Winter Newsletter

01/25/2010

Part Two- The Clarks Fork

Today let's take a look at the Clarks Fork. The upper Clarks Fork from the Montana line down to Crandall has always been small fish water in the 10 years that I have been fishing it. It is a truly beautiful stream but it goes from very fast during run off to very low later in the fall. The growing season is very short and there is little holding water for fish of any size from the Montana line down to Pilot creek There, no fish can be kept over 8 inches and there is some fly only water. It is very pretty and fishing can be fun but I have never caught a fish over 8 inches in this stretch. Even with the strict regulations this fishery has been a marginal stretch at best. It does get it's share of fishing pressure and in the last couple years my favorite stretch up by the Montana state line seems to have many less fish than in the past. I don't get to fish it that much so I don't really know why.

From Pilot creek down to Crandall the river is a combination of private ranches and public access right on the side of the road. Again, the annual water conditions and short growing season make the lives of these fish very hard. There is some deeper holding water, but it gets heavily fished in the couple of months that these fish need to put on weight for the winter. It is rare to see a fish over 14" in this stretch with most in the 8" to 10" range. Rainbows, Cutts, Cuttbows, and Brookies make up the population. As I said earlier, the river is absolutely gorgeous but the fish population, even with stocking, has never seemed to be what it should be with relation the the nice water the fish have to live in. Fun to fish but just to much pressure. There are people in most every hole from the end of July till September.

The canyon section is one of the most beautiful places I have ever fished. When I first went down about ten years ago it was incredible fishing. Brookies, Rainbows, Cuttbows, and Cutts. The average fish was 12" to 15" and on most days you could get several bigger fish. It was rare to see anyone else or even a human track most of the summer. The fish were naive, eating big dries on most days. There are some big deep long holes that can support pretty good populations of fish. The water gets very fast during run off and the river changes a great deal each year but there is plenty of spawning gravel and enough biomass for the fish to eat. Tough conditions and a short opportunity to put on weight, but the fish seemed healthy. This year, out of 9 trips down in the canyon, there was only one that I didn't run into several people. The fish population seemed to be about half of what it was 6 or 7 years ago. The remaining fish did seem healthy but only once did I get a true 18" fish. Simply put, it is a very fragile fishery. Even with strict regulations the added fishing pressure and a couple years of very high run off has taken a toll on this fishery.

The Lower Clarks Fork is also a beautiful prairie free stone river. Plenty of boulders and deep holes. It has the most prolific stone fly population of any river around Cody. Tons of white fish to supply really big trout with the large amounts of protein they need. White fish are also a very good indicator species for the health of the river. Years ago I caught the biggest trout of my life by the mouth of the canyon. During the salmon fly hatch, around the 4th of July, I sometimes would get 5 or 6 fish over 20" on dries in one day and plenty of 13" to 16" fish. The past couple years the river has been reduced to mostly 8" to 10" stockers with a few holdovers that will go 14" to 15."  I might see 1 or 2 fish over 20 all summer.

The problem with this stretch is the 6 fish limit. When the water drops in the fall fish are concentrated in the deepest pools and become sitting ducks for fisherman and other predators. I see lots of people keeping limits of fish every time I fish the river now. It is a free stone river that just can't support a lot of fish being harvested every year. The last couple trips I did on the river we caught a ton of little stockers and white fish but the clients were very disappointed with the size and quality of the fish. This is the situation from the Montana line all the way up to the Morrison jeep trail in the canyon. The upper part of the Clarks Fork is a tough call on what should be done. It has always been a small numbers of small fish fishery since I've been fishing it. It has some pretty restrictive regulations right now. It may be that this part of the river just can't hold a very good fish population no matter what. The only thing I see we could do without just not fishing it to help it out is to make it a total catch and release river. This may or may not help this particular river because of the extreme condition these fish have to survive but it can't hurt. Give it a couple years and see what happens. The lower Clarks Fork has the water and food to hold a pretty fair population of decent size fish. Simple put, the river is getting fished out every year. Ten times more people fishing it than 10 years ago. Much more responsible fish limits and a slot limit to protect the breeding size fish would be my idea for this fishery. Lets give this a try for a couple years and see if the river can come back to what it once was. It is obvious to those of us that fish here on a regular basis that something is definitely wrong with the way we are doing it now. Next installment will be the Greybull and Wood drainage.

Tight Lines!