Montana Fisheries Official Warns of Low-Water Summer

An angler fishes the North Fork of the Flathead River on Sept. 15, 2024. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

Stream gage information is already registering temperatures and flows that usually don’t bedevil Montana’s rivers and tributaries till mid-July, prompting state fisheries managers to difficulty early warning indicators on Wednesday that anglers ought to anticipate restrictions and closures this summer time.

“What which means to us so far as a prognosis is … if it’s like mid-July proper now, we’re probably going to be speaking about hoot owl restrictions within the coming weeks. So It’s a bit alarming,” stated Patrick Saffel, the fisheries supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ (FWP) Area 2 workplace, which incorporates your entire Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers, the place flows are presently at about one-third of the quantity they had been on the identical time final yr.

Click here for the full story in the Flathead Beacon