Muddy waters ahead for fishing opener

Melting snow swells rivers and streams

The Daily Inter Lake

Saturday's opening of the general fishing season may be a bit anticlimactic.

With most Northwest Montana streams and rivers running high and muddy, fishing is "going to be difficult," Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman John Fraley said. "Streams are going to be very high to fish. In general, the rivers are just rolling and are very turbid."

Many rivers are approaching flood stage this week as hot weather melts the mountain snowpack.

Fraley recommends fishing tailwater fisheries such as the South Fork of the Flathead below Hungry Horse Dam or the Kootenai River, where water has a chance to clear up.

Anglers are reminded that there are special regulations for bull trout fishing.

Anglers may fish for bull trout on Hungry Horse Reservoir, the South Fork of the Flathead and Lake Koocanusa, but certain restrictions apply on each waterway.

Bull trout anglers are required to have a bull trout catch card, which may be obtained at Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Kalispell.

If you want to take a child fishing, three Kalispell fishing ponds have been "heavily stocked" with trout and will offer good fishing, Fraley said.

Those ponds are Dry Bridge, Buffalo Head and Shady Lane. There are similar family fishing opportunities in Thompson Falls, Noxon, Troy and Eureka. For details, call 752-5501 to request a handout, "Good Places To Take A Kid Fishing."

Flathead Lake also is a good place to fish. Fraley said water temperatures have equalized there, making shoreline fishing for lake trout viable as the fish move into shallow waters. "It should be very good now," he said.

Anglers are encouraged to pick up a copy of 2006 Montana fishing regulations.

"A quick review of the first 14 pages of the regulations provides an important refresher for every angler," says Karen Zackheim, Fish, Wildlife and Parks fisheries operations bureau chief.

Montana's fishing regulations are available at all Fish, Wildlife and Parks offices and from license providers throughout the state, or on the web site www.fwp.mt.gov on the Fishing page under 2006 Fishing Regulations.

The general fishing season will close Nov. 30.

Topics cover catch-and-release techniques, the Montana stream access law, children's fishing waters, fish species identification, river etiquette, safe disposal of dead fish and fish entrails, preventing the spread of whirling disease and noxious weeds and more.

Zackheim said there are some important pieces of information missing from the 2006 regulations booklet:

-The correct bull trout season on Lake Koocanusa is June 1 through Feb. 28;

-The catfish limit in Eastern Montana is 20 daily and in possession,

-The Marias River is open the entire year downstream from the I-15 bridge.