Scouring the Gallatin Valley’s complex plumbing system for signs of trout
I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve pedaled my bike along West College Street. For a time I lived behind Albertsons on South 20th Avenue and took the short ride to the Chronicle’s offices a couple blocks away on a nearly daily basis.
Often on my ride I’d peer down into the sometimes stagnant, sometime turbid water flowing in the shallow ditch along the road. I never saw much more than some empty cigarette boxes, pop cans and cigarette butts.
So it came as something of a surprise when last week I caught sight of a 12-inch brook trout rising to dry flies in the ditch. I was riding back from the supermarket when I caught the familiar ring of a trout’s rise spreading across the surface of the water. It took a second to hit the brakes and register what I’d seen. I backed up on the road a few feet as cars and trucks whizzed by and sure enough, a brookie was rising lazily in the slow flow.
It turns out the ditch along West College Street is actually Farmers Canal which flows east into town, cuts beneath College Street and makes a sometimes subterranean run north paralleling South 19th Avenue on its way toward the East Gallatin River.
According to Mike Vaughn of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Farmers Canal is one of many small creeks, perennial streams and irrigation ditches that crisscross roadways, dip beneath parking lots and cut through subdivisions across Bozeman. And many of those small waters hold trout – including rainbows, brookies and browns. Vaughn calls the network of piped creeks, culvert and ditches “the complex plumbing of the upper Gallatin Valley.”
“Any place that has flowing water probably has trout, unless it goes dry, and even if it does, trout will follow water back in,” Vaughn said on Tuesday. “If they are flowing in the winter or they are blue lines on a USGS map, chances are they open up to fishing the third Saturday of May.”
Vaughn, FWP’s Gallatin/Madison fisheries biologist, is in charge of determining whether or not a body of water classifies as jurisdictional – whether or not it is a stream or a man-made ditch. That classification stamps the water with a specific set of fishing regulations.
Irrigation ditches are open to fishing year round, though it is unlikely many of them will contain much water in the winter when ranchers are not irrigating. Small streams like East and West Catron Creek – which flow north through Gallatin Center on North 19th Avenue – open with the start of the general fishing season.
“The same rules apply,” said Sam Sheppard, FWP warden captain. “Those streams open the third Saturday in May. Within the ordinary high water mark you can fish it, but if you get out on the banks you have to have permission from the landowner.”
Vaughn said discerning between an irrigation ditch and a stream can be difficult and that development in the valley over the last 100 or so years has made the job less clear than one would guess.
“You might have something that looks like a ditch, but appears to be flowing year round,” Vaughn said. “It may be flowing at a small base flow in the winter and turned up for irrigation in the summer.
“It is tricky area. It is a tricky subject.”
Vaughn said there are two permits that govern stream alterations in the Gallatin Valley – the 310 and 124 permits.
The 310 permit applies to private individuals and is overseen by the Gallatin Conservation District – a board consisting of five elected Ag producers. The Gallatin Conservation District makes a determination on stream alterations based on soil conservation, water conservation and other factors.
“If someone wants to put in a bridge or improve fish habitat, they would apply for a 310 permit,” Vaughn said. “At that point, it requires an inspection. I go out with a (Gallatin Conservation District) representative or a board supervisor and take a look at these waters.”
Vaughn said he can recommend approval of the permit, recommend approval of the permit with recommendations or recommend denial of the permit.
The 124 permit deals with county, state and government organizations. In the case of a 124 permit application, Vaughn makes the decision on whether or not the body of water is jurisdictional.
“Even if it is an intermittent stream, if it is capable of contributing sediment, then I call it jurisdictional,” Vaughn said.
A map of the streams and ditches in the City of Bozeman compiled in November of 1993 shows more streams and ditches than roadways. Some are classified as streams, some as seeps or springs, others as ditches. The antiquated stream/ditch combination classification – which appears prominently on the map – has been eliminated for the sake of clarity.
Vaughn said he’s seen fish in many of the streams and ditches in Bozeman and believes many of those fish are resident.
“I would say any place with flowing water could easily have fish,” Vaughn said. “Trout, for the most part, go with the flow. They will find a way to get there.”
With Bozeman’s booming growth over the past decade, the city has seen a large number of stream alterations. Vaughn said that whenever alterations are made to a stream they are made in such a way that reduces impact to fish.
“If a culvert or an irrigation diversion is placed, we make a concerted effort to ensure fish passage,” Vaughn said, “because somebody might not think about that when they put in a culvert.”
Vaughn said stream protection laws do make a difference, even on the smallest streams. He said that keeping a 300-foot stretch of stream or ditch above ground, rather than buried in a pipe beneath a parking lot, ensures riparian and fish habitat that has an impact on the surrounding environment.
As for fishing Bozeman’s urban opportunities, both Sheppard and Vaughn said seeing anglers is pretty rare.
“That’s not to say people can’t fish (those streams),” Sheppard said. “You get to places like Hyalite Creek and Bozeman Creek, those are more typical smaller streams that we see people fishing.”
“Anybody from the public can look at a USGS map,” Vaughn said. “If there is a blue line on there, you can make a case it is a stream and fish it.
“There are a lot of blue lines in the Gallatin Valley.”
Related posts:
- Trout Unlimited’s West Slope Chapter receives $9,746 to restore Deer Creek
- 2010 fishing regulations now in effect, Trail Creek opened, reservoirs redefined
- Montana State students announce formation of Gallatin Flycasters Club
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