FWP shortens South Fork bull trout fishing season
The Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks commission has curtailed the bull trout fishing season in the Hungry Horse/South Fork of the Flathead River drainage.
Here are the changes to bull trout regulations:
Big Salmon Creek: Closed to all angling within a 300-yard radius around the inlet (where the creek enters the lake) of Big Salmon Lake.
Big Salmon Lake: Closed to all angling within a 300-yard radius around the inlet (where the creek enters the lake) of Big Salmon Lake.
Hungry Horse Reservoir: One fish per license year from the third Saturday in May through Aug. 15. Catch-and-release the rest of the year with a Hungry Horse/South Fork Flathead permit validation on fishing license. A Hungry Horse/South Fork Flathead Bull Trout Catch Card must be in possession when fishing for bull trout. See bull trout under “What do I Need to Fish in Montana” of the 2025 Montana Fishing Regulations. All bull trout must be released immediately or killed and counted as your limit when harvest is allowed. It is unlawful to possess a live bull trout for any reason.
South Fork Flathead River: No intentional angling for bull trout except catch-and-release from July 1 through July 31. Angling is prohibited from the mouths of Gordon Creek and Little Salmon Creek downstream 300 yards from June 15 to Sept. 30. A Hungry Horse/South Fork Flathead Bull Trout Catch Card must be in possession when fishing for bull trout. See bull trout under “What do I Need to Fish in Montana” in 2025 Montana Fishing Regulations for application information. All bull trout must be released promptly, with little or no delay. It is unlawful to possess a live bull trout for any reason. Angling for bull trout is not allowed in South Fork Flathead River tributaries or Big Salmon Lake.
It’s a unique fishery in that an angler can legally fish for the trout, which can grow to 30-plus inches and a dozen pounds or more. Since 2014, the number of anglers giving it a shot has shot up, to a little over 500 angling days to more than 2,000 in 2023 in the South Fork. An angling day is one angler fishing one day.
Even with catch and release, some trout don’t survive the fight.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed the state to open the bull trout fishery in the reservoir and the South Fork in 2004. The fishery is unique because it doesn’t face the challenges of other fisheries from non-native species like lake trout, because the dam blocks upstream migration of lakers.
Lake trout have significantly damaged bull trout populations in the Flathead drainage below the dam, as non-native lake trout outcompete and also eat bull trout.
Still, a lower, but fairly stable population still exists in the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead, but fishing for them is illegal.
The hope is the curtailed bull trout regulations in the South Fork will help keep the fishery open.
“We’re trying to take an intermediate step rather than close (the South Fork) altogether,” FWP biologist Leo Rosenthal said earlier this month.
In addition to bull trout regulation changes, the commission also extended a treble hook ban on the mainstem of the Flathead River.
A regulation change in 2020 limited anglers to using only single-point hooks on the three forks of the Flathead River, upstream of the Teakettle Fishing Access Site. Commissioners approved extending the ban on treble and double hooks on the main stem of the Flathead River to Flathead Lake. The regulations do not apply to Hungry Horse Reservoir.
Also last week, Commission Vice Chair Pat Tabor carried a successful amendment to remove the lake whitefish exception from Flathead Lake, reverting the whitefish catch limits to the district standard of 20 fish per day and 40 in possession.
Tabor also proposed an amendment to change some aspects of spearfishing in the western district, which passed unanimously.
All waters are now closed to spearing of game and non-game fish except for northern pike, either through the ice or by spearing in waters open to fishing.