managed to pull the Smallie up by letting a purple and green streamer sink to bottom then slowly retrieving it back to me. White has been my most productive color of the year so far on streamers with all kinds of species feeding on it regularly.

Looking for streamers? Check these out.

Overall, it was a great trip to the river with some encouraging signs and I've never been one to let a little rain put a damper on my day!