Fish management failures

Last week I drove to my cabin in the Thompson Chain of Lakes, planning to do some spring cabin chores and squeeze in a last ice fishing trip of the season. Wrong!  The spring cabin chores were there, awaiting my arrival. But the lake ice was melted out 20-30 feet. Most of the lake was ice covered, but the remaining ice was dark gray and looked absolutely rotten. Ice fishing is done until next December. All of the major lakes in the Thompson Lake chain had large expanses of open water. 

So, for most of us boat anglers, if we want to fish, we will have to fish Flathead Lake or the lower Flathead River. The photo attached to this article is Ron Catlett, a local home builder, with a beautiful 22-pound lake trout. This was caught last week in Flathead Lake. Ron is a great boss who takes his crew on a fishing trip every year. That’s my kind of boss! Last week they were guided by Outcast Guides and Outfitters (406-249-5814). They caught eight fish that day, including some other whoppers. Their fishing technique was simply using a dead bait fish and letting the lake trout or northern pike spot it, attempt to eat it and get hooked. Then it was “fish on.”

Flathead Lake continues to produce some great fishing, even though local fish managers are attempting to eliminate lake trout from the lake. A logical question is why would fish managers try to eliminate a great lake trout fishery? The answer is simply that lake trout are not a native fish. Fish managers are trying to increase native bull trout and west slope cutthroat trout which apparently can’t out-compete the introduced lake trout. Perhaps a quick review of Flathead Lake fish management history is in order.