# Montana Fish Pics....looong version



## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Okay, perhaps the Alaskan pictures aren't all that fair to post as not everyone can get up here to wet a line. For decades my family vacationed in Montana and my parents retired there on Flathead Lake. My last station in the Air Force was Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, MT. I consider Montana my home away from Alaska and there are many times I find myself wishing I were back there as the fishing can be much less crowded and it is easier to find quiet water by yourself. These are all pictures taken in the last few years while visiting my parents and fishing in Big Sky country&#8230;.although I have thrown in some historical pictures of bull trout (you cannot legally target them when you fish but they still exist in good numbers in some drainages and are making comebacks in others).
Enjoy:

This first batch are upper Missouri browns and rainbows&#8230;.love catching browns even if they aren't native to the western hemisphere&#8230;.




































































































From the age of 10 (that's 42 years ago) I grew up vacationing on Flathead Lake with my family and fishing the Swan River&#8230;.a smaller tributary to Flathead Lake. The following are fish from the Swan River:

The first few are westslope cutthroat:



























Followed by the ubiquitous wild rainbow trout:








































































About 15-20 years ago the bull trout was listed as a threatened species&#8230;..we had caught many nice bulls in the Swan River going back for years and their population hadn't diminished at all but due to being part of the Flathead drainage they all got lumped in together and we could no longer target them fishing. As I got into the whole trout taxonomy thing over the years I found that our group of Swan bulls were indeed being diminished but not by loss of numbers (as was true for many reasons of the Flathead River bull trout) but due to hybridization with nonnative brook trout. Those not familiar with native distributions&#8230;.brook trout are not native much west of the Appalachian Mountains&#8230;..they have been stocked extensively in the western states and are part of the reason for the enormous decline in the range of native western cutthroat in the last 100 years (cutts have lost 97% of their original range). Anyway, being a charr as are bull trout, the brookies have hybridized with the bulls causing introgression of many pure bull trout populations. Although pure bull trout are not legal to keep, the hybrid crosses are perfectly legal to keep and fish and game would encourage it but most people have a difficult time identifying brook trout from bull trout, let alone the hybrids. The most classic difference is bull trout dorsal fins are unmarked, while brookXbull hyrids are spotted or mottled. Here's some examples of both from the Swan River:




























This picture has a brookXbull hybrid on top with a brook trout below:









Here's some older pictures taken when we could legally fish for bulls&#8230;.they are beautiful fish hopefully we haven't permanently screwed them up with our historical mismanagement of fishes:



























































































This one is a redband trout, oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri, that is the only rainbow native to Montana and only resides natively in a small tributary to the Kootenai River&#8230;.the East Fork of the Yaak River:




























I was bored today&#8230;.not able to go fishing. Thanks for letting me bore you.

Brian


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## Slipknot (Sep 16, 2007)

Very nice! My wife is from the Great Falls area and we will find ourselves up there for the fourth of July weekend for a family reunion. I sure hope I can find the time to wet a line it has been a long time since I have been able to fish the area. Tanks for the pictures.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Wait a minute! Who's the skinny young guy holding those big bulls?  

:lol: 

Those are some great looking fish. Thanks for the Aquatics ID lesson, as well. Most of us Utah folk have never even heard of a bull or a dolly, let alone seen pics. Very informative.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for sharing. I grew up fishing the "bounty" Idaho had on the dollies. They were too aggressive and were eating all the salmon smolts. So IFG lifted the limit on them and encouraged everyone to catch and keep as many as possible so they wouldn't eat all the salmon. Funny how things shake out. I too lived in Great Falls for a couple of years. as a local, the ifshing was far and above what you read about in the magazines. I fished streams with linterally no names and caught fish fat and plentiful. I love Montana. Thanks for sharing these adventures.


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## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Slipknot...hey I will be in Montana from the 3rd of July thru the 15th....an annual family reunion at my parents on Flathead Lake. I always try to get over Great Falls way to fish the upper Missouri for a day or two....some of the best average size trout you will ever see. Maybe we'll see you over that way.

Brian


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

That is such senic country, what a place to have a family reunion....


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## Slipknot (Sep 16, 2007)

Are you part of the Sharete family reunion? ( Man I need to keep up on my responses! )


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## Duurty1 (Sep 10, 2007)

looks kinda like oregon


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