Stream fishing opens: Careful catch-and-release encouraged for anglers

With Montana’s stream fishing season kicking off today, the state encourages anglers to conserve the resource by using best practices when catching and releasing fish.

Mark Deleray, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional fisheries manager, said that while fisheries are generally healthy across the state, the outreach campaign is an effort to minimize fish mortality with increasing numbers of anglers taking to the state’s waters.

“I think it’s all about an individual angler knowing what they can do best and what those actions mean to the fishery,” he said. “If it’s one angler, it doesn’t matter how much they caught, but if you start piling up 100,000 anglers, then you have to think about the impact on that fishery.”

Those types of numbers are typical for some corners of the state, but Northwest Montana’s rivers and streams are still fairly quiet. Still, Deleray expects fishing pressure in the region to continue the increasing trend borne out in biannual angling survey results.

The last year of available data, from 2013, showed that the Flathead River’s three forks each had higher use than any previous year — a combined 42,447 angler days, up from just over 10,000 per year in 1989 and 1991.

“We concluded our fisheries can handle that type of pressure, but we do see our fishing pressures climbing,” Deleray said.

The state agency estimates an average of 5 percent of trout die after they are released, although that general statistic varies depending on types of hooks, handling techniques, water temperature and other factors.

The state’s research also shows that many individual fish are caught more than once per year. For example, a typical westslope cutthroat trout in the North, South or Middle fork of the Flathead River can expect to be reeled in at least two times every year, based on catch rates, fish density and overall angler use.

The public awareness campaign is relatively low-key, mostly limited to the distribution of fish-handling posters and brochures.

The state agency’s youth-based Hooked on Fishing program will include a heightened focus on decreasing catch-and-release mortality.

The literature also adds a soft push for anglers to consider limiting the number of fish they catch, regardless of the limit.

“We’re hoping to just start a conversation where in some of the fisheries where anglers may catch 12 fish a day, even with catch-and-release and best practices, the fish are still stressed,” he said.

“Angler use continues to climb, so at some point there may be a time when we have to limit [catch-and-release] angling.”

Best practices for fish handling include:

• Landing the fish quickly without playing it to exhaustion.

• Using wet hands to handle the fish.

• Keeping the fish in the water as much as possible.

• Carefully removing the hook.

• Letting the fish recover before releasing it.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.