Rock Creek
near Clinton, Montana · USGS gauge 12334510
For October 18, flow and water temperature are about usual.
Montana FWP lists no emergency closure or hoot-owl restriction on the Rock Creek, on its restrictions page as read at 07:17 UTC.
These readings do not say whether fish are biting, whether there is parking, or whether the season is open. The shop reports below cover what is biting.
Rock Creek reports from local shops
Each shop writes its own report. Listed here: the date on each one and the hatches and flies it names. Their words stay on their sites; follow the link to read them.
Two local shops have posted a report on the Rock Creek in the last two weeks. All two mention blue-winged olives; one mentions caddis, hoppers, mahogany duns, october caddis and tricos.
Before you drive
| Overnight | 37°F, wind 1 mph Mostly Clear |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 63°F, wind 1 mph Mostly Sunny |
| Sunday Night | 36°F, wind 2 mph Partly Cloudy |
| Monday | 68°F, wind 3 mph Mostly Sunny |
How this water changes through the year
Over 22 years of record, flow on Rock Creek peaks in May, when the median runs about 1,610 ft³/s, and falls to its lowest in January at around 180 ft³/s. Today's 270 sits between the two. The band on the chart is where the middle 60% of years fall, so a reading inside it is ordinary for the date and one outside it is not.
Nearby monitored waters
No water here is recommended over another. Same measurements, three closest waters.
Species
Listed by Montana FWP for Rock Creek (Granite and Missoula counties): Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Bull Trout, Largescale Sucker, Longnose Dace, Longnose Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Northern Pike Minnow, Rainbow Trout, Slimy Sculpin, Westslope Cutthroat Trout.
The agency's list covers FWP's whole waterbody, river mile 0 to 52; FishMT publishes no reach-level list. USGS 12334550 near Clinton is FWP's own listed gauging station at river mile 0. FishMT has several waters named Rock Creek; this is the Region 2 water whose mouth is on the Clark Fork near Clinton. The agency prints no date on the list; read 2026-09-08.
Access points
| Coordinates | To gauge |
|---|---|
| 46.7223, -113.6831 · near Clinton USGS gauge location. Not a listed public access point; check access before you travel. | 0.0 mi |
Sources and method
- Live
- USGS gauge 12334510, Rock Creek near Clinton MT, 0.0 mi from the listed access point. Fetched 2026-10-18 07:19 UTC.
- History
- USGS daily values: flow 2005–2026, 7,940 daily values; water temperature 2005–2026, 4,855 daily values. Percentile is the share of readings within 7 days of this calendar date, across all years, below the current one (flow n=315 over 21 years, water temperature n=135 over 9 years).
- Rules
- Seasons, limits and licences are not on this site and are not copied from the agency that publishes them: Montana FWP.
- Species
- Montana FWP, Rock Creek (Granite and Missoula counties), undated, read 2026-09-08.
- Heat
- Montana FWP: hoot-owl restrictions, no fishing from 2 p.m. to midnight, once a water reaches 73 °F on three consecutive days (published 2025-06-11, checked 2026-09-08). The water temperature card compares today's reading with that figure and says nothing about whether a restriction applies. Whether one is in force today is on Montana FWP's restrictions page.
- Restrictions
- Montana FWP, current waterbody restrictions, read 2026-10-18 07:17 UTC. Seasonal closures are in the regulations, not on that page.
- Shop reports
- Chosen from the organic search results for “rock creek fishing report” (Ahrefs, read 2026-10-01), keeping shops and guides and dropping social media, forums and other aggregators. Linked, not quoted, and not endorsed. Report dates, hatches and fly names read from each page 2026-10-18, by matching a fixed list of insects and patterns: a name not on the list is not shown, and a report older than 30 days shows its date only.
- Forecast
- NOAA National Weather Service, api.weather.gov, for the coordinates of the nearest access point.
Independent presentation of public data. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the USGS, NOAA or Montana FWP.