FWP newsletter great source for fishing information

If you don’t check www.fwp.mt.gov regularly, you are missing out on valuable information that will help you catch more fish.

This official site of the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks is the source of the Fishing Newsletter, published by the Fisheries Division.

Originally published in pamphlet form, it is now only available online.

The 2017-18 edition summarizes information gathered in 2016.

The Fishing Newsletter, organized by regions, also contains information about fish hatcheries and Montana state record fish.

The Region One section, which includes northwest Montana, has a story about special regulations for perch in Smith Lake, Lower Stillwater Lake and Flathead Lake.

Other topics include bull trout fishing in the South Fork of the Flathead River, history of the Garrard strain of rainbow trout introductions into Lake Koocanusa, and Kootenai River creel survey.

Stories also summarize the illegal introduction of walleye into Swan Lake and one of the Flathead Valley’s most valuable fishing asset, Pine Grove Pond.

It’s fun and informative to read about other waters in Montana where we fish.

Every time I drive MT 209 through Seeley Lake I promise myself I’ll go back and fish some of those lakes.

The photo of a 28-inch brown trout, caught and released, in Salmon Lake definitely got my attention.

I always enjoyed lying in bed reading the Fishing Newsletter pamphlet. Not the same on an iPad!