FWP expects local fishery to recover

Despite a summer plagued by heat and drought that contributed to low water levels, a local biologist said the fish population of Fresno Reservoir, Bear Paw Lake and Beaver Creek Reservoir are on track to recovery, if the drought does not continue.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologist Cody Nagel said Thursday that recent surveys showed this summer's low pool levels hurt the population of younger forage fish - young perch, crappie and shiner - in Fresno. The bright side, however, Nagel said, is the walleye population had a successful spawn.

"They reflected below-average numbers, but definitely better presence than our forage fish," Nagel said.   

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reports the reservoir was 48.3 percent full Thursday, compared to 64 percent full Oct. 11, 2017. The level dropped as low as 13 percent full in mid-August.

Assuming the snowpack that melts into Lake Sherburne - which fills Fresno Reservoir via the St. Mary Diversion system - on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park delivers expected water and the drought of 2017 is constrained to 2017, the fish population should recover and anglers should have plenty of fish to catch, Nagel said.

The summer's drought brought to the forefront a concern for the local fishery by not only FWP officials, but local citizens like Carolyn Anderson.

Anderson had been writing her legislative representatives for years asking that Fresno Reservoir be recognized as a fishery and recreational body of water and not only an irrigation storage reservoir, for which it was originally built. FWP Bureau Chief Dave Risley had made the case for a redesignation as well, over the years. The idea, both have argued, was that a redesignation would allot more money to an aged and worn reservoir while simultaneously preventing the reservoir pool level from being drained as low as it was this summer and hurting the fish population.

Low pool levels limit the younger fish's options for avoiding predators as well as areas they can forage for food. Once pool levels get to 2,555 feet and below, Nagel had said, the fish communities start "getting hammered." Fresno reservoir Pool levels hit 2,555 before harvest season arrived and irrigators' demand for water subsided. After harvest, the reservoir began keeping more water than it was letting out.

Nagel said Thursday that if the reservoir were to go through fall and winter and approach spring with low water levels, it would start to affect fish population.

"Now you're missing your spawning opportunities and those fish cannot reproduce. The longer those conditions persist, it continues to hammer those fish communities," he said.

A several-year drought that started in 2000 decimated the northern pike population in Fresno so it "pretty much went down to nothing," Nagel said in July.

Two recent FWP surveys - one was conducted in mid-August and the other about two weeks ago - showed the population of forage fish was hit in similar ways as it was in 2001 and 2002, Nagel said. Beaver Creek Reservoir and Bear Paw Lake, however, were not hit as hard.

"Both fisheries there are looking really good," Nagel said. "Water levels were down quite a bit, but at the same time you have water flowing through the creek. We didn't see the stream dry up at all. Our stream fisheries are still doing good and both those reservoir fisheries are doing really good."

As they do every year, Nagel said, FWP stocked Beaver Creek Reservoir with 30,000 rainbow trout a couple weeks ago and Bear Paw Lake with 15,000 of the same, all "catchable fish."

At the time, FWP sees no reason to restock either of the three bodies of water due to drought.

"We're doing good right now," Nagel said. "But if we get another summer like last year, that's that when you start stacking the years on top and you start to see the long-term impacts. Fresno especially, that forage base that got impacted this year, that could have long-lasting effects that can carry over to next year."

When forage fish number are down, Nagel said fish become a little more active and more susceptible to anglers.

"So fishing could be really good, this winter or this spring," Nagel said.

Whether caused by the low water levels or the fires, or probably a combination of both, "angler pressure" - the number of people fishing - has been low within the last couple of months, Nagel said. The low angler pressure combined with the recent restocking should make for some good fishing.

"Going into the winter, there should be some pretty good ice fishing opportunities for a lot of folks on all those systems," Nagel said.