Clarks Creek Approved and FFO 9/25/08

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Spectorfly And I headed to Clarks Creek in an attempt to cure his shoulder. He has been hampered with pinched nerves and wondered if he could cast a line. :lol: Actually I think we just wanted to go fishing. :-D 😎

The water looked very cloudy for clarks. We stopped at the kids only section were spectorfly had taken his kid and stepchild fishing just a few days past. He told me about all the fish right by the hatchery. When we arrived those holes were now basically cleaned out of thier trout. He was suprised how fast the fish had disappeared. We did see some but not as many as he expected.

WARNING:
The kids section is for kids. We saw one guy have 3 kids and four rods :-x He was fishing one of them. If seasoned anglers are fishing this section its not leaving fish for other people to bring thier kids to the stream and enjoy the outdoors. This is how we get kids into our sport that so despartely needs other sportsman.
There was a regulation sign on a tree behind the guy. Me and Spectorfly read the rules OUT loud...and LOud enough for him to hear. He started to put the rod down as we walked away.

Anyways....we went up to the section below the dam and fished the open water. We didnt catch anything or see any trout. We did have a few strikes which could have been some small wild browns. The water was very dark and not clear.

Feeling disgruntled we went down to the top of the flyfishing only section. The first hole we came to (actually a long shallow flat) had rising fish. I instantly caught a very nice 15 inch male brookie with fall colors beginning to devolp on his sides. Very pretty fish. He took a size 18 BWO with elk hair wings. Basically a green caddis with the split tail like a mayfly. Its a pattern I have for picky rising fish. Spectorfly caught a nice Brown trout in the same spot.

We moved downstream and the water is a bit clearer here ijn the FFO section kind of like the kids section...but still off color. The fish were hard to see but we saw and spooked plenty of them. Which is on par for Clarks Creek. We saw more fish rising but couldnt get them to take any dries. Always rejected. We did catch a few more on egg patterns and had a few strikes on san juan worms.

Clarks and the surrounding area is just gorgous.....im glad we did some physical therapy for spectorflys shoulder blade :lol:

 

[afishinado]

Sal,

I recall this time every September, Tim Murphy reporting that Clarks is murky. The explanation is that the reservoir turns over as the temperature change in the fall. Clarks is a beautiful spot to fish. I didn’t make it there at all this season yet. Maybe this fall? Nice report.

 

[salmonoid]

They are also starting a fresh batch of logging at the head of the reservoir on the other side of route 325. I'd vote more for the lake turnover as the source of the murkiness, but the logging is certainly adding more sediment load to the stream overall.

I fished Clarks 9/19 and managed one sucker (heck of a healthy fish, btw), one sunny, and one rainbow. Only had about an hour before dark, but still a nice break..