Clark Fork fishing guide

Public access & launches

Extensive public bank access along the Clark Fork, computed from public land ownership and hydrography.

• Quartz Flat Campground (MT)
  Boat launch
• Beartracks Take-Out
  Boat launch
• Gillies BridgeMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Paradise CrossingMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Schwartz CreekMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Harper's BridgeMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Dry CreekMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• St. John'sMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Cyr BridgeMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Kohrs BendMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• Big EddyMontana FWP
  Boat launch
• TarkioMontana FWP
  Boat launch

Regulations

• Brown Trout

  Bag

  Catch-and-release only.

  Gear

  Artificial lures and single-pointed hooks only. Anglers may remove treble or double hooks from the lure and replace them with a single hook, or the shanks may be cut off the other hook points to leave a single hook. Lures with multiple hook attachments may still be used but any treble hook must be replaced by a single hook.

• <UNKNOWN>

  Season

  Open third Saturday in May through Sept. 30.

• brook trout

  Catch-and-release for brook trout due to misidentification of bull trout as brook trout; bull trout are common in this section.

• Central Fishing District

  Burbot (Ling): 3 over 23 inches daily and in possession. Combined trout: 3 daily and in possession.

• Burbot (Ling)

  Bag

  3 over 23 inches daily and in possession

• Combined trout

  Bag

  3 daily and in possession

• All species

  Season

  third Saturday in May through Nov. 30

• All species

  Does not include Clark Fork Reservoirs downstream of Thompson Falls Dam, see Exceptions for the Clark Fork River (page 29).

• All species

  Season

  General Season (third Saturday in May through Nov. 30)

  Gear

  Artificial lures only within a 100-yard radius of the mouths

• cutthroat trout

  Season

  General Season (third Saturday in May through Nov. 30)

  Catch-and-release for cutthroat trout.

As of 2026-08-28.Guidance, not legal advice — always confirm current rules with the state.Official Montana regulations

What’s in it

Recorded in/near this water. Occurrence-based unless a higher-confidence source is shown — see it per-species in the app.

More Montana fishing

Montana field notes

Bozeman, MT

Bozeman Built a Trail System Out of Handshakes and Easements

Nearly 100 miles of trail start inside Bozeman and run to the mountains, and most of it exists because a land trust spent thirty-five years negotiating easements across private ranchland one landowner at a time. The M and Drinking Horse are the famous pair. The system behind them is the actual story.

Missoula, MT

Missoula Hikes You Can Walk To From Downtown

A university town of 78,000 people sits where five valleys meet, with a mountain rising straight off the campus and a 61,000-acre wilderness up the road behind the houses. The famous hike takes forty minutes and most of the town has done it drunk at least once.

West Glacier, MT

The Highline Trail's Hand Cable Is the Least Frightening Part

Every photograph of this trail shows the same thing: a narrow ledge, a garden hose of steel cable bolted to the rock, and a very long way down. In practice that section takes four minutes and the tread is excellent. The parts worth thinking about come later: the shuttle you must book, the parking cap, and the grizzlies.

Babb, MT

Grinnell Glacier Before It's Gone: The Boat Shortcut, the Bears, and the Best Light

A trail cut into a cliff above two turquoise lakes, ending at a glacier that has been measured shrinking for a century. There is a boat that removes 3.4 miles of it, a mid-July opening date that catches people out, and enough grizzly activity that bear spray is standard equipment rather than a precaution.

West Yellowstone, MT

Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park: Cutthroat in the Meadows, Wolves on the Ridge, and the Strangest Trout Stream on Earth

Yellowstone holds the largest concentration of wild cutthroat trout in the world, a river that flows past erupting geysers, and backcountry meadow streams where you fish with bison grazing behind you and wolves howling at dusk. It's not just fly fishing. It's fly fishing inside the world's first national park.

West Glacier, MT

Fly Fishing Glacier National Park: Native Cutthroat, Wild Rivers, and Backcountry Water That Hasn't Changed in a Thousand Years

Glacier National Park holds 700 miles of streams and over 130 named lakes, most of them holding native westslope cutthroat trout that have never seen a hatchery. The fishing is wild, the setting is the most dramatic in North America, and the native fish are counting on you to handle them with care.

Clark Fork fishing — FAQ