Kokanee salmon management

One of the most favorite fisheries in Northwest Montana is the Kokanee salmon. These hard fighting, good eating fish are a favorite of anglers and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The fishery staff for Region 1 sometimes seems much more interested in managing for native endangered fish such as the west slope cutthroat trout and bull trout, even though it reduces fishing opportunities for popular introduced fish species such as lake trout, perch, bass and northern pike. In fact, Fish, Wildlife and Parks appear to be trying to eradicate some of these non-native fish through high bag limits in hopes that anglers will eliminate these fish through excessive harvest.

An example of this is small mouth bass, which somehow got introduced into Northwest Montana waters a few years ago. Smallmouth bass are now in dozens of Northwest Montana lakes. Fisherman love these hard fighting and good eating fish. Fish, Wildlife and Parks tries, without much success, to limit these non-native fish by having a high 15-fish limit on smallmouth bass. Hasn’t worked. Bass fishermen keep enough bass for a meal, then release the other fish in order to maintain a good fishery.

But Fish, Wildlife and Parks fish biologists tend to love Kokanee salmon, so they are taking action to protect the only state-wide source of Kokanee eggs. Kokanee do not reproduce very well in most Montana lakes, so require a constant restocking of young Kokanee to maintain a good supply of adult Kokanee.

Presently and for many years the only source of Kokanee eggs for Montana has been Lake Mary Ronan. But Fish, Wildlife and Parks has noted that northern pike have invaded Lake Mary Ronan. These pike feed largely on young Kokanee hatched in Lake Mary Ronan. The concern is that if the northern pike population continues to expand, pike may devour all the young Kokanee before they become adults and can be captured to supply the eggs necessary for state hatchery production of young Kokanee for stocking, growing and catching.

To their credit, forward thinking by Fish, Wildlife and Parks has led them to search for an alternative sources of Kokanee eggs. This is paramount to maintaining good salmon fishing as part of a diverse Montana angling opportunity. Fish, Wildlife and Parks has identified two local lakes, Little Bitterroot Lake and Ashley Lake, as possible alternative sources of Kokanee eggs. Both of these lakes currently have strong populations of Kokanee.

In the fall of 2022, 120 adult Kokanee from each lake were captured and underwent extensive health screening to detect known disease organisms. Rigorous testing is necessary to prevent the unintentional spreading of diseases to other hatcheries and lakes.

So far Lake Mary Ronan is still producing large quantities of mature Kokanee and Kokanee eggs. But it is good to hear Fish, Wildlife and Parks is prepared for a worse case scenario. I commend Fish, Wildlife and Parks for this management foresight.

With the onset of summer, it is a great time to get out on one of our many lakes, creeks and rivers to enjoy the water and just being outside. One place you might consider visiting are the Stillwater lakes, just northwest of Whitefish. These lakes, Upper and Lower Stillwater Lakes are connected by the Stillwater River. These lakes have almost 100% public shoreline, but don’t really have good developed boat access sites. So, launching a boat can be challenging.

Upper Stillwater Lake has many small bays and backwaters that may hold a school of large perch. Many anglers rate yellow perch as even better eating than walleyes. Perch also tend to bite aggressively, so it’s great fun to locate a school of hungry perch. The state record large perch came from Stillwater Lake. This was a giant 14.375 inch perch that weighed 2.39 pounds. Any perch over 12 inches is a dandy! The difficulty of boat access may be the reason why light fishing pressure allows perch to grow old and large.

So, get out there and enjoy the great Flathead outdoors.