Last month, Gianforte visited the Big Hole valley, appearing in Wise River before a house packed with those affected by the fishing concerns. 30, for portions of the Big Hole, Ruby and Beaverhead rivers. And to protect spawning brown trout, Montana officials have decided to halt fishing two weeks earlier than usual, on Sept. The situation has become so pressing that the state has imposed a number of restrictions, including an unusually high number of river closures and “hoot owl” limits – which end fishing in the afternoon when the water warms. The sport has exploded along the state’s rivers, with many fearing that trout are being “loved to death.” For example, the number of angler days – or any part of a day spent fishing per person on a given day – on the Big Hole increased to more than 118,000 in 2020, up from 71,553 in 2011. Wade Fellin, who studied water law and is the manager of the lodge and a guide, said the state’s fly fishing industry would have to shoulder some of the responsibility of helping fish survive. Some blame the outfitting industry, targeting the companies’ vehicles and drilling holes in their gas tanks. In 1995, Craig Fellin was one of the founders of the Big Hole Watershed Committee, a group of valley residents formed to find voluntary ways to ease pressure from irrigation and fishing.īut lately things have grown worse, with tensions rising among the competing forces of fishing enthusiasts, the businesses that cater to them and the state’s residents. The Big Hole has long been subject to warm temperatures and low flows in the summer. With summer winding down, the streams are cooling, and that may grant the fish a reprieve. The Big Hole is the only river in the lower 48 states where it’s found.Īll of that adds uncertainty to the future of fly fishing for Montana, where catching trout with artificial insects gently lofted onto the surface of cold flowing water is not just a pastime but part of the state’s identity.ĭespite the worrying conditions, the Big Hole was still bustling recently with rafts and drift boats. If those populations crash, it might be a long time before they recover.Įnvironmental groups have also recently sued to have the Arctic grayling, a distinctive-looking native fish, listed as endangered because of its dwindling numbers.
Unlike many states, Montana does not stock its rivers with hatchery-reared fish, depending instead on wild populations to sustain themselves. Other rivers in the Jefferson Basin – including sections of the Beaverhead and the Ruby, both top trout streams – have experienced similar declines, as has the upper Clark Fork, though some experts suggest the latter may be partly related to runoff from past mining. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.”įor businesses and enthusiasts alike, the 155-mile Big Hole River is not the only cherished waterway in the state to be eliciting such concerns. “We have an emergency in southwest Montana’s rivers, and we need to act immediately to avoid a total collapse of those trout fisheries,” they wrote. Greg Gianforte to create a task force in the hope of stemming the deepening losses. In May, the number of trout per mile fell so low in some sections that the Fellins, other guides and outfitters and business owners formed a nonprofit organization called Save Wild Trout and urged Gov. That number has dropped precipitously to hundreds in some stretches. Twenty years ago, fishery biologists were counting about 3,000 fish per mile along the Big Hole River. The rainbow and brown species are the quarry for many who fish, introduced to the region in the 19th century. “The brown trout are blind, and still alive,” and referred to as zombie trout, he said. In addition to their diminishing ranks, “we’ve seen whirling disease, red sores and lesions on fish, and brown trout with cauliflower fungus,” Wade Fellin said over coffee in the dining room of the rustic lodge that serves the business started by his father, Craig, in 1984. Those shifts are occurring at the same time that state biologists report that the numbers of brown and rainbow trout in the river have plummeted over the past seven years to historic lows, with strange maladies afflicting some of the most sought-after fish. Clouds of insects no longer hover in such big swarms, and some key species, like the salmonfly, that are critical sources of food for fish are less abundant.
The signs of an altered river ecosystem are hard to miss. Now the river is ice-free by April or May, and the Fellins open the lodge earlier to welcome anglers eager to cast a fly. – Since the Fellin family founded the Big Hole Lodge in the 1980s to take people fly fishing on the Big Hole River, they have seen significant changes to the cobble-and-boulder-studded freestone trout stream.įor as long as anyone can remember, this river originating high in the Beaverhead mountain range had been clogged with ice and deep snow every winter, preventing the start of fishing season until June.
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