Proposed fishing regs are aimed at hybrids in North Fork

by Hungry Horse News
| August 20, 2013 7:55 AM

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission is seeking comment on proposed regulations for the March 2014 through February 2015 fishing season. The proposed regulations would retain most of the current regulations.

One proposed change would allow harvest of hybridized rainbow trout in North Fork Flathead River. Hybridized trout are a growing threat to pure cutthroat trout populations. The experimental regulation would apply to the river from Big Creek to Blankenship Bridge.

The North Fork is a popular fishing river with a liberal rainbow harvest limit. Currently, fishermen are allowed to keep five rainbows, but cutthroat fishing is catch-and-release.

FWP biologists would like fishermen to remove more rainbow-cutthroat hybrids from the river to help protect the genetic status of the native westslope cutthroat trout. But the official definition for cutthroat trout is too conservative.

The current definition for cutthroats refers to an orange slash under the jaw, but because of their close lineage, nearly a quarter of pure Arlee rainbow trout have a faint orange slash. The result is that many hybrid trout are released as cutthroats.

Under the proposed change, fisherman could keep any trout with an orange slash under its throat if it has as many black spots on the front half of its body as on its back half, based on a vertical line through the middle of the dorsal fin as the dividing line.

FWP would post pictures in the area to help fishermen understand the change, and angler compliance would be monitored by creel surveys held at Glacier Rim Access, about midway, and Blankenship Access, the end of the section.

The proposed changes are available for review and comment online at www.fwp.mt.gov, click on Public Notice. Comments may also be mailed to Don Skaar, Fish Management Bureau Chief, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, P.O. Box 200701, Helena MT 59601 or e-mailed to fwpfsh@mt.gov. Deadline is Sept. 12. The Fish & Wildlife Commission will take final action on the regulations in October.