Clarkfork August Fishing
Monday I fished with returning anglers, Alan and Mark, on a long stretch of the lower Clark Fork. I brought the little motor to move between spots so that we could focus on the best water. The morning proved to be interesting fishing.
I started off both guys with dry/dropper rigs and the first couple of spots only produced one brief hook-up. We changed the flies up and did run into a couple small cutts to get the skunk off the boat, but it was a squaw fish bonanza the likes of which I have never seen before.
We always catch a few of these guys on the Clark Fork and lower Bitterroot in the summertime, but it was a feeding frenzy this morning. All of the spots that normally produce trout yielded solid hook ups with squawkers, and a few were pretty big. We kept changing flies, but it didn’t seem to matter much.
There were a handful of small trout mixed in too, but the squaw fish ruled the first couple hours until Mark finally connected with a solid cuttbow in a rock garden. Alan and he both landed a smaller trout in that spot too and that started to turn the tide for us. Not far below that Alan picked up a gorgeous cutthroat on the dry and we stuck some fish on droppers too.
Mark had a good dry fly cuttbow a couple runs later, and Alan doubled up with thick cuttbow on the dropper. It was like a light switch. The rest of the day was all trout that came at a decent pace. After the dropper produced another quality rainbow for Mark we switched over to single hoppers for a while.
In just the right spots fish were looking up for the dry and we landed some quality fish on top. When that dried up we went back to the dry/dropper and the guys had one more solid double along with a couple other fish. Once it hit 2 we reeled up for the day and had lunch as we floated out. Other than the strangle first couple of hours, it ended up being a respectable day on the lower Clark.
Not big numbers of fish, but most of the trout we netted were quality specimens from 14-17″. Alan and Mark are always fun to have in the boat and I’m sure that the next 2 days with Scott will be even better.
Clarkfork August Fishing
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was my annual carp trip with local angler, Bob, on the upper Missouri. We have made this pilgrimage the last few years for some exciting sight fishing and a change of pace. This year the fishing was a challenge. We focused strictly on upper Missouri as it produced very well last year and even earlier this month.
The weather was exceptional with mostly sunny skies and temps in the 70’s, and only one other boat spotted in 3 days. The carp were very hard to come by however. Normally carp fishing is a grade or two more technical than float fishing for trout, but on this trip it was more like permit fishing.
One of the best ways to target them on the river is when they are rising in big foam holes. There can by anywhere from 2 to 10 fish rising in these spots and if you get a hopper in front of one there’s a chance they will suck it down. They proved to be exceptionally spooky this week.
Most times they would only tolerate a cast or two and any noise or disturbance from the boat sent them to the bottom. Water clarity wasn’t great either which made sight fishing for carp in the shallows tough. I couldn’t see the fish until we were too close or at a bad angle to take a shot in most situations.
They definitely weren’t feeding as aggressively as earlier in the month either so blind fishing with a dry/dropper rig didn’t pay off either. The bright spot was that we learned there are some truly giant trout in this water. Bob was connected to a few of these brutes on everything from a hopper, a dropper, and even a tiny Trico.
All but one of them were well over 20 inches. 3 days of fishing produced one hard-earned carp to the boat and a handful of really nice trout. Fishing was tough, but we had a great time and Bob is already talking about going back again next year.
Clarkfork August Fishing
Friday I finished out the week with local anglers, Jeff and Jim. Jim really likes the Blackfoot so I picked a stretch of the middle river the guys had never seen before. We started off with dry/dropper rigs and it didn’t take long to discover that the small trout were on the hunt. There was no shortage of action from 6-10″ rainbows and cutts.
I changed flies often, and everything we tried worked but it was only the small guys. I would have thought that the cold, wet weather would have had the bigger trout fired up but they were not very interested. Finally, a few hours into the day Jim came tight on a solid fish on an inside. After a good fight he netted a bright 16″ cuttbow.
We started to see a little improvement in size from there. Just downstream Jeff fooled a nice cutthroat on the dropper. In the afternoon we fished single hoppers for a while and it was mainly little fish with a couple of better ones looking up so it was back to the dry/dropper.
From there the guys had a few doubles and then toward the end of the day we had another weather front move in on us. That flipped a switch that definitely helped. The last mile produced some of the best fishing of the day. Jeff banged a decent brown on the dry and then the best cuttbow of the day.
Both Jeff and Jim boated some other 12-14″ trout coming down the homestretch. For total inches of trout this would be a hard day to beat. The guys must have caught 40-50 of those little guys and we mixed in a handful of nicer trout through the float. No other boats and a gorgeous stretch of the Blackfoot made for a great day.
Clarkfork August Fishing
It has been cooler and wetter than average for the last half of August. Water temps are good and streamflows are near historical average for most sections. The stage is set for a solid fall around Missoula. While the fishing will become more consistent as we move into September, cloud cover will be the real difference maker. Cloudy September days are some of my favorites and I hope to see a lot of those in the weeks ahead!
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Tight Lines,
Tony Reinhardt
Montana Trout Outfitters
406-544-3516
