The plan was simple: three days on the water with my buddy Jake. We kicked it off in April on the Clark Fork near Superior, Montana — Jake at the wheel of his jet boat, me rigging rods as we idled out. The river was rising and starting to color up, but the sun was out most of the day, and a steady warm-up was exactly what we wanted before the bigger days ahead.
A rising, off-color river
When a river comes up and gets murky in the spring, the food gets pushed around and the fish reposition. We keyed on the water just below the tributaries flowing into the Clark Fork. Those spots where a creek dumps in are spring magnets — the incoming current concentrates bugs and gives fish a clean edge to hold on, and the slightly stained water made them a little less wary. With the jet boat, we could run from one tributary mouth to the next and pick them apart.
Nymphing through the morning
We nymphed all day. The action was steady — not fast and furious, just that consistent, rod-bending rhythm that makes for a good day. Our rigs leaned on big spring staples: stonefly nymphs, oversized pheasant tails, and squirmy worms — the kind of large, easy-to-see bugs that produce when the water's high and a touch dirty. The fish ate them all morning: mostly cutthroats, a few whitefish in the mix, and one small bull trout that was a treat to see before it went back.
What we fished
I had two of our El Rey G6 travel rods out — a 6-weight and a 5-weight — and Jake ran a pair of El Rey G4 5-weights as his boat rods. Nymphing off a moving boat is a good test of a rod, and they handled the steady workout of drifts and hook-sets all day without complaint.
The fish
Nothing huge, but we got into a bunch of solid 16- to 18-inch cutthroats and rainbows, and they kept coming all day. On a rising, slightly murky river, steady 16- to 18-inchers is a day you take every time.
A good first day
Day one did exactly what a first day should: it got us dialed in, kept the rods bent, and set the tone for the three days ahead. A fun, easy day on the boat with a good friend — the perfect warm-up. More on Day 2 soon.
Tight lines,
Jeff
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