Montana
Clark Fork River
Solunar · next 7 days
About Clark Fork River
The Clark Fork is Montana's longest river, and it fishes like three completely different waters strung together. Up top, near Warm Springs and Deer Lodge, it's a skinny meadow stream you could jump across in places — brown trout tucked under the cut banks, cutthroat rebuilding in the pockets, and a bottom that a century of copper mining nearly killed. This is the headwater of the largest Superfund complex in the country, and the recovery is real: brown trout counts near Warm Springs went from essentially zero in the late 1960s to over a thousand fish per mile a decade later, and have roughly doubled again since. By the time the river reaches Missoula it's a legitimate mid-size freestone; below town it turns into big, steep-sided, deceptively fast water that eventually grows large enough to hold pike and smallmouth before it crosses into Idaho.
The character shift drives how you fish it. The upper river (Warm Springs down to Drummond) is wade-and-nymph water — peel a Woolly Bugger off the bank, or work stonefly and mayfly nymphs through the meanders. Skip the dead stretch between Drummond and the Rock Creek confluence, where riprapped banks and summer algae flatten the fishing. From Rock Creek down the river wakes up: the cold, clean inflows from Rock Creek, the Little Blackfoot, and Gold Creek transform it. Through Missoula it braids into fishable side channels — Kelly Island is the town's most popular wade spot — and below the Bitterroot confluence it opens into wide float flats holding rainbows and cuttbows that average 16-17 inches with honest shots at 20-plus. One quirk worth knowing: Milltown Dam, just above Missoula at the Blackfoot confluence, came out in 2008 as part of the cleanup, reconnecting the Clark Fork and Blackfoot and reopening that confluence for fish and floaters.
Timing matters more here than on a tailwater. As a snowmelt freestone the Clark Fork blows out hard during spring runoff (roughly May into mid-June) and can run muddy for weeks — watch for the descending limb and "high but clearing" water as the turn-on signal. Salmonflies come through in June on most of the river, though the big bugs are weak in the Rock-Creek-to-Missoula stretch and the Alberton Gorge. But the marquee window is mid-September to mid-October, arguably one of the best dry-fly stretches of the year in the state: big pods rising to Mahoganies, BWOs, and Tricos, sometimes 40-50 noses working one seam. If the main river is off-color, Rock Creek and the Bitterroot are right there as backups. Missoula is the hub — three fly shops, an airport, and the town stretch running right through it.
Species
- Brown Trout
- Rainbow Trout
- Westslope Cutthroat Trout
- Mountain Whitefish
- Northern Pike
- Smallmouth Bass
| Species | Abundance | Best Season | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown Trout | Primary (upper river) | Sep-Oct | 12-20" |
| Rainbow Trout | Common (increasing downstream) | Jun-Oct | 12-18" |
| Westslope Cutthroat Trout | Common (native) | Jun-Sep | 8-16" |
| Mountain Whitefish | Abundant | Year-round | 8-16" |
| Northern Pike | Present (lower river) | Spring, fall | to 36"+ |
| Smallmouth Bass | Present (lowest river) | Summer | 8-16" |
