The Clark Fork River Flow Show, Ep. 9/21

The Clark Fork is having a bit of a fall moment, according to the crew at Kingfisher Fly Shop on September 21, 2026. The river has climbed to around 1,650 cfs — what they call “a nice early-fall level and gives the river more life than it had during the lowest late-summer flows” — and after Saturday’s rain and some properly chilly nights, the trout are back to working banks, seams, and foam lines with a little swagger. One wrinkle for the drift-boat crowd: the Weigh Station to Sha-Ron float is shut down until October 31st, so paddle plans need a detour.

The menu is turning over with the season — hoppers, ants, and beetles still fooling fish along the grass, BWOs waiting on the next gray drizzly afternoon, October Caddis making an early cameo — and the bigger fish start losing their fear of anything that wiggles as the water cools.

The shop’s golden rule still holds, though: “This is a river where watching before casting pays off.” For flies, fresh intel, or just good fish talk, Kingfisher sits at 926 East Broadway in Missoula, MT 59802 — ring them at 888-542-4911.

^{And please don’t yell–the feature photo is not, shockingly enough, a picture I took myself.}