Chronicle Outdoors

Yesterday was the last day to fish with your 2010 Montana fishing license (the season runs from March 1 to the last day of February the following year). I spent the final day of ’10 license validity under overcast skies casting to trout on the East Gallatin River.

I managed to land a few, too.

For the first time in a long time I fished without my trusty strike indicator. I cast a 10-foot 4X leader with two weighted nymphs, applying just a little tension to the line on the longer drifts. It had been so long since I’d fished without an indicator that I’d lost some confidence in the technique. I felt like I was learning to fish all over again.

The first rainbow struck just as I was turning to cast upstream, having given up hope on the hole I was dredging. It was a relief to hold that small rainbow in my hand, but I felt the catch was more a fluke that a resurrection of lost skill.

As I worked upstream I picked up a few more fish, working on controlling my line to keep constant tension while maintaining a decent drift. Ditching the indicator proved beneficial on several occasions, mainly when drifting flies beneath structure that would surely hang up an indicator.

But more importantly perhaps, I noticed a change in the way I was fishing. Instead of focusing intently on the little neon yellow bobber drifting in the river before me, I was keyed in on the movement of the water, looking for signs of fish and controlling my fly line.

And that’s my goal in 2011: to become a better angler by teaching myself to fish in a new way.

The 2011 license year brings with it a few changes for all anglers in Southwest Montana. Most notable are regulation changes to the Yellowstone River and waters in the Missouri River drainage.

On the Yellowstone River from the boundary of Yellowstone National Park to the I-90 Bridge at Billings, the combined trout limit of four rainbow and/or brown trout daily and in possession has been appended. Only three of those fish may be under 18 inches and only one may be over 26 inches. All trout between 18 and 26 inches must be released. Catch and release rules still apply for all cutthroat trout.

“Anglers were looking for opportunities to catch bigger fish in the Yellowstone and the concern was that the ones out there were getting harvested,” FWP Region 3 fisheries manager Travis Horton said of the regulation change on Monday.

In the Missouri River drainage, the walleye limit on Canyon Ferry Reservoir has been reduce as adopted in the 2010-2019 Upper Missouri River Reservoir Fisheries Management Plan. The old limit of 20 walleye daily and 40 in possession, only 1 over 28 inches has been replaced with a limit of 10 daily, no more than four over 16 inches and only one over 28 inches. The possession limit on walleye is now 20.

On the Missouri River and the three main rivers that feed it – the Jefferson, Gallatin and Madison – FWP has imposed a no limit regulation on northern pike. The regulation affects the entire Jefferson and Gallatin rivers, the Madison River below Ennis Dam and numerous stretches of the Missouri.

The northern pike population has grown steadily in the waters above Toston Dam in recent years, attracting more than a few ice fishermen and fly fishers.

“Pike have become more established from Toston to the Missouri headwaters,” Horton said. “They are just not compatible with the fishery downstream and the walleye fishermen are concerned about having another predator in Canyon Ferry.”

Horton said northern pike have been in Canyon Ferry Reservoir for 40-50 years, but populations have remained small and stable.

The pike in the Upper Missouri and Toston Reservoir may have arrived from a private pond on the Gallatin River that had an illegal introduction of pike in the mid-90s. Horton said FWP worked with the landowner to remove those fish, but some may have escaped to the Missouri.

“Toston Dam is a run of the river reservoir,” Horton said, “so fish flush out of there and they have spread downstream throughout the river system. We have tagged fish in Toston and found them downstream in short order.”

Copies of the 2011 Montana fishing regulations are available now at FWP regional offices and local fishing shops. Pick up a copy with your new license.

Related posts:

1. Artists to gather at Missouri Headwaters State Park for ‘Paint the Parks’ finale
2. Quiet time: Yellowstone winding down from historic summer season
3. Is Bozeman the best fishing town in America? National contest aims to find out
4. Montana’s Best Fly Fishing: University of Montana grad publishes fly fishing guide

Tags: fishing license, fishing regualtions, northern pike, Toston Dam, Toston Reservoir, Travis Horton

This entry was posted by Ben Pierce on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Billings, Madison River, Montana FWP, Yellowstone National Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.