Winter Kill on the Blackfoot

You might remember from a couple posts ago that I went over to the Blackfoot to do a little recon last week and in one of my favorite spots, it was pretty much locked up--totally iced over. Well, I decided to go over today and see if it was flowing and if there were any bugs. It was a little shocking to see the impact of the winter on the fish in the Upper Blackfoot. In just two pools right next to the road, there had to be 50+ dead fish. A lot of them were whitefish but a lot were cutthroat too.

I spent a few minutes standing above the pool and did notice a lot of trout fingerlings swimming around but not a lot of mature trout. Fortunately, fish do migrate so once the river starts to flow, hopefully new trout will fill up these runs. To be honest, I don't know how prevalent these winter kills are. I've never seen it. I've also never seen the Blackfoot locked up like it was this winter.

It's not just fish in the Blackfoot that had a tough winter this year. If you've been on the Missouri lately, you may have wondered what was up with all the dead geese floating downstream. I talked to a FWP employee who said he believes it was the cold. He said he actually walked up to a group of geese that had climbed up onto a snowbank huddling together to keep warm and a lot of them didn't make it. They were left huddled up on the bank and never moved, dying from exposure to the cold.

Winter came late this year and only lasted for a month or so but it was brutal. It was the coldest February on record in Montana and it's obvious what the impact has been on the wildlife. And what made it worse, a lot of waterfowl had gotten into a pattern where they just hung around all winter. There was open water and plenty of food and life was good so why waste the energy to travel a thousand miles for sunshine and winter wheat? Well...

The recon wasn't all bad. I headed downstream and did find some good water. Too high up, there was no water flowing yet. Too far down and the main stem of the Blackfoot is coming up and not really fishable but there is a sweet spot. Fish were happy and there were skwala nymphs and golden stones. No adult bugs but fish were eating the nymphs. And a question I always pondered was whether or not the Blackfoot had a skwala hatch. Well there you go...

 Keep 'em where they live...