Early reports on Clark Fork River raise hopes

While Clark Fork River flows have subsided and fishing success has suddenly gone wild this week, researchers monitoring the Montana trout stream are documenting a rosy future for fisheries after the March 28 breaching of Milltown Dam.

For the first time in 100 years, Clark Fork fish downstream from Missoula have been tracked moving upstream this spring to explore spawning areas in the tributaries of the Blackfoot River and Rock Creek.

David Schmetter- ling, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists who’s been using radio telemetry to study the Clark Fork fisheries, said trout from as far downstream as St. Regis will be finding new spawning habitat.

“Migrating 50 miles to spawn is no problem for these fish,” he said Wednesday. “In the past 12 years we’ve documented tens of thousands of fish (including trout, suckers, whitefish and pikeminnows) congregating below the dam trying to migrate to where their genetics programmed them to spawn.”

Research findings to date have shown that:

•The large amount of sediment scoured out of the Blackfoot River and into the Clark Fork as the dam was breached caused significant short-term impacts to fish and aquatic insects from Milltown downstream to Missoula.

“Mostly, the fish moved as the sediment came down,” Schmetterling said. “We lost fish, but they didn’t just die like they did in high flows from past years before the heavy metals were removed (and hauled away) from the reservoir sediment.

“The impacts drop off significantly at the confluence of the Bitterroot, which doubles the flow of the Clark Fork. By Superior, the (off-color) water has had little measurable effect.”

•New habitat caused by the scouring should generate a boom in density, abundance and species of aquatic insects in the Missoula area in the next few years. Significant increases in fish should follow.

•Northern pike lost prime habitat created by the dam and sent the illegally introduced species packing downstream toward Thompson Falls Reservoir for more suitable conditions.

“We’ll always have pike in the lower river, but there’s little habitat to harbor them in the upper river now,” he said.

Clark Fork fisheries have suffered from unprecedented high temperatures in recent years, but this year the Super Fund dam breachers and the weather have put the river back to normal in many ways.

I took a chance on July 9 at being among the first anglers to hit good fishing on the river since before the dam breaching, but I was too early.

A hot summer day and flows that were coming down, but still high and turbid, combined for the worst day of fishing I’ve had on the Clark Fork.

But what a difference a week can make this time of year. As I write this, the river flows have decreased to half the volume it was on July 9. Stream temperatures are cool and trout were readily coming to the surface under cloud cover Tuesday.

“Lots of PMDs and caddis on the lower river had the fish looking up,” said Brooks Sanford of Clark Fork Trout & Tackle in St. Regis.

“The great summer fishing you have been waiting for is finally here!”

Missouri River primed: This year’s high runoff flushed the bottom of the Missouri River downstream from Holter Dam, removing silt, pebbles and other debris, providing good spawning areas for trout and healthy habitat for insects, biologists say.

“It scoured the bottom from bank to bank and the river is just shining again,” longtime fishing guide Pete Cardinal of Craig told the Great Falls Tribune. “The insect bite reflects this – we have bigger numbers of pale morning duns and caddis.”

Last week, the Missouri River below Holter Dam was flowing at about 11,200 cfs, more than double the typical flow for the period.

With reservoirs full, the Bureau of Reclamation said it should be able to maintain flows on the Missouri of at least 4,000 to 4,500 cfs throughout the summer.

About the only people who haven’t been thrilled with fishing recently on the Missouri below Holter Dam are those without a boat.

Most wade-fishing areas have been smothered with too much water.

But that setback is changing fast. Flows are just less than 6,000 cfs this week.

Permits drawn: Applicants for Washington big-game hunting permits don’t have to wait for that card to come in the mail. Drawing results are available online at wdfw.wa.gov.

Idaho salmon closes: Chinook salmon sportfishing will end for the season throughout Idaho tonight.

Stalking sockeye: A rare sockeye fishing season at Lake Wenatchee is still a possibility, but Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials say they won’t know for sure until Friday, or thereabouts.