Survey Finds More Trout In The Mo

Electro-shocking surveys on the Missouri River below Holter Dam indicate both rainbow and brown trout are doing well, said a Montana fisheries biologist.

Last fall, biologists surveyed a 5.6-mile stretch near Craig and recorded 4,279 rainbows per mile. The fish were 6 to 22 inches long.

“The last few years we have seen anywhere from 2,700 to 3,400 rainbows per mile,” said George Liknes, Montana fisheries biologist.

Liknes attributes this population increase, especially in fish measuring 8 to 12 inches long, to good cover provided by last year’s spring rains when the new hatch swam into the main stream of the Missouri.

Farther downstream, near the town of Cascade, 1,940 rainbows were found per mile, which is near the top of the annual average of 1,000 to 2,000 fish per mile.

For brown trout, the numbers are less spectacular. In the Craig section, 743 browns per mile were recorded, almost double average of the last several years. The majority were 12- to 13-inch fish that started as eggs in fall 1992.

Hayden limit unchanged

The northern pike limit on Hayden Lake will remain at five fish per day through 1995, following the Idaho Fish and Game Commission vote against lifting the limit at its May 11 meeting.

The commission considered an emergency rule change to lift the limit, but members balked at the $2,700 in costs. The commission will reconsider in October.

BASS donates boat

The Washington State BASS Federation will present a 14-foot Smokercraft boat, motor and trailer to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department Saturday at Banks Lake.

They are gifts to the department’s inland fisheries research program, said Jim Owens, federation president. Presentation will be at 9 a.m. at Coulee Playland Resort during the BASS’ annual fishing contest.

Know your fish

While most of Washington’s rivers and streams are closed to fishing for salmon, anglers who accidently hook a salmon must be able to distinguish between it and trout so they can release salmon unharmed.

At this time of year, young salmon heading to the ocean can look a lot like their trout cousins.

The easiest way to tell the difference is to look at the tail - salmon have deeply forked tails and trout have blunt or squared-off tails.

Besides that, trout have many small spots while a salmon’s spots are large and scattered and the inside of a trout’s mouth is white while the salmon’s is black.

The most common look-alikes are Chinook salmon and steelhead or rainbow trout that occur in some rivers and streams together.